Another "form" of storage, would be to transfer the ego to a infomorph shell & run it in a time altered enviroment -to still have lucidity. Slower for shorter wait & less perceived time, faster for longer. While the ego is entertained Its biomorph is still "active". Once the time is up, either a replacement morph is needed. or the ego is reunited with its former shell. The biomorph potential fates at the meantime. (perhaps not "experiencing" all scenarios & in order) Given a caretaker (AI, AGI, fitness guru, fork?). "Sold" to someone else, (Shortage & demand on morphs.) Returned to rentalshop, (Shortage & demand on morphs.) EP version for a hospitals comatose life-support. (wet storage) Discarded, (to damaged, outdated or to old) "You wish to leave VRspace & You want your old rented biomorph back?" "It wasn't a rental? is this your signature?" "Unfourtunatly it haven't been returned... yet" "Do you wish to wait a while longer Or can you settle for a replacement?"

I think the main options for long term storage are: Maintenance mode: the morph is run by an AI that keeps it in shape. Think the dolls in "Dollhouse": healthy exercise, careful motion, little interest. Can presumably run for the normal lifespan of the morph. Hibernation in controlled environment: essentially the normal hibernation in a "sleep chamber" a la Aliens. Robotics and nano maintains the body, but life processes are ongoing if damped. Deep hibernation in life support slurry: the morph is infiltrated by a network of nutrient, waste and chemical control fibres and placed in a protective nanomachine slurry. Life processes are brought to an extremely low level, various protecting substances infused into cells, the physiology partially returned to a prenatal stage. Much harder to get out of quickly than normal hibernation, but significantly more damage resistant and does not age much. Likely a good choice for a long spaceflight where acceleration and radiation might be a problem. Fixation: the morph is filled with nanites that produce protectants (e.g. free radical scavengers) and cross-linking molecules, binding everything in place. Might involve reducing the temperature to cryonics levels or kept at normal temperature but strongly "plastinated". Requires serious bootstrapping in a healing vat with special programming that starts up the fixating nanites and undos the fixation. If done properly little biological time goes by and there is no cost of maintenance. Might be the sensible choice for a century-long spaceflight or hiding away somewhere in the Kuiper belt for the next million years. Normally there is little point in storing bio morphs too long, since the cost of maintenance will tend to be higher than the value of the morph (which will anyway be somewhat obsolete). Fixation handles that, but is also pretty slow and tough to enter and leave. A special case might be flats, especially ones embodying valuable egos.

I would assume that by 10 AF there are probably dozens of models of suspended animation, hibernation, cryosleep, cryopreservation, dormition, vitrification, plastination, reversible fixation, mothballing, cryptobiosis, hypersomnia, dormitronics, biocellism... However, in practice there are probably at most a handful of standard, proven recipes that are widely used. Which gets used is likely dependent on 1) the time the morph has to be stored, 2) whether the morph has been designed for particular processes (or vice versa), 3) whether the resources to suspend, store and revive the morph are available. For example, everybody agrees that Skinthetics has a wonderful hibernation BPI [*] on one of the extra chromosomes [**], but you need to pay a fee to use it on your morph: otherwise the cells refuse to produce the necessary protectants or respond to signals to go into energy-saving mode. So if you are not plugged into the credit economy or lack extropian rep you are better off using a reprogrammed healing vat for your morph. But most healing vats are unsuitable for long-term use and quite costly themselves, so you can either get a specialized storage vat (there are some nice open source designs from Rhea Rejuvenation as well as the stodgy old USLife Inc cannisters you can buy cheaply on Luna) or try an infusion of fixating nanobots. But fixation is tricky, and most open source nanobots are risky. The acknowledged best open source approach is Nifty43's Amber 12.2, but the mortality rate is a bit high (Dakotafreeze 2.0 is even worse, but at least just takes 48 hours to restore the morph). If you really want to ensure the morph survives, then you will have to pay through the nose for the Mizar Life Extension Foundation NPOI III... To sum up, the details of suspended animation are probably more setting than rules. But they can be interesting pieces of setting, and sometimes involve tricky tradeoffs (want to risk the morph vs retain anarchist cred vs restart it rapidly vs...) that are fun to roleplay. Personally I would probably go with a synthmorph to save myself the trouble. [*] Body Programming Interface. [**] Ever since the version 1.2 of their standard genome they have added at least two extra proprietary chromosomes to the genome of their morphs. These are equipped with a gene called BEM that removes their centromeres in germline cells, making their morphs at least in theory able to reproduce with normal splices and even flats (without transferring any of the custom genetics). BEM is short for 'Bestiality Enabling Mode', typical Skinthetics humour.