“You of all people know, you would wish that Sam got to know his grandfather more. And what if, as we find, wisdom does come with age and we can amplify that? What if stopping the aging process does indeed lead to greater wisdoms that outcompete any of the clones we develop? What if it’s our Occam’s razor? We keep putting our hope in future generations, but what if we are, in the process, letting spiritualists decide what must happen with the soul and where it goes? What if the reason for our constant soul-searching—and many of my own sleepless nights—in search of meaning has less to do with where we end up but what our potential is on the journey? What if we keep hampering it with strict disciplinarian theories about how long we have to live? Who decides that? Surely, it’s most likely whatever ingredients we have in the lab and our own ability to grasp what we are capable of, not fear it!”
Tom had blurted, “Since wealth plays a smaller role on the ship, it won’t be funding that decides what we explore. Wisdom comes from experience, just like we hope that with innocence, courage continues to be displayed, in spite of those who are more motivated to avoid pain and may not be as nimble, quick or adventurous with time. It’s possible death will become a problem for us, but we must remain open to exploring all options, Dr. Sato. We insist that any policies and procedures that you were going to distribute before we launch to the members of the ship accept that there is no finality. You cannot decree that we will not potentially seek out and discuss the ethics or viability of speculative solutions such as rejuvenation and mind uploading! Or the various human potentials we are not exploring based only on our history on Earth! We may find that our next legacies are born out of the newer necessities and needs of living off of Earth. We may need to apply scientific discoveries to real-world situations as they come up and as we evolve.”
The room had stilled. Dr. Sato had wondered if her understanding of life expectancy had developed from the systemic ways that she had grown used to developing against. Scientists had engineered real-world applications that could have lowered the dependence on fossil fuels and other petroleum-based products, and yet the status quo—and the fact that the dinosaur industries were on every corner—meant any seismic changes were steeped in perturbing politics and economical paranoias. For a moment she had thought of Epoh and Dr. Kintain and how she would ever be able to explore with the committee her promising findings if she was being asked to prioritize lab studies in slowing or stopping the aging process. It appeared that, at the very least, there were members of the committee who would be interested in conducting clinical trials.
Just as Dr. Sato had begun to stand up, Joe had said, “Please sit down, Dr. Sato. We are aware of the justice argument and how we can justify trying to extend the lives of those who have more already, which for all intents and purposes, includes the majority of people on Imagine. Yet, you may not be aware, since you’ve had your head buried in the labs, that we are a more diverse group. Tom had felt very disturbed after his son, Sam, had hidden from him a fist fight that he’d had with a kid roughly his age named Steven, who felt that Sam’s dad had no right to choose who got to go on Imagine and who didn’t and had to stay behind. Sam’s mom, obviously, had kept it from Tom, as she didn’t want to worry him. Then, recently, she’d felt that it was potentially something they needed to consider. A fourth ship is in development through the help of AI research in Africa and will join us, despite the fact that humanity is now reliant on the president and his people in helping make that happen.
“They have started their developments using the specifications that Tom has provided to President Stevens, who has expressed his concern about our methods for selecting all the people that would go on our spacecraft. Millions of people will not have the opportunity to go with us. It got us thinking. So, certainly, it’s not that we want to be exclusive about our findings on board Imagine. We have absolutely amazing communication systems in place that will allow us to communicate with all the ships.
“And the nature of how quickly the Earth is being ravaged doesn’t really give us the chance to deal with how to improve conditions for life in communities on Earth now. And yes, I’ve considered letting go of self-preservation, opening to transcendence in the face of our limited time on Earth in the spiritual sense. But what if the future of humanity also means extending the same meaningful experiences that we have in our life span to our understanding of human evolution? Life expectancy has already benefitted from improved conditions and improved scientific breakthroughs in our lifetimes! Maybe we’re not finished yet.”
Despite the fact that Dr. Sato had been preparing to get up, simply to ask that they be willing to finalize the procedures and policies before launch, she knew it wasn’t going to happen. Tom and the committee had guaranteed that the policies and procedures were going to be discussed, and she would have to grow to accept it. All she could do by the launch date was inform everyone that the committee had met and that they were working on important policies and procedures that would shape the future of medical studies on board.
The committee had adjourned.
She anticipated some complaints when she sent everyone the message after the meeting. She was surprised when no one complained at all.
Chapter 55 – 8 am Wednesday
Tom Burns, The Imagine, Rocky Mountains, CO
Of course, things don’t always go as planned. Tom had called off the countdown. It was 8 am on Wednesday. The last twenty-two hours had pushed Tom to the complete brink. He felt like a disgraced golf player trying his luck and hitting every ball in the water.
Everything was going fine after he spoke to the president the previous morning about monitoring the Russians. What he hadn’t expected was finding one of the president’s men standing on the bridge, unaware of Tom being within hearing range.
“There’s little reason to believe that we need to leave all our money behind, and I’ve let some of the folks on the other ships know too. This isn’t negotiable. Can you imagine what sort of lack of leverage we’d be facing? What? Suddenly, we’re all just back in line? Anyway, look, I know for one thing that I’ve already purchased the paintings from that daughter of an art collector, what’s her name, oh yeah, Thelma. She spoke up at a meeting after we first all started boarding. Her own husband called it out as simple complaining when she had brought up that she had brought her collection of art from Monet, Manet, and Renoir among others. Life without art would be traumatic! I’ve created an amazing storage area for things that were banned that I have on complete lock down onboard, and it will be viewable by permission only. It’s outrageous that I have to resort to this. Not everything can be in digital format if we’re going to be representing humanity so far from Earth. Anyway, look, I can’t stand to have to hide it, but even the president agreed it was a bit, shall we say, overboard.”
Tom’s shoulders sank. He hadn’t thought of it that way at all. He’d considered only the safety hazards of pictures flying off walls as projectiles. He’d even forgotten to meet with Thelma and her husband. He started to doubt his ability to meet the human needs of people who were relying on him to get the Imagine off the ground and avoid failing the future generations of humanity. And those future generations of humanity now might include much older humans, thanks to science and science-based evidence, but also clones when the time came to try it in a controlled environment.