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SPACE PEOPLE EXPLAIN NOV. 7th!

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SPACE PEOPLE EXPLAIN NOV. 7th!

(this post was reblogged from )

Painting by FRED FREEMAN, originally appearing in the July 11, 1960 issue of LIFE, for an article entitled MAN REMADE TO LIVE IN SPACE: Striding buoyantly across the low-gravity surface of the moon, there may someday be strange new men — part human, part machine — like the ones above. They will have a strange name: CYBORGS (for CYBernetic ORGanisms). Cyborgs, according to the daring new idea, will be men whose body organs and systems are automatically adjusted for life in unearthly environments by artificial organs and senses. Some of these devices will be attached, others actually implanted by surgery. With their aid cyborgs can dispense with clumsy, easy-to-puncture space suits in which earth conditions are recreated. Instead they can move about safely wearing not much more than they would at home. The artificial senses of cyborgs will measure changes inside the body and outside in the environment. They will signal artificial glands telling them what to secrete for regulating normal body functions. Then body temperature may fall to that of a fish in ice, or the pulse may quicken like a robin’s in flight, but the human organism will survive. Fantastic as the idea sounds, its originators (see next page) think that it is feasible and that much of the knowledge needed already exists. The Freeman painting is described: ON MOON cyborgs unreel cable to explosive for seismic blast. On front cyborg’s belt, tubes pump chemicals to blood to control (from left) blood pressure, pulse, energy, tranquility, blood sugar, body temperature, radiation tolerance. Pumps obey sensors like radiation counter in his left thigh or blood-pressure gauge in his right thigh. Heart, in X-ray view, sends blood to the implanted converter which remakes oxygen and carbon from CO2, taking place of lungs. ON back of other cyborg are food supply (top), master fuel cell, food processor and wastes’ canister. And what of the CYBORG’S CONCEIVERS, Dr. Nathan Kline and Manfred Clynes (seen below, showing a computer tape predicting a man’s pulse rate from his breath rate; from left to right, wiggly lines showing breath rate, the actual pulse rate, the predicted pulse rate)? A PAIR OF CREATORS: The cyborg idea, presented recently to an impressed Astronaut conference, was conceived by an unusual partnership of doctor and computer engineer. Dr. Nathan Kline is a famous psychiatrist and researcher in mental drugs at New York’s Rockland State Hospital. Engineer Manfred Clynes does computer studies at the same hospital on body cybernetics: the interrelationship of the body’s check-and-balance systems. For cyborgs, Kline and Clynes dispense with most conventional space flight plans. Cyborgs will wear sealed skintight suits but will travel in unsealed cabins exposed to the near vacuum of space. Ordinarily, at these low pressures the blood would boil and the lungs explode. But cyborgs’ lungs will be partly deflated and their blood will be cooled. To keep from getting numbed their brains will be warmed or fed energizers. Their messages to one another will be picked up electrically from their vocal nerves and transmitted by radio. Their mouths will be sealed and unused. Concentrated food will be piped direct to their stomachs or blood streams. Wastes will be chemically reprocessed to make new food. Totally worthless end-products will be kept in small canisters on their backs. Kline’s and Clynes’ motives in developing cyborgs are not all astronautic. Kline wants to work out the problems involved because the solutions will have vast implications for medicine as a whole. Clynes, an accomplished pianist, feels the artistic experiences to be had in space should not be overlooked. “Imagine,” he says, “what leaps a ballet dancer could take on the moon.” Freeman painting via: INFINITE WORLDS @ ski-ffy; thanks to ikipr and his string of sources for aiming us on this course.

Click for high-res photo

Painting by FRED FREEMAN, originally appearing in the July 11, 1960 issue of LIFE, for an article entitled MAN REMADE TO LIVE IN SPACE:

Striding buoyantly across the low-gravity surface of the moon, there may someday be strange new men — part human, part machine — like the ones above. They will have a strange name: CYBORGS (for CYBernetic ORGanisms). Cyborgs, according to the daring new idea, will be men whose body organs and systems are automatically adjusted for life in unearthly environments by artificial organs and senses. Some of these devices will be attached, others actually implanted by surgery. With their aid cyborgs can dispense with clumsy, easy-to-puncture space suits in which earth conditions are recreated. Instead they can move about safely wearing not much more than they would at home.

The artificial senses of cyborgs will measure changes inside the body and outside in the environment. They will signal artificial glands telling them what to secrete for regulating normal body functions. Then body temperature may fall to that of a fish in ice, or the pulse may quicken like a robin’s in flight, but the human organism will survive. Fantastic as the idea sounds, its originators (see next page) think that it is feasible and that much of the knowledge needed already exists.

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In 1957, LIFE photographer Ralph Crane covered George Van Tassel’s “Fifth Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention” at the Giant Rock in the California desert, capturing dozens of images that have found their way into the Google-hosted LIFE archive. In attendance were the likes of Daniel Fry, Orfeo Angelucci, Howard Menger, Evelyn Smith, Truman Bethurum, and a few others BSRF followers may just recognize. Unfortunately, this particular gallery is thoroughly disorganized, tagged only with the description “Flying Saucer Convention”, the year 1957, and the photographer Ralph Crane. We’ll be continuing to browse and search through it for ourselves in the days and weeks to come, and encourage all interested parties to do likewise. Were you there in 1957? Did you find anything of particular notability in the LIFE archives? Please, let us know!

Click for high-res photo

In 1957, LIFE photographer Ralph Crane covered George Van Tassel’s “Fifth Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention” at the Giant Rock in the California desert, capturing dozens of images that have found their way into the Google-hosted LIFE archive. In attendance were the likes of Daniel Fry, Orfeo Angelucci, Howard Menger, Evelyn Smith, Truman Bethurum, and a few others BSRF followers may just recognize.

Unfortunately, this particular gallery is thoroughly disorganized, tagged only with the description “Flying Saucer Convention”, the year 1957, and the photographer Ralph Crane. We’ll be continuing to browse and search through it for ourselves in the days and weeks to come, and encourage all interested parties to do likewise.

Were you there in 1957? Did you find anything of particular notability in the LIFE archives? Please, let us know!