Science fiction. The cause

 

Science fiction. The cause

We are born, we live, we age, and we die. The end of every beginning is unavoidable and it cannot be altered. Because, then nothing will remain in balance. That is why with every birth, the time for undertaker’s claim of the lifeless body is determined as well.

However, it can happen that few, rather many of us can live forever. The so called immortals. In their case what is the role of the undertaker, if at all he has a role to play?

Well, this is the story of the undertaker who resides in the realm of the immortals and he performs his duty with complete dedication and no leniency at all. 

I know you must be feeling a bit shocked, because imagining a role for

Undertaker in the realm of the immortals would be like expecting water lilies in the middle of the Sahara desert. But if you look carefully there are oasis in deserts also and there are beautiful desert flowers as well. It is not a barren landscape, provided you look around carefully and minutely.

Similarly, in the realm of immortals, where one would assume that the undertaker has no role at all, is not true. Because in reality he has a very significant role to play in the realm of the immortals.

Anyway, I was assigned the mission to find a star system where we could find few substances that on reaction create fission-like reactions, without the need to carry out the reaction in a highly controlled environment. Because a fission reaction can not be controlled, if one does not employ sophisticated means of checks since the atoms are continuously splitting and not binding together. But these substances found in few star systems react immediately and produce infinite energy. 

That is not all, the byproducts of their reaction are oxygen and a few gases that after reacting with oxygen, convert into water vapours. And that is one reason, on our planet we conduct these reactions in areas where rainfall is very high.

And here I was, flying towards a galaxy where we had detected large deposits of these substances. As I entered the destination galaxy, seemingly due to my oversight I placed the spaceship on a different route and after a few days, I found myself in a completely different galaxy. By the time I realised it, it was too late, because I was flying in the no fly zone of a planet where these immortals live.

They immediately froze all my engines and by means of some super advanced technology, they held my spaceship in some capsule-like formation which was completely invisible, because there were no walls and there was no palpable base as well. It was as if my spaceship had been caught in some mysterious force acting upon it in such a way that it was lowering it down but not letting it crash. Some sort of controlled landing where something unseen was holding my spaceship and it was slowly losing height. After 10 minutes I was on the surface of the planet, where I found myself surrounded by some men and women.

They looked like us, but there was something very different about them, and it had nothing to do with their physical appearance, because it was something that radiated from their inner selves. Whatever it was, it was special.

They could immediately tell that I was from Earth. And they could even judge my language.

I did not feel scared, because there was no time for that. The amazement of being on their planet was so overpowering that all my worries were expelled.

Then one of them informed me that I was in the realm of immortals, and that I had deviated from my original course. They were extremely supportive, and they allowed me to spend sometime on their planet while they would figure out the right day, and the shortest path to the planet where I was supposed to go originally.

Since that day I have been here and it is my 15th day on this planet.

In these 15 days I did not come across anything that would tell me that there has been a death in the community of immortals. 

They offered me everything needed to live conveniently and they made sure everything met my taste. They were good and generous people, there was no doubt about it.

It was my 18th day on their planet that I saw a large procession on the street. Somebody had passed away. Yes, someone had died. There was death among the immortals. 

The undertaker led the procession, followed by a large crowd where following sequence was maintained:

• First the oldest ( almost 2000 years old )

• Followed by the middle aged ( almost 1200 years old )

• Followed by the young ( almost 600 years old )

• Followed by the youngest ( almost 200 years old )

About the new borns, there are no guesses, because they are of the same age on all realms, a day or just a few moments old. And of course they were not part of this procession.

I too joined the procession, and I was only 43 years old. On my planet I was middle aged, but when compared to their age, I was an infant. Because in their community age did not only represent years, it also represented experience, knowledge, and contributions made towards the development of the planet and science and technology.

Keeping all these facts in mind, I decided to place myself somewhere between the middle aged and the young.

As we approached the burial site, the undertaker pulled out a device, and almost like a half ripe walnut, he scraped out the brain of the deceased and placed it inside a transparent jar with some liquid in it. 

Then, all of them said their prayers, and the persons related to him, said their eulogies. Finally the body of the deceased was buried in the grave that had been dug for him.

At this point everyone from the crowd began greeting the family of the deceased and left the spot. Then, the undertaker and the family of the deceased went to a place that looked like a morgue, but it was not a morgue.

By the way, the person who had died was one of the oldest immortals. He had amassed great knowledge about everything for almost 4000 years.

I gently approached the family of the deceased and asked them if I could be a part of the remaining ceremonies. They agreed and asked me to make myself comfortable next to their youngest daughter, who was 300 years old.

Then the senior members of the family gathered around a table. Where there was a computer with almost 10 screens, a battery like unit, a sugar like syrup, some electrodes, and almost 20000 sensors, whose wires connected into one USB like port.

The undertaker injected the sugar syrup into one of the tubes that was connected to the brain’s region that lies right under Periaqueductal Gray. To be exact the part of the brain that is connected to the vertebral column. 

Then he got some yellow powder-like substance that smelled like the magical Indian herb, turmeric, and mixed it with a few solutions and injected it into the brain cells that were dying. 

And I was surprised to see, on injecting this turmeric based solution the brain cells revived.

( According to ancient Indian scriptures the Curcumin compound present in turmeric possesses properties that are believed to be magical. And from what I could tell it is indeed magical. The wise ones from ancient India were a superior breed of immortals in their own right. I would not deny that. Because they had even studied compounds present in spices and plants. I find it unbelievably exceptional and phenomenal. They knew that this compound found in turmeric is absorbed by the human body when combined with oil/fat. Without oil/fat the human body finds it difficult to absorb this magical compound. 

Surprised? I too was. ) 

Then he started the computer and the screens flashed with a blank and black screen. He then inserted the USB port into the main processing interface. Finally he pulled a very thin fibre optics like wire, where the hair strand like wire was a gold wire, and he inserted it into the brain that he had scraped out from the immortal’s skull.

And what I witnessed next was unbelievable.

The 10 computer screens turned live with 10 main sections of the human brain.

1. MPOA

2. TPI

3. DPN

4. AMYGDALA

5. RCZ

6. VTA

7. PAG

8. MNS

9. ACC

10. PFC 

I was left completely amazed and dazed too. 

Then the undertaker looked at the main screen that was launched via a projector on a wall facing all of us.

There he launched a software and merged these 10 regions of brain and stored them in one of the flash drives present on the main machine. What he performed next was only what an undertaker like him could achieve. He downloaded all his memories, and through these memories he was able to develop a library of the deceased immortal’s knowledge that was priceless because it was 4000 years worth of information.

It was at this moment the family of the immortal began crying and they shed tears. All of them. Because now his brain that rested in the jar with liquid solution was blank. It had no memories, no information, it was just grey matter and nothing else.

When the ceremonial expression of deep emotions was over, he sealed the brain in a cube-like box that appeared indestructible and offered it to the family.

Then everyone asked the youngest girl sitting next to me to get ready for the memory transfer.

I was wondering what the transfer meant.

It was now that the senior member of their family stood up and said something that changed my every view that I had developed about these immortals so far.

“ She being his daughter, she cannot receive the memory transfer, it is unethical according to the guidelines defined by our elders. A father’s memory transfer cannot be offered to his children, only his wife is its rightful owner.

Because our elders prohibit fathers and mothers from sharing their memories with children, because in doing so, the children will gain access to their intimate moments, to their aspects of lives which shall always remain a secret between husband and wife. Because this relationship is the most sacred on our planet and its sanctity should be maintained. And there are few rules and guidelines to achieve the sanctity of marital life.

And in case the immortal couple do not have a child, the memory is fed into our core system where all tracks of intimate memories are erased, and only memory tracks of knowledge and science are retained. And it ought to be so!”

Everyone was listening to him intently, not that he was the oldest, but being the oldest among the immortals meant that he/she was bound to be the wisest as well.

The girl occupied her place next to me and the wife of the deceased immortal approached the undertaker and received the complete download of his memories. 

She will have to sync the memories of her late husband over a period of 2 years, because if she syncs them in a day, it will confuse her already existing neural pathways and overlap with her memories.

Because every memory or sensation is nothing but a pulse or wave between neurons. And a person who has lived for 4000 years will tend to have many neural pathways/waves that will be similar to recipients pathways/waves, although they are related to different experiences and occasions. And when that happens, it can confuse the brain of the recipient. Then either causing it to enter a lag mode or total desync mode.

But among all family members present in the hall, she was the saddest, still crying, and still thinking about the man she knew for thousands of years. For her it was an emotional pathway that she was finding very difficult to deal with. And the decision of her husband not to be resurrected in a synthetic replica was too painful an experience for her. I don't know exactly what she was thinking but I could guess she was already thinking how she would live without him. Afterall, being with someone for thousands of years and then realising one day that he is gone forever, should not be an emotion that a mortal like me can deal with, because an immortal like her was already crumbling under it.

Whatever she was feeling at the moment, it was excruciatingly painful for her. Anybody could tell that. 

Coming back to the proceedings undertaken by the undertaker.

At this moment I wondered what if her husband had ever lied to her, just for her own goodwill’s sake and the well being of the family. Then how would she remember him? But I guess, being immortal they would know better how to deal with someone else’s memories.

But I was impressed with their technological brilliance.

They all left, the undertaker completed the last scientific rituals and asked me if I would like to stay or leave. I wanted to stay and I expressed it to him clearly.

When they had left, I began to think, how did the immortal die. If they are so advanced, what causes their death?

I was thinking about this, when the youngest daughter entered the hall and sat next to me. She asked me about my planet and I asked her about her planet, and a few personal facts.

Then I asked her my main question. 

“How come you people die? Because on our planet we believe immortals live forever.”

She did not say anything immediately, and when she was sure she had the right words she continued,

“ Our oldest immortals, the wisest of all, are 20000 years old. They stack so much memory in their chips that at some point they reach a saturation point when it comes to variations in neural pulses or waves.

We call it the “Variable Paradox of Brains.” At this stage their neurons in brains reach their maximum variation in terms of neural pulses and waves. And the memory chips that store their memories also develop a sort of error, where they are now unable to separate these pulses individually, it is at this stage the immortals chose to end their lives.

It can be a nightmarish experience in its advanced stage because the person enters a memory blackout phase. Where everything is the same but it does not make any sense because their neural pulses which bear specific wavelengths, start overlapping.

We believe it is a problem with our memory chips, which cannot scale in flexible mode like the organic brain does. Human brain can store endless information. It has no limit at all, but we are unable to develop memory chips that can scale to that extent. To develop memory chips that could store information of 20000 years, took our senior most immortals 10000 years to develop.

That is one case. And my father had not reached this blackout phase. He could live for many more centuries easily.

In his case it was different.

You see, when certain neurons get fired, based on an experience that leads to memory, it denotes a pathway or a wave that travels from x to y neuron or from A to z neuron in a specific combination.

Sometimes, as these neural wavelengths are being stored as memories in artificial memory chips, the memory chip that is mostly in sleep mode, is accessed by the immortal to retrieve a certain memory patch.

When the immortal retrieves the memory from the synthetic memory chip he/she sometimes forgets to subconsciously instruct the chip via the organic brain, to only retrieve the memory once, and when that happens, the memory begins to fire neural wavelengths specific to it, infinite times. And as the neural pathway gets fired repeatedly, the neurons enter sleep mode, and the memory dies in the organic brain, and the memory chip also blocks this memory.

And it is in these cases, sometimes these sleeping neurons die and cannot be revived. When that happens, it can sometimes mean nothing, but at times the death of few neurons in certain regions of the brain can become the cause of physical death of the immortal.

However, this too can be overcome by transferring the brain to a synthetic replica after repairing the neural damage in the organic brain. And connecting it with a new memory chip, which has received a fresh upload of bug free memories, which always gets stored on many backup drives, in case one of them develops an error.

This would have been the case with my father too, but his damaged neurons had affected his organic brain in such a way that it changed the entire makeup of his brain. We are still trying to understand what caused such damage to his organic brain. 

And few of our immortals choose not to live while using artificial brains. They prefer a sync between memory chips and the organic brain. 

That is why my father died. It was a death he chose, and not the death that conquered him.

In our realm, death is not a concept, because on this planet everyone lives for good causes, social causes, global causes, while also being devoted to our personal lives and those with whom we live and love. That is why death is not a necessary requirement here.

This shall explain it better to you: 

My father was more than 1000 years old. Yet he has only 2 children.

Does that explain something to you? On our planet happy, loving and healthy lives matter the most.

And I must go now, we will have to examine our father’s organic brain with few of our senior most immortals. Because we want to know what damaged his brain to such an extent.

Moreover, my mother is unable to deal with the fact that her soul mate of so many years has chosen not to reside in a synthetic brain. Maybe she will prefer to go into sleep mode and never wake up. It shall depend on her. But as far as I know her, she will choose to enter into sleep mode and never be woken up. Because she loved him a lot and he loved her a lot. 

And in these situations we merge their memories and store them in well protected drives. Because whenever our community is faced with plagues or epidemics, which are mostly neural network related. We wake up the sleeping immortals because their brains and memories are free from these neural damages or viruses.

One reason their children do not cry. It is usually the couples who suffer when they lose one of the partners. In 99% cases, almost all couples choose to sleep or terminate themselves on the same day and simultaneously.”

She wished me well and left.

I too expressed my condolences to her, carefully choosing my phrases not to give her a culture shock. 

Having somehow managed to condole the daughter of the immortal, I too went to the place where they had arranged my accommodation.

Next day, the young girl visited me again and gave me the map that would lead me to my destination planet in just 5 days. 

I didn't waste any more time. I got into my spaceship, and left for the planet where I was supposed to gather data on substances that we could use to generate energy via our fission reactors.

I landed on the planet, gathered whatever information I could and flew in the direction of my planet. The Earth.

By the time I reached Earth, it was the year 2075. And the Earth was nothing like when I had left. It was a planet where every predisposition about everything that can go wrong was being actually orchestrated by the avarice consumed elites of our planet. And it reminded me of the wise words of the immortal’s daughter, “ My father was more than 1000 years old. Yet he has only 2 children. Does that explain something to you?”

The Earth was burning, it had turned hotter by 6 degrees, and many parts of the planet had been desertified. It was a planet that I could no longer associate with. 

Unlike on the planet of immortals, who had spent millions of years deciding how artificial intelligence and synthetic memories should be integrated with organic brains. They had even studied their social implications. Even thought about ethics. Because their guidelines prohibited them from transferring memories from father and mother to their children. Their social scientists believed it would corrode the social setup in advanced stages, as it would erase the very sense and sensibility children associate with parents. Not only this, they had looked into other factors which we cannot even imagine at this stage.

From immortality one learns one virtue. Patience and a lot of patience. And it was due to their patient thinking and working on such advanced systems, that everything on their planet was in perfect harmony with the nature that supported them. Maybe that's why I saw dried and dead plants when I walked on the planet of the immortals, because they knew, there was no need to make them immortal.

Why, that is another story altogether.

( By the way Muslim scriptures also talk about the world of immortals. With extensive details. And we all know about the Lord Jesus Christ PBUH. He could raise the dead and bring them back to life. So the question is not whether immortality is possible or not. The main question should be rephrased. Is it required or not? If yes, when and if no, when should immortals cease to exist? )

If you want to know why I was upset with the world that awaited me when I returned from the planet of immortals. Please refer to a highly exciting science fiction novel titled: They Loved in 2075.

And to know what sort of crisis will humans actually be facing in 2075, then, the scifi novel, They Loved in 2075, is the only novel you should refer to.

While you are gaining insights from the scifi romance novel, They Loved in 2075. I am exploring the possibility of a memory chip that can be as elastic in nature, as the organic human brain. 

As for the super processing device ever developed, the organic human brain. I praise the preeminence of the one who could conceive such a flawless and infinitely scalable thinking machine. The machine called the human brain, that works like a billion machines. Yet thinks and feels like a single human being. Who cries, who smiles, who gains, who loses, who loves and is sometimes loved too.

I think this marvellous thinking lobe is scalable and without the need of a synthetic chip. You see, this is the wonder of the human brain, because it makes me believe I know how it can be done using biology and not synthetic technology. It was a secret the immortal’s daughter shared with me. So, I better get busy with that now.

Fire your neurons well!