After thanking the secretary for the tour, Tom was led to Dr. Sato’s office. Her office was not that large. It was rather like any typical faculty office found on a college campus. Her room had several medical journals on the shelves. Her degrees hung prominently on the walls, particularly her medical degree from Harvard.
Dr. Sato stood up and shook Tom’s hand. Dr. Sato looked like she had not aged a day since Tom had seen her at the symposium. She was only five feet, five inches tall and weighed about one hundred and thirty pounds. For someone who was forty-five years old, she looked remarkable.
“What can I do for you?” she asked. She offered him a seat in front of her desk as she sat down behind her desk. Sunlight streamed into the room from the window behind her.
“Dr. Sato, I have been told that you are the leading medical expert on a variety of topics including stem cell research and DNA experiments. I had the honor of attending one of your lectures fourteen years ago and came away very impressed with you.”
Dr. Sato nodded and said, “So you saw me with the protestors. Not a day goes by without someone bringing that up.”
Tom acknowledged the fact, “Yes, I saw that and was amazed at your ability to get the protestors to shut up.”
Dr. Sato laughed.
He then stated, “As you may or may not know, a meeting of scientists and experts in the environmental field took place in Australia years ago. At this meeting, it was decided, based on scientific research, that life on Earth is going to disappear shortly. I have been selected to put together a team that will build the finest spaceship to search for a new planet. I am sure that you know it will require many years of travel before we possibly find such a place to live. I would like to hire you to lead the medical research facilities as we travel the galaxies. I am sure that you probably think I am crazy now, but I need to know if you believe anything I am saying. We have many funding streams in place and have secured a location for the ship’s development and launch. Obviously, if I am right, all of your research will not be enough to save Earth. From the looks of the lab facilities and the advances in technologies, it is possible that we should expedite the application of many of these advances rather than cultivate knowledge for its own sake. And I could put you in touch with some people I know involved in NASA’s Bioculture System, I—”
“I am very familiar with their work.”
“Good, then you know that I have a million questions, and I hope you can develop better answers that meet our advancing time schedule.”
Dr. Sato was silent for a moment. Then she spoke, “Thank you for coming to visit me. I admire your dedication to your research. First of all, I do believe that we are coming to a period on Earth when life may become extinct. Humans have made far too many mistakes in their quest to enjoy life. I am not sure we will be able to correct all the mistakes we have made in the past, so I do concur that you are correct in what you say. While I agree with you about that, I do have many questions that you will have to answer before I can even think of going on a trip like this and leaving everything behind.”
“Ask away, I will do my best to answer your questions.”
“Number one, do I get to recruit my own team of experts, and how many of them do you think we can take on board?”
“We expect to have a total of a thousand people on each of the four ships. The other leaders of the three ships will recruit their own medical experts along with their crew. These leaders are from Australia, Germany and Russia. I expect there will be about twenty experts that will work with you daily or a total of eighty on all four ships. You will be able to share any research findings and data with the other three ships. You can design your own lab facilities and DNA storage facilities. Since your work is of the utmost importance on this trip, I will promise you I will do my very best to meet all of your facility needs.”
“Thanks for saying that,” she replied. “Now I need to know: how long would we be traveling? Will we ever return to Earth? What are the plans?”
Tom thought to himself, This is going to be the hard part now.
“We are not planning on returning to Earth. I expect we will need to live on the spaceship for hundreds of years perhaps. I am hopeful all the preparations will be made in about ten years. We need ten years to build the ship to the specifications that you and other department heads need. Once we leave the solar system, we will try and find a planet that can sustain life. This is why your research is so important. We may need people to live for several hundreds of years if possible. The question is: do you believe this is possible?” Tom asked, emphasizing the word you.
Dr. Sato said, “I do believe we can extend a person’s life for a long time with the assistance of stem cells, cloning and other research, but exactly how long, I do not know. Certainly, there may be a problem living for five hundred or a thousand years. Eventually all of your organs would need to be replaced. One thing that has made my research difficult has been all the government FDA regulations and politics that limit stem cell research and cloning. I need your promise that my colleagues and I will not be encumbered by restrictions on what needs to be done. Since many of the travelers will likely start families on board, we will need obstetricians and doctors that can deliver babies. We can also use cloning and combine DNA into an embryo. One thing I do not believe in right now is immortality. I believe that everyone must die eventually. Are you trying to create an immortal person?” Dr. Sato asked.
“No, definitely not,” Tom said. “We plan to use stem cells, cloning as well as cryopreservation to sustain each person’s life as long as possible. I am sure our officers will give you free discretion as far as stem cell research. Cloning will only be used when a person dies. When we clone someone, we need to ensure that the memory of the person being cloned will be preserved in the clone. That means we are going to have to take DNA samples quite frequently to preserve their memories. I have heard that it may be possible to insert memories into a person. That might be quite useful when a person is sleeping in cryopreservation. It is not worth cloning someone if they have to start learning everything all over again. I would even consider a brain transplant if that is possible. For that to happen, we will have to create lab space to preserve brains. We can also grow brains with stem cell research. Once we reach a destination for everyone to live, we can decide whether to continue extending the life of each person on board.
“By the time we arrive or live on a new planet, I think people will need to make their own decision about what they want to do. I do not believe right now that immortality for everyone is a good thing. With immortality, there would not be a need to procreate, and thus, there might not be any new ideas. My main concern though is we need the expertise of many individuals if we’re to succeed in finding a new planet. Do you agree or disagree with me?”
“I do agree with what you have said. Personally, I do not want immortality for myself. I do want to continue my research, which probably will take years, to do some of the things you want. Inserting memories into a person’s brain will require the production of a nanochip. When the chip is placed into the correct spot in the brain, perhaps some chemicals could release the memories which will be absorbed by the brain cells. I also want to marry and have offspring to carry on my work or to develop different skills than mine. I have no idea if I would want to be cloned. However, given what you have said, it may have to happen. I do not think my body would withstand a thousand years in space. And then there are the questions surrounding fertility in these unchartered environments.”