Splice of Life

Splice of Life1

It is ordinary to be extraordinary now days. Why ? Well if we honestly assess ourselves when we were of the age of our children, did we have the kind of knowledge and awareness they now have?2

We struggled to keep abreast with the latest in General Knowledge and awareness, while our kids seem to be submerged in information, which they can easily absorb and move on. Syllabus, text books and every notion of education, of our kids today are at least two years ahead of our times at the same age.3

Compare ourselves with our parents too. The picture would have been the same even back then, meaning that we are at least more informed than our senior generation. Is this a principle that can be generalized? Were the children of cave men more informed than their earlier generations too? Will the children of our descendents hundreds of generations from now also be better than the previous?4

For a moment, and for the sake of argument let us presume that this generalization will not hold true in future. Well the next thing to ask is how long will this phenomena last, till it no longer holds true? As a scientific method, we can presume several decreasing orders of the phenomena: Linear, exponential or logarithmic.5

Take the linear case: 6

suppose the comparative smartness of our kids is less than the same for us and so on with a very small slope. We have observed kids to be smarter for the last thousand or more years. That would make the slope of decreasing mental capability very close to a horizontal. Thus extrapolation suggests that for the next thousands of years we will continue to get generations of smarter kids, till the kids actually become dumber. This can go on until life as we know it with all the technology and sophistication will have to be gone (with the intelligence) and we return to the methods of dwelling by nature, and survival of the fittest in the jungle.7

If the decrease were to be exponential, the order of the exponential is obviously small, so we discount this.8

Had the relationship been log based, by now we would have become as dumb as dodos. So even that is ruled out.9

On the other side of the story is the possibility of increment in intelligence. If this were:10

Linear- We are already on a gentle upward slope and human race will only achieve just a little more in the time line before we self destruct. I firmly believe in this theory, as the number of lives taken by humans themselves far outstrips nature and natural clalmaties.11

On the exponential curve, increased intelligence, with the self destruction tendency would mean a highly reduced span of time before the end of humanity is brought about by themselves.12

If the curve were log based, we have at most a few decades left !13

Mathematically this looks sound and ok. But going by what is currently being achieved in almost all fields of knowledge and its domains, there must be a small link that leads to a more decent and yet very intelligent human race. So here goes my attempt at that theory.14

Even as I am typing this bit, it can be argued that there exist at least a handful of people with immense knowledge of several domains, with a sound mind and the right ethics to qualify as Noble and almost saintly souls. Historically, it has been proven that for every century of existence, there have been at least 3 great people of these divine characteristics. Mythology aside, even in documented history, this is a proven fact.15

Can we thus use our advanced scientific acumen to accelerate the growth of these extraordinary people though we don’t actually know who they are and where they are? I tossed these theories and queries at my friend from the Genome Institute, who was working on the project to Document Human Race.16

His face went blank for a minute or two, then he slowly put his words together and said;” Well, we have already done that! But what intrigues me is your approach to the whole thing is so different and naïve that I find it really stupid now!”17

Then he explained how his team in the project was specifically tracing out genetic traits of people attributed to having saintly and noble life. The basis of segregation of the type was largely based on an overall agreement in social setup on which people were considered good enough to be studied. For this the Institute created a panel to screen candidates suggested by various bodies including religious, social service, medicine, physical sciences etc.18

To their surprise, when analysed, all likely candidates for the study showed a distinct genetic build-up. Some of the basic proteins in their DNA was predominantly inactive in the general populace. Of those who did have these strains of Saint-Proteins (called StPs by the institute), there was a remarkable correlation of the nobility and saintliness depending on which protein strain was stronger.19

StPs by nature are created in a special set of circumstances, which could be partially recreated in a lab by subjecting neurons from deep within the cortex to simulated Alpha waves which, as we all know are found in situations like meditation and deep thinking with positive reinforcement biofeedback.20

StPs could also be created in a nerve mass subjected to a great deal of simulated knowledge gain (as is commonly done in artificial neural networks) using a neuro-cybernetic setup at the Institutes artificial intelligence labs.21

Both methods actually when reverse extrapolated come back to my stupid interrogative. How could I have arrived at a basis for distillation of saintly humans from the vast sea of humanity, which these distinguished scientists so painstakingly identified? Well that is one of the facets of humans, we may not be very bright overall, but do outshine others in our own small blimps once a while with no apparent logic or predictability.22

So, did the GI really have an advanced stage of the project StP ongoing, into some kind of animal trials? To my amazement several animal species were already StPied, and were showing a change in their behaviour, lowered aggressiveness and in general much higher tolerance towards their control species with no StP adaptation. Food provided to the StP types was tolerably shared, their territories invaded without negative impact on their behaviour and lots of other promising changes were observed after implantation of StPied neurons.23

So, the next phase of the project was already given the green light and sponsorships from numerous institutes of Theology, Religion and Social Sciences were pouring in at a pace far higher than needed by the project. Many donors were gently asked to donate to the Animal genome project where they were willing to set up a Biosphere of StP population to see what would happen if everyone in a competing ecology is a Saint, what happens to them all?24

My take on that was a complex magnification of magnanimity and generosity would happen till no one really wanted anything (absolute content souls). The GI has not yet released the results of that study so far. 25

Human trials for the project were planned for next five years. Problems existed in identifying and approval of subjects to be taken for trials. As expected, all the noble organizations of the world though supportive of the research, were averse to Human trials, as each had a different idea of what the outcome would be. If these simulated Saints were saintly only during trials, and later changed into freaky individuals. Would StP humans actually retain the StP lifelong or lose their ability to generate these once the simulated circumstances are withdrawn? 26

These questions have to be answered in the StP Biospheres first. 27

About the Author: 28

The author Milind Chitale is a Design Manager with Forefront Medical Technology in Singapore. He is a freelance writer with interests in SciFi, philosophy and technology. He can be reached on:29

millind@fmt.com.sg30