Short story I hacked out this morning.  Not sure if it’s any good, maybe I should have just spent more time on the sex scene and cut everything else out.  I think I’ll focus on short stories more for awhile and try to develop my descriptive abilities and mature dialogue.  I come up with a lot of stories, but I still don’t feel I do a good job making them come alive.

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The Last Humans

  Every morning was the same.  Darkness and the calm of sleep abruptly shaken off by a bright encompassing light.  With barely time to reflect on half-thoughts encrypted in dreams, voices and high-pitched crow like laughter broke any potential reverie.  The green skins never grow tired of it.  My life, a show.  A trial of comedy and errors for the amusement of those who felt themselves my better.  I quickly rose to cover myself as best I could to the piercing eyes of my unwanted audience.

Simple clothes were all that were allowed me-plain gray wrappings that may as well have been paper.  There was no need for protection from the environment in my prison, my cell.  The temperature was always perfect, disease-an impossibility, the only thing I was in danger of catching was old age- and the greens tried to take even that away from me.

  Long ago, as one could measure time when each day was the same, I would yell at the invisible bars of my cage and the audience behind.  ‘I’m a human being damn you’, and ‘you have no right’.  But of course they had every right, I was a lesson in evolutionary blunders-a clown in a world full of physicists and mathematicians.  A living looking glass into something both alien and familiar.  They would never give that up.  Yet still my anger would rise, and that just brought more ‘ahs and oohs’ from my fan club.  It was as if I was a play actor on some old television show, my every action told by a script I had yet to read.  I had found solace once, but even they took that away from me.

  Before my imprisonment, back when life was ruled by a chaotic sanity I was a geneticist.  Contemplating the mysteries of life never left much room for me in a belief in the almighty.  I was branded an atheist by my detractors.  And though I never referred to myself as one, it fit.  Perhaps if there was something I could not explain, even if clouded in guesswork-I would have understood the mystical hand behind it all.  I would reach Plato’s atom and voila, there is the limit.  It can no longer be divided, that is the work of God.  Nature and the universe are as children toying with what God gave them.  Alas, that time never came- not until I was placed behind these walls.  Opaque by day and pitch dark at night.  Though I knew that was only for my benefit, they were always watching.

  I found God when facing the one thing I could not explain, why this horror had happened to me.  Some years, as I could find only by the wrinkles on my brow, ago, the anger at my captors suddenly vanished.  A profound emptiness filled me as I realized this could not be thought away.  My mind was not strong enough to accept my new lot in life.  No matter how I tried to talk my way out of their web it was to no avail.  They heard me, but not as an intelligent being with wants and desires but as an animal barking.  The children mimicked me of course, in their bird like voices.  Some of their vowels were out of my range of hearing, and they spoke faster than should be possible, but I understood it easily enough.  ‘whii oo goad whii?’, they would harp at each other and then burst into gales of laughter.  Like vultures waiting for some tidbit or spark to bring meaning to their own lives.  Their parents would hush them, and give a brief lecture with words like primitive and unevolved.  It was almost enough to laugh, I-the primitive one?  I was not measuring every gesture and expression from their plain bodies.

  It is hard to seek God without any guidelines to follow.  For so long of my distant life, a life as unreal to me now as any flight of fancy mellowed with too much liquor, I had actively sought not to fill my head with nonsense.  Memories of televised services and rituals gave me some game plan but I could not remember the words.  ‘Lord above, special is your name’- I fumbled with the words whispered under my breath with no idea if I was doing it right.  I didn’t even know if the words mattered.  Would God be offended by praying wrong?  Would I find no solace?  ‘Your wants be done here as it is in your dream.’  I tried again, but no calm surrounded me.  The words meant nothing.  Still, night after night I lay in bed with barely a breath passing my lips as I tried to recreate a prayer I should have known by heart.  Finally, after etching some simile of a mantra in my thoughts I felt ready to take that final leap of faith.  Quietly I slid out from my short bed and brought my knees beneath me.  With elbows bent so my hands fell before my eyes I leaned against the mattress, not sparing any strength that would be required to keep myself upright.  I spoke the words aloud and behold there was light.

  For a brief moment I thought I had succeeded.  I had found God in the darkest place and he brought me peace.  That is, until I heard the voices of the greens.  Bemused they stared down at me as if they were Gods themselves.  They must have known what I was planning.  Waiting for this entertaining moment in the life of me.  To be the first on the block to say, ‘I saw the man pray, what a primitive’.  I realized that was exactly as I had felt in my previous incarnation- for truly I was a different animal then.  My thread of salvation broke before me like a rubber band stretched too many times and I cried.

  Hope was lost but found again.  In my despair I was as a wound up toy.  With morning came routine, afternoon and evenings were spent staring vacantly at some wall- searching for some imperfection that was never found.  Once I looked up and noticed there were less of them watching me, and fewer children.  Most walked past me like some forgotten abstract art piece- a message that became meaningless as history turned the page.  A brief glance, a nod of the head, and on to the newer exhibit.  Maybe there was even a gift shop at the end of the tour, some coffee mug that reads ‘I saw man’ that would find some place on a shelf somewhere- left to gather dust.  I refused to let my emotions free to rule my face and kept them buried inside.  A single unrealized desire, perhaps they will leave me to die now.  The ring master had other plans.

One morning in what must have been winter as there was a light covering of snow on the ground.  ‘At least they have not mastered weather control yet’, I remarked to myself.  They opened an unseen door to my cage.  Without even bothering to guess at their intent, I sat quietly on my bed as they threw something into my room.  A moment later the door closed leaving no hint at where it had once been.  Still I refused to inspect what they had left in my room and remained a passive observer to my own life.  It could have been a bunch of clothing or some dead animal.  There were more greens around me today, and I would grant them no pleasure at a show.

  The thing they had thrown into my room began to move.  Breathing that was not my own echoed out into the room and my lost humanity returned to me.  It was another person.  Forgetting the audience, which certainly was getting some sick thrill, I leapt towards the bundled person and helped them to their feet.  It was not only a person, but a woman.  Startled at seeing a member of the opposite sex after all this time I stepped back and she fell down into a bundle again.  She was in horrible condition.  Her hair unkempt and knotted, her skin blotched and unclean, her lips cracked.  Clothes hung upon her bony frame as if she were a patchwork scarecrow.  Torn and bloodied tatters and she held long since healed scars upon her wrists.  Then I noticed her fingernails were removed.  She had found the exit from this nightmare that I had not, and even that was denied her.  Pitiful thing that she was I could not help but feel compassion.  We may be the last two human beings on earth, as I had long felt I was the only remaining person.  I brought her water and as she made long slurping sounds I tried to engage her in conversation. A name, a city of birth- but she would not even meet my eyes.  Whether mute or just broken I could not tell.  So I stood over her wondering if there was something I could do to take away her pain.  This brought a crazed laugh to my lips that almost escaped as sobs.  I can’t even take away my own pain, what can I do for her? 

  I knew why they had brought her here, and I stood to stare defiantly across what may as well have been leagues as feet to my green oppressors.  These cruel, twisted half-beings without a soul wanted excitement.  Vicariously they wanted to see us animals mate, not for any form of education but for the mere thrill of it all.  ‘I will not do it’, I voiced with my eyes towards the crowd- several times as dense as I could then remember.  I doubt the girl, who I named Lilith for lack of a better name, recognized their wants.  Or even that I was there and alive.  If she did, she was much better at hiding herself away, evading the unwanted attention than was I.   

  So it was a stalemate.  Days passed and I hand fed Lilith.  I knew it was cruel, but I could not bring myself to let another human being starve to death when it was in my power to prevent it.  She wanted escape, rationally I knew if I did nothing the greens would act.  Lilith must have tried this before and had yet to succeed.  Something had awakened in me though.  A caregiver, a uniquely human quality the greens would dissect and manipulate until all heart was removed from it. 

  I imagined a life from Lilith, not that far removed from my own.  Her hobbies, her family a biography formed beneath my wandering thoughts.  I spoke to her and fancied that she talked back.  I told her about my wife, who had left me because she considered me old fashioned.  The pain of it was shed as a bitter wetness in the corner of my eye, but I also spoke of understanding.  I thought of Lilith as like me, who perhaps lost loved ones to changing times as I had.  An alien in her own town.  I talked of music, classical and popular.  Of art I had seen and only heard about.  Hours went to a one sided discussion of my old work and how I ended up in this cage.  It was a harsh reality when I would stop talking and see Lilith for what she was, a curled up mess on the floor.  So I didn’t stop speaking.  I lectured from morning to night and again when the fake sun of the greens flooded my room.  As if she was a coma victim, I had hope that some words would get through to her and she would awaken from a long sleep.  We could have a life of sorts, even if it was under the watchful gaze of the greens.

  One such day came that halfway through my telling of trying to find God in this wasteland I noticed there were many greens in the audience around us, and even their young were oddly quiet.  Several were carrying cameras and a quiet reverence was carried by their posture.  Moments passed as my heart rate increased and I realized something big was about to happen- but what was it?  Anxiety, fear stirred in me- further cracking my built up armor that was already chipped by my time with Lilith.  A hissing sound started so quietly that I almost didn’t notice it but when I did it was with a rush of apprehension.  Following the noise showed a grey mist hovering just in the corner of the room but quickly diffusing to pale the artificial light.  They were drugging us, and still Lilith seemed not to notice.  I pulled my paper thin shirt off and wrapped it around my mouth to starve off whatever it was that was about to happen.  My eyes wide and pupils dilated took in the greens around me who stood passively in the background.  I slowed my breathing, filtered through the clothes and further squeezed between my teeth.  My mind counted off from one to one hundred and then doubled prime numbers until I lost my place and had to start over.  I was feeling something, my thoughts grew hazy and my body felt a rush of endorphins.  My heart pounded out a melody that echoed in my ears as if I were under water.  ‘3, 6, 12, 24, 48’, dang lost my place.  ‘3,5,6’.  Concentration, as a lost science, became a thing of time and flashes before my eyes.  Flash, the greens watching me.  Flash, the grey mist.  Flash, my hands curled around the cloth ball choked in my mouth.  Flash, Lilith. 

  And there she was, more alive than she had been since I first saw her but somehow less so.  She moved not as a human being but as an animal on all fours and I realized whatever was happening to me was happening to her more.  Without my makeshift mask and already weakened by self starvation the drug rapidly possessed her body.  She did not so much as talk as growl when she came up to me and pulled the cloth from my mouth.  I tried not to breath but as her hands ran up my chest I took in an involuntary deep breath.  Shadows edged in on my mind and I was swimming in half reality. 

  There was no order to the events that followed.  One moment I was naked, the next I was still dressed.  I was sucking on one of Liliths shrunken breasts and then I was staring across at her as the gas first took effect.  A kaleidoscope swarmed around me like a film cut in no specific order.  Pleasure, pain, anxiety, fear spun so deeply and interlinked that they lost any significance- there was only one nameless base emotion.  Death and birth, predator and prey they had no names now- they were all the same experience.  Into this timeless depth I plunged again and again with no awareness of whether I had climaxed or not until the lights in the room dimmed.  Completely spent we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

  The next day Lilith was gone and I was alone.  Totally alone even amongst the greens, more alone than I would have been without them around.  It was my fault what happened to Lilith.  Not just the drugging, nor the caring for her when she clearly wanted to be left to die.  I hadn’t asked for her to be brought to me or for anyone to be placed in captivity- but I may as well have.  I created the greens.  It was such a wonderful idea, a wonderful breakthrough.  Human beings need never die of old age, never feel fear, no more romantic notions of a God or hypocritical romance.  They rarely would have to eat and there would be no more violence.  But ah, what more violence can there be than the cold calculations that guide the greens actions.  It was such a simple matter when we had the human genome full understood and sequenced.  I ushered in what was to be the next step of humanity, but that was nature’s privy.  What I created was a new life form.  A life form devoid of hope for there was no fear, of humanity for there was no more anxiety, of peace for there was no desire for anything they could make war over.

  My students and friends never could understand why I didn’t make the change.  Didn’t I want to be immortal they asked, and I simply said my work would live on.  That would be my immortality.

                   

First chapter for a story I was throwing around for awhile.  The idea is that we were seeded by aliens long ago and now they’ve come to take over the buildings and the like we constructed.  Killing those who serve no purpose, keeping some around to ease the transition and for work not appropriate to machines.  Didn’t like the first chapter so didn’t continue with it.

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Seeds of Life

CHAPTER 1: Unnatural Disasters

University of Alabama Gene Labs 9:15 AM-March 1^st 2043

  “You’re late again Joe”, professor Alice Bates called out from beneath the glare of a large organic projector.  She has been up all evening trying to understand a peculiarity in her most recent enhanced gene samples.  A young prodigy of sorts, at the age of 28 and head of the department most of her underlings were her own former teachers.  Slightly eccentric with out of control hair she still managed to keep a somewhat trim figure.  At first the announcement of her heading the Gene Labs was met with outrage from the more senior seats at the school.  Her work was admired, as was the extra government funding she had brought to the school-yet most people found it unnerving to work for someone so fresh from receiving their PhD.  This was quickly settled when after a few weeks of working for Professor Bates people realized she was easy going for her position, not to mention the research was cutting edge.  The list of students declaring genetic theory and engineering majors tripled since she was given a chair-all in the hopes of one day working with the illustrious author of a simple paper entitled-“Accelerated Gene Evolution.”  A departure from the normal day practice of gene enhancement with code found in the current population, Bates was attempting to speed up evolution via a process similar to natural selection at a much smaller time scale.

  “Ah shucks Alice, “ Joe Allen rolled casually off his tongue.  “Here, I brought you some coffee.”  Joe walked with the quiet demeanor of confidence without the need for being pretentious.  Though not the best student, his charms took him far with the staff and he was able to land an assistant position in the lab-even being that he had been working on his doctorate for over a decade now and most thought he would never complete it.  At the age of 35 he still spent most of his nights in bars trying to impress the under classmen with intimate knowledge of the inner workings of University policies.  If anyone wanted to know how to miss a month of class or fail their mid terms and still pass, Joe was the man to go.  After buying him a few rounds of course.

  “Just what I needed Joe, I guess we can over look you’re tardiness this time around?”  Alice turned and with a wink took the warm cup into her hands.  A warm mist floated from the cup into the cool labs air that she savored with a meditative look upon her face.  Eyes gently closed as her lips pulled gently at the corner of the cup.  A small sip and than a larger near gulp followed.  Alice smiled.

  “Hope it’s not too hot Professor,” Joe spoke up eagerly hoping to make amends at his late entrance.  He had been up late the night before at a local party.  Quite the ladies man typically, he probably would have been wise to have not challenged the frat freshmen to a drinking contest.  Trying to pick up a girl while forgetting her name and spilling your drink on her new blouse is not a good way to leave an impression.  ‘Ah well, I’ll lay low for a few weeks and be back in business’-Joe thought to himself.  Though quite hung-over Joe was smart enough not to let it show to Alice.

  “Just perfect thanks, I needed that.”  Alice took another long sip and placed the coffee down on one of the few safe spots on a cluttered desk.  Pausing for a moment with a look of consternation drawing her face into a series of wrinkles she pointed at the latest data collected from the labs experiments.  “What do you think of that Joe?”

  “Another gap?”  Astonished Joe leaned forward to get a better look at the generalized sequence.  “And this time it’s in our immune system.  Hmm.  What do you think it means Professor?”

  “I’ve got no idea, but it shouldn’t be there.  It just shouldn’t be there,” was all Alice Bates said as she waved Joe off and got back to work.

  The process of causing a rapid evolution of our genetic code could never have been possible during the grey ages, now near only a bit over a decade off.  For the better part of the 21^st century religious groups began to have more and more clout over Washington.  Science funding was cut and a board of religious figures was created in Congress to oversee all scientific research.  Experiments and research were ground to a halt.  Even theorizing anything that could possible have any tones viewed as anti-religious was near banned, as no publishing companies would touch it.  Science of all kinds ground to a halt throughout the U.S. and much of the European Union.  It was hailed as the age of decency by the majority of people, but to those educated prior to this movement-was referred to as the grey ages in dark bars and back rooms.  There were no public burnings of scientists or lynch mobs.  New ideas were freely discussed where possible, but were met with ridicule from near all news outlets.  The lack of funding prevented much of anything from getting of the drawing board.  It wasn’t entirely bad.  Crime for one thing was way down.  People finally found it was their religious duty to help their fellow man and the cruelties of poverty were left to a distant age.  Eventually even some of the scientific elite found the trade off to be beneficial.  Sure, they had to go back to relatively menial jobs outside of their fields to earn a living, but humankind was better off, wasn’t it?  Even the role in the U.S. changed from one of deploying military troops abroad to sending humanitarians.  The crisis of starvation in Africa and turmoil in the Middle East was settled by American dollars reaching out to people on the most basic of level, regardless of politics.  There were no more trade embargos, and with the end of Foreign Aid forever in the shadow of Foreign Policy few people could find fault in the gestures.  Unfortunately the good will presented by the religious state, also lead to its downfall.

  Things were going so well around the world that the dream of a united and democratic Middle East came to pass in the year 2020.  Women were allowed and encouraged to pursue a higher education.  Though there was a good deal of argument opposed to democratic changes by the few fundamentalists left-without someone to hate it was easy enough to separate church and state there.  By 2030 the nations of Iran and Iraq formed a new, United Arab Council that promoted the growth of science and technology beyond that of the U.S. since the industrial revolution.  Within years if you wanted a new piece of electronics equipment or gadget it came from the Mid East.  The impact on the U.S. people, who had long felt themselves to be the leaders in all things even with their change in political persuasion, could only be described as a feeling similar to Americans hearing about Sputnik for the first time.  Outraged at their loss of place in the world a new science initiative was begun.  Schools were once more funded to provide advanced science programs for their students.  Bans on stem cells and cloning were immediately dropped, though regulation was still put in place.  Derelict colleges focusing on technology once again reopened their doors and began accepting students.  Though protests from the religious communities assailed the ears of the common person, losing their edge to a once undemocratic and savage people changed all that.  It was fine when they were being humanitarians, but not when they were equals or worse, more developed than the U.S. was.  The Grey Ages as near everyone began to consider it was written off as history in the textbooks, and another Age of Reason was upon us.   

Mars Colony Astronomy Lab 9:20 AM March 1^st 2043

  “Good God Bob what is that?”  George asked while pointing at the display for the long ranged telescope located on top of Mount Olympus.  Currently the Mars Astronomy team was attempting to catalogue the various debris spaced at the fringe of the solar system in preparation of the first robotic interstellar probe designed by humankind. 

  “What is what George?”  Replied Bob sullenly who from being so bored with this routine and menial work has taken to flipping through an old romance novel left behind by one of the secretaries.

  “Those things, right over there.  Coming out of nowhere.  Tell me that’s an error on the tracking velocity.”  Numbers were rapidly decreasing from well over the speed of light to slightly below it.  Interested now Bob put the worn book down and got to his feet. 

  “That’s impossible.”  Breathed Bob running to a terminal trying to backtrack the series of objects movements.  A visual display popped up showing the objects as first being recorded at three times the speed of light. “Okay I change that, it’s totally impossible.  This must be some sort of glitch.  I’m calling over to maintenance to see when the velocity tracking system was last calibrated.”  Still slightly puzzled but dismissive of such an unlikely finding Bob continued,     “It will be just our luck if we have to repeat the past months work because we got the wrong data.  Why don’t you head down to the mess hall and see if one of our programmers is available to check the software.  Damn, I just hope it’s the software that will save us a lot of trouble.”

  George didn’t totally buy into the whole error bit being an avid science fiction fan, but was quick to mutter a yes sir and get down to the cafeteria.  Besides, this was news and he wanted to be the one to break it.

“Hello maintenance, we seem to have a problem with one of our telescopes up here in astronomy- you know we’re on a tight schedule and would like to have someone up here right away.”  A few seconds pause and George heard Bobs frustrated voice echoing, “yes, yes, I’ll hold!” as he took the stairs three steps at a time.

Moon Base-Light Side HQ 10:32 AM March 1^st 2043

  “Earth Mission Control, this is Moon, I think we have a problem.”  The radio technician said in as steady a voice he could manage.  Moments ago a horde of large spherical objects glided over the Moons recreation hall during a Low Gravity Basket Ball tournament between the scientists and the techies.  In mid air the favored Janet from mining crew simply let the ball go as she soared ever higher, staring straight up.  Puzzled the audience who had been cheering her on to Janet’s fifth 30 ft dunk of the game followed her eye movements and gasped almost as one.  For moments they were paralyzed even after the objects had passed on by, until one man realized the enormity of the situation and began to run and bounce his way to moon head quarters.

  At first the people on Earth ground thought it was an elaborate hoax.  Even went so far as to say, “and look moon base Santa Clause and his reindeer are currently passing by Jupiter”-still a popular figure, even though rarely anyone celebrated Christmas anymore.  This comment caused half of mission control to laugh loudly till the ring of electronic tracking beeps rang loudly through the room.  “Oh my god, he’s not kidding,” one person managed to get out as they dropped their coffee mug to a shattering silence on the floor.

  All over the earth these great metal spheres took on an equally spaced orbit, more even than there were satellites in the sky.  What was in their way was somehow pushed out of the spheres way by some unknown force as easily as one might blow on a hanging spider.  All over the earth people stood transfixed as satellites came burning down as if some rain of comets. 

  “Earth Mission Control, come in.  One of the spheres is moving close to where the international space station is.  It’s being pushed down, towards earth.”

   A series of maydays and yells were now pouring into Earth Mission Control from the space station as horrified people felt the wretch of gravity take hold on their little orbiting home.  Everyone stood stunned without anything to say as the fevered pitch of the astronauts aboard the space stations screams for help was replaced with a dry hiss of static.  Broken up high in the atmosphere only a few people saw the explosion as rocket fuel broke free in a large trail, quickly ignited by the surrounding oxygen.  They were too busy looking skywards at the now visible from earth glittering silver spheres above them.

  “There were over 50 people aboard the International Space Station, including children.”  The mission commander claimed solemnly as he bent over and began to sob.  One of those kids who died was his only child.  Ever since his fourth birthday he had been promised a trip to space one day. 

University of Alabama Gene Labs 10:40 AM March 1^st 2043

  “This just doesn’t add up!”  Exclaimed Professor Alice Bates comparing the gene sequences for intelligence and immune system with the other figures for body length and organ function.  It became a known fact that mutations didn’t suddenly pop up in a single generation and then slowly diffuse to the rest of the population over time, well known even before the Grey Ages.  The current theory stands that the actual mechanics of the mutation begins long before it is even remotely expressed in a given population.  Then just given time it will eventually emerge in a small sub-sample of those with the genetic markers.  Over a course of several generations it will become more present until whether selected upon or not-it will recede into the history of our genetic code.  Evolution will continue for hundreds of generations, even with no outside force acting upon it.  Her PhD paper, “Accelerated Gene Evolution” was totally dependent upon this theory and so far it has been panning out.  It was a method of speeding up the process to see where humanity was going without having to live several thousand years in order to see it.  New mutations may not arise in the course of the study, but ones that have already begun should be present and refined from one generation to the next.  In her experiments she takes the DNA from a fertilized egg, clones it and inserts it into another unfertilized egg.  Thereby limiting the age of a generation to about three days.  With gene sequencing and smart programs she can then extrapolate into a computer model what the embryo would look like as an adult, as well as its organs and even down to individual cells.  What doesn’t make sense is that according to this method, ten generations from now human beings will cease developing a better brain or immune system.  If the research was flawed, there shouldn’t still be results on everything from skin pigment to finger length.

  Staring Alice in the face were two highlighted bars that should be continuous.  In the middle a large gap appears where brain functioning and immune system responses were listed.  She’s been here several times over already, thinking at first it was a rare disorder that cropped up from one of the generations she ran through-but it isn’t possible.  ‘There is definitely something going on here’, Alice thinks firmly to herself.

  “Professor, Professor you have to come see this!” One of the assistants burst into the lab calling out. 

  “I’m over here, what is it?”  Alice says waving the young girl over whose name was forgotten several times over.

  “It’s, I can’t explain it.  Please just come outside-the whole school is there.”

  ‘The whole school, well I could use a break from staring at the screen.  No matter how long I look at it, nothings going to change,’ thinks Alice as she stands up to get herself a fresh cup of coffee.

  “Okay I’ll be right out, just let me get some coffee first.”

 

      

 

Two short chapters for a story I was playing with about a group of people leaving earth because it was too violent.  My writing needs a lot of work but hell it’s good for the soul.  Partially inspired by Atlas Shrugged’s idea on a group of people forming their own society while the rest of the world decayed around them.

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Left Behind

Chapter 1: Before the Storm

  Bob awoke to a splitting headache and a roaring alarm clock.  Turning over he rolled out of bed as he turned over the night before.  Too much drink, too much celebration- for tomorrow we might die.  The old drinking mantra of people everywhere.  ‘Perhaps it’s that the hangover makes us wish for death’, Bob thinks sarcastically to himself while pulling on a wool robe.  Finding only one slipper during a quick search he makes his way unsteadily to the kitchen.

  “Coffee strong”, he calls out before telling the lights to come on dim.  Waiting for the coffee to brew, Bob reclines in front of the television and sighs for a second before calling up the news reports.  He knows it will be the same as every day, skirmishes in the demilitarized zones that wrap like hundred mile long canyons across the globe.  At least the great wars were over.  The world’s been at war so long no one really remembers why, or at least the reasons they started no longer exist.

  They first called it the century war.  One hundred years of raids, land falling-then being recovered by the losing party.  Lost again to a civil war.  When battles are on all fronts it isn’t easy to target an enemy.  A few nukes were used, but they weren’t effective very late into the game.  Large nations had quickly broken up into smaller states, the day of a large centralized army were history.  Each small state had too much need for the resources, and the lands of invaded territories, they couldn’t risk destroying it.  Eventually major corporations won out as the movers of the world-they grew proportionately to the diversifying political bodies.  It’s an irony that with modern technology most resources can be reproduced, or have an alternative version created in a lab.  Still the political bodies, near impotent now continue to act as if they have reason to exist-even if they are more controlled by the major corporations than kids viewing toy advertisements on television.  What good is controlling an oil well or any natural resource when the same product can be churned out cheaper from small factories?  Once corporations grew to the point of having greater capital than the nation-states it was basically over.  Yet politics still comes into play even when it’s meaningless. 

  ‘Good thing Unity Corp keeps politics out of here,’ Bob thinks to himself while puzzling over images of the short-lived battles that took place the night before.  Unity Corp is to corporations what the U.N. shortly was for the world before the century war began.  The conglomeration of businesses formed out of necessity, it was either work together or set the city-states off on one another.  War is only good for business so long as nations could afford it, and by the time Unity Corp formed-nobody could.

  Bob crosses to his high tower window and gazes out upon the ruins below.  Sipping his by now brewed coffee, he can’t help but to think of where they went.  For as far as the eye can see half dismantled highways and great buildings dot the landscape.  A garden emerges here and there to serve as reminder of human origins.  The several hundred-mile once city is under the protection of Unity Corp, and only a few are allowed to enter.  The whole nation sized city is considered an archaeology dig-though is in all honesty treated more as a treasure map.  Most modern technology has emerged from these ruins, left behind accidentally by the Humanists.

  The Humanists emerged early during World War Three.  The whole globe had erupted into a firestorm.  One of the first major civil wars, while the United States was busy with battles overseas the Humanists seized the Northeastern States in a bloodless coup.  Martial law had long been declared for the war effort, but local elections had still been tolerated.  After strategically placing their own in key positions overseeing several important missile silos, a standstill was reached where they were left to their own devices.  Press releases by the United States made it clear they would deal with the Humanist party when they had the opportunity to do so, but the opportunity never came.  After several migrations of people to the Humanist controlled territories the borders were closed and little information emerged about them.  With their arsenal of seized weaponry, and after the large governments were broken up, it would have been foolhardy to challenge them in a direct engagement.  Besides that, they were remote and didn’t become involved in outside conflicts.  This was still early on before Unity Corp formed and quieted down the warring nations.  About twenty years ago the Humanists broke their silence and issued one press release to the worlds media networks, that they would no longer share a world at war and were going to head to a new world.  While the rest of the world had been busy at arms, the Humanists had developed technologically to unprecedented levels.  Truly many of the greatest minds immigrated to the Humanist controlled Americas rather than be drafted into military service.  Within an hour of the press release, several giant ships powered by unknown means rose up out of their hidden nests and took to the sky.  The power vacuum left the perfect opportunity for invasion, but before a day had passed several explosions rocketed from the formal Humanist territories.  They had essentially destroyed any technology or weapon that would be of any use by those they had left behind-except for the few the Unity Corp archaeologists managed to uncover. 

  No one knew where the Humanists have gone.  Many damned them for leaving a world at war when they had the power to stop it.  Rather than simply taking over or forming a new world government, they left us behind to kill each other in suicidal pointless conflicts.  They could have given the people the technologies to stop the reasons for the war, but instead they simply left.  It took a decade longer for the corporations to have enough power to essentially put World War 3 in a state of perpetual controlled conflict, but by then millions had already died. 

  ‘And I’m supposed to be the one that finds them’, Bob glances down at his coffee cup then back at the city before him.  This time however not taking in the buildings and roads, this time he stares at the cloud-covered sky. 

——————-

Left Behind

Chapter 2-Waving GoodBye-2070

  President Samantha Carter paced impatiently in her office waiting for the message that preparations to get underway were ready.  The office was actually a small room near the bridge of the ship Icarus bordering that of the captains.  It has been the Presidents office since plans to leave the earth were put into works ten years ago under then president Daniels.  Thankfully by the time she had taken office, most of the work on Icarus was complete, but still she was thankful for the thick walls that offered a moment of escape from busyness when the door was closed. 

  A brief knock and an airlock hiss and the presidential office opened to let a well-dressed officer enter.  The Humanists were not much on costumes, for it reminded them too much of the militaristic culture they wished to get away from.  Normal attire was desired, save for slight pyramid shaped clothes on their shoulder to designate office.  His was black, the highest a non-elected official can wear-it was Captain David Johnson at the door.  Personally hand picked from the flight pilots to handle the Presidents lead vessel-and a close personal friend.

  “What a surprise David, to what do I owe this pleasure?” Samantha asks as if nothing was going on today.  Before the startled Captain has time to reply she raises an eyebrow and asks, “care for a seat and some drink?” 

  “On any other day President it would be an honor however …”.

  “Oh, straight to business I see.  I guess it can’t be avoided.  It’s a shame that all pleasantries have to be put on hold for such important matters.  Sometimes I think we’re little different than the savages who are destroying this planet.”

  “Surely you jest Madam, to compare our great undertaking with waging unjust wars and wasting resources for murder.”

  Samantha Carter holds up one hand to silence her wounded friend.  “Of course, you know that I wasn’t a big fan of this voyage of ours-but as time has passed and still the nations around us battle it has become increasingly clear this is our only option.”  Pausing for breath the president turns from her captain and gazes at a picture on the wall.  It’s of one of the first photographs of earth from high orbit.  “Times were simpler then weren’t they David?  People looked towards the heavens for answers, not ground beneath their feet.”  Turning back towards the stalwart Captain, “It would only be a matter of time before our own society would be at risk.  I do know the currents of dissent amongst the Humanists who want to get involved, thinking that we can do something to stop the wars.”  Looking the captain in the eye almost pleadingly for agreement, “and if we got involved it would change what we’ve been trying to do this past half century.  Go ahead Captain, give me the good news.”

  Standing almost as if in salute the Captain simple states, “We’re ready to get underway Ms. President.”

  “Very good then, I guess I’ll make my radio address.”

  As the Captain heads back out the door towards the bridge the president silently adds, “think we’ll be back one day?”

  “A better question Ms. President; is will there be anything to come back to.”  For a moment the office doors let in the hurried preparations as random people run back and forth calling to each other.  When they close Samantha calmly reaches for her notes and switches on the intercom.

  “I’m ready for the address, please patch me into the world media network”, she voices into the speaker set beside her.

  “Just a moment please madam president, I’m attempting to hijack the signal now,” the communication officer says with all deliberate reverence. 

  Within the half buried walls of the Icarus a series of encoded transmissions are bounced from one satellite to the next.  “Piece of cake,” mutters the communications Officer as he plugs in the hijack protocol made just for this purpose.  Several popular sitcoms and even more popular real time war broadcasts are suddenly turned to black screens.  The humanist logo of a human head surrounded by a ring of stars takes over billions of television screens around the world.  Radios, even those by military personnel are coated in hissing static.  “Ready when you are President.”

  Samantha collects herself and turns to face the mounted camera on the wall, trusting that the video techs will add in a proper background. 

  “People of earth.  We only interrupt your daily activities for a moment to give word of our leaving.  As you may or may not be aware, I am President Elect Carter for the Humanist controlled territories.  Your constant warfare stands as a direct threat to our way of life.  We will no longer sit by and wait for you to self-destruct and quite probably take us with you.  I hope, no I pray-that one day we can rejoin our fellow humans on earth and in the stars.  Until they day, I can only ask of you to think on what you are doing to yourself.  Human societies on earth have become stagnant due to the constant war.  Where once we looked towards the future, now you obsess over the past.  We will carry humanities legacy onward to the stars.  While you may die, be assured that the human race will live on.”

  Samantha gives the cut video signal and the world around them resumes its misbegotten pace.  ‘Perhaps that last bit was a bit harsh’, the president thinks to herself, but knows it’s what resides in her heart. 

  “All hands brace for take off.”  Blares over the intercom as ship wide lights dim and a brief reoccurring orange pulse echoes off each video screen.  The Icarus shudders as the surrounding earth is flung off violently.  After that first few minutes the craft is as calm as if it never left the ground.  Hovering over the Humanist territories several hundred similar craft rise to meet the Icarus.  Cheers erupt throughout the population holds as the moment they’ve been working on comes to life.  Knowing what is about to come, Samantha makes her way to her chair and pulls the soft harness around her, buckling in for the moment of zero-G that will happen when breaking earth orbit.  She had some training in zero-G simulators but is mildly concerned about the other 18 million humanists who did not. 

  “We will enter zero-G roll over in three minutes.  Please make arrangements.”  The intercom again interjects into the president’s thoughts.  ‘Just three minutes to say good-bye to earth’, Samantha tries to think of something noble but all she can think of is what is left behind.  Her childhood home, however many extended family members currently in war zones, the great Humanist city her people had slowly built up and put so much effort in.  The city stood as a monument to the Humanist ingenuity, the largest ever constructed-a city that had to be mostly destroyed.  Samantha herself had originated the plan.  At first her cabinet had been horrified, ‘destroy the city?  Never!’  It was at that moment, Samantha decides, that most of the Humanist leaders realized that they were truly leaving.  It was rational and made sense.  While the rest of the world had decayed the Humanists had driven onward.  ‘Our technology would only cause more harm to the people, while we used it for good-they would use it to kill.’  Samantha remembers those impassioned pleas.  Some amongst her cabinet felt technology was a solution; sympathizers who felt the Humanists should stay behind.  ‘Old habits die hard, even if we ended their dependency on old technologies and resources they would still find reasons to make war.  It might not be new reasons, but they’d certainly sustain old ones.’  An answer only half-felt President Samantha offered, but it was enough.  The cabinet agreed and set explosives throughout the city.  Public announcements were made reminding people to take any form of technology either with them or to a proper disposal site.  It was accepted they could not totally wipe their city clean, but it was a risk they would have to take.

  “Breaking the atmosphere, one minute for ship roll.”  The intercom didn’t have to tell Samantha who suddenly felt her lunch do summersaults in her stomach.  Papers and pens hovered over her desk and the President mentally kicks herself for not putting everything away.  ‘ah well, you can’t think of everything’, she cajoles herself.  The ship is about to enter a roll to induce gravity, it wouldn’t be as strong as Earths, but it would be enough to keep people healthy.  Much time and effort had been put into artificial gravity devices, but nothing useful had panned out.  The best ideas would have required far too strong of an electromagnetic field, not to mention the health risk posed by anyone even within one for a brief interval.  Research as always was ongoing, but it was clearly not going to be in time. 

  “We’re clear of the Earth.  Congratulations everybody and job well done,” this time the Captains voice echoed over the system.  Removing the buckle and harness the President gains her balance and heads onto the deck of the ship.  Past her door two Security officers ask her if she needs a hand and she gently waves no.  Emerging on the deck the main window shows the earth below, Samantha can’t help but think of how much it reminds her of the old 1960’s photo in her office.

  “Welcome to the deck of the Icarus President Samantha, I hope you found the take off successful,” the Captain turns and bows to the President.

  “It was, unique Captain.”

  The Captain turns towards the communications station; “Put me on fleet wide.”  After a brief pause, “All ships, set sail for the Haven.”

      

 

First chapter kinda of a story I was toying with.  I wanted to make it like harry potter sort of but with a sci fi twist.  At the creek they would stumble on a broken down UFO and accidentally set it to the return destination while a young alien girl who was unconscious wakes up during the trip back.  They end up saving the alien homeword of course.

———————————————————————————————-

Chapter 1-School Yard

“Hey give it back,” shouted Gaby Miller as three bullies tossed her backpack around as if it were a ball.  At first she had run around in circles but quickly tired of their shenanigans and now stood before the leader of the troublemakers Tom.  “I’m going to tell Ms. Griffin on you and you’ll get detention for sure!” 

  “Hey look guys, seems like Gaby is a tattle-tail.”  The ruffian’s friends found this amusing and began to sneer, “Gaby is a tattle-tail, Gaby is a tattle-tail” repeatedly.  To make matters worse a crowd began to gather on Middleton’s playground adding to Gaby’s embarrassment at not being able to handle the situation.  It was still only halfway through recess and knowing the small gang they would not relent until absolutely necessary- even if it meant being late to class.

  “Oh that’s really funny picking on a girl like that, but I guess you really just want a pink backpack like hers,” a voice called from the crowds.  Turning the laughter at the bullies.  Gaby recognized the voice as her brother’s goofy friend David.  “Maybe you’d like a pretty hairclip in your hair too.”

  “Shut your mouth Davie or we’ll shut if for you!” Tom yelled.  One of the bullies temporarily distracted, dropped the backpack.  Gaby quickly snatched it up, but worried about David stayed around. 

  “You and what army?  Why should I have to worry about a bunch of thugs who pick on girls?”  Coming from a boy the same age of the bullies, this might have impressed more on them than it did.  Unfortunately David always had more mouth than muscle.  Infuriated the bullies rushed at David.

  “We only thought she was more of a challenge,” Tom claimed while pushing David back so hard he fell onto the ground.  Tom’s friends laughed at this while David struggled to regain his feet and his dignity.  “Don’t want to stay down, maybe I’ll have to push you a bit harder this time.”  The bully was about to carry through with his threat when a hand grabbed the bully’s shoulder and turned him around.  It was Gaby’s brother Chris.

  “Come on Tom, haven’t you been in enough trouble this year.  Lay off David and go back to stepping on ants or something.”  Though not much bigger than David, Chris was generally well liked by most people and knew how to keep his head.  Too bad Tom wasn’t one to take good advice very well. 

  “Well if it isn’t the teachers pet Chris,” Tom remarked so all could hear.  Tom had wanted to take Chris down a peg or two for years now.  They used to be close friends, but since elementary school something had happened.  It was whispered that Tom was jealous of Chris, only whispered because Tom was quick to anger and didn’t care about getting in trouble.

  “Okay, you got your joke in.  See even I think it’s funny.  Ha-ha.  Now will you kindly let us walk away so we don’t all get in trouble”, Chris was reasonable and expected other people to be the same. 

  Tom made as if to punch Chris, but when Chris didn’t even flinch this made Tom even angrier than before.  “I’m going to make you sorry for getting in my way!” Tom yelled losing control of himself.  The bully took all his energy into a wildly swung punch that Chris easily sidestepped.  The playground kids found this funny and laughed out loud.  There was little doubt that Tom’s efforts in this matter were going to increase ten-fold when Ms. Griffon drawn by the commotion intervened. 

  “And what is going on here young men?” asked the veteran teacher as she pulled up between the two of them.  Turning around hastily she told the other kids that there was nothing to see here and that they better find something else to look at or she’d find something for them to do.  The kids had heard and experienced this threat before, which usually amounted to extra reading for homework.  It didn’t take them long to leave the area. 

  “Thomas stole my backpack Ms. Griffon and when David tried to do something about it the bully pushed him down.”  Gaby reported honestly.

  “That’s a lie, I didn’t push anyone.”

  “And what was your involvement in this Chris?”  Ms. Griffon’s boney purple spectacles slid down her long nose, as she looked his way.

  “Just trying to speak some sense into Tom Ms. Griffon.  Didn’t mean any harm by it.”  Chris paused knowing that most likely they’d all be punished if one of them were.  Schools were funny that way.  The victim is viewed as almost as much of a problem as the victimizer.  Didn’t they realize running to get a teacher wasn’t always an option?  Chris spoke up hoping to interrupt any thought the teacher had of punishing the whole lot of them.  “It really wasn’t anything, harmless even.  We were just playing around weren’t we Tom?”

  Ms. Griffon shaking her head turned to face the bully.  “Is what Chris said true?”

  Tom was surely biting his tongue and his face was red as an apple but he managed to mutter, “aye” in accent. 

  “Good then.  I don’t want to hear any more on this matter or detentions all around.”

  “Yes Ms. Griffon”, they all spoke as one.

  Tom stumbled off to find his cronies while Ms. Griffon remained to talk with the young children. 

  “You all should know better than to hang around that boy,” Ms. Griffon sternly spoke.  “It’s not just that he’s a trouble maker, it’s that he needs someone to make trouble with.  See that you avoid being that person in the future.”

  “But he started it!” Gaby asserted feeling betrayed that they were the ones being lectured.

  Taking on a softer note the teacher bent over to speak with Gaby.  “Between us, I’m sure he did.  And he surely does deserve punishment.  But if I did that I’d have to punish your brother too.  Your brother doesn’t need a lesson and Thomas wouldn’t learn from it.”

  Ms. Griffon rises up and speaking louder she said, “and that’s all I want to hear about it.  Recess is almost over and I suggest you children get to class.”  Without waiting for a response the teacher walks towards the building.  Taking a moment to tell some other kid not to litter.

  When the teacher was gone Gaby muttered, “I really hate that boy.”

  David nodded his agreement but Chris just stood there with a troubled look on his face.  “Sis, I understand you’re angry-heck I’m angry too, but hating him won’t solve anything.”

  “But he threw a punch at you, he could have broken your nose or worse.”

  “I have to agree with your sister on that one, you should have shown him a thing or two,” said David.

  “And he would have come back later to show me a thing or two more.  I might know how to fight, but that doesn’t mean I’m always going to or that I want to.  Tom has problems in his life.  Hopefully one day he’ll grow out of them.  I just don’t want the two of you hating someone for something they cannot help.”  Chris turned to his little sister and gave her a quick hug.  “You’re my sister and I want to protect you.  Not just from creeps like Tom but also from yourself.  Hating your enemy will get you nowhere, understanding him will.”  Turning towards David, Chris adds.  “And you’re my best friend.  Let’s just think about what we’re going to do after school today.”

  “How about the old creek?  We haven’t been there in a long time, sure video games are fun and all but I’d like to climb some trees,” said David.

  “Sounds great.  We can stop by my house and grab some snacks on the way.  Sound good to you sis?” Chris asked.

  “I’ll fix us some sandwiches, sure it’ll be fun.”  Gaby replied getting into the idea.

  The warning bell trumpeted across the playground, saying in fewer words that class was about to begin again.

  “We’ll I’ll see you all after school.  I can’t be late to art again.”  Chris called back to them already jogging to his class.

  David and Gaby walked more sedately towards the school not saying much at all.  Before going inside Gaby turned to David and said, “I really appreciate you trying to help me back there.” 

  David looked away from Gaby and quietly said it was nothing.  Gaby knew that it was her brother who really got her and David out of the jam-but also knew it took courage for David to stick up to the bullies.

  “Well see you after school then David!  Thanks again.”  Gaby went to her class leaving David shaking his head.  ‘Did I really stand up for her?’ he asked himself.  ‘Nah, just wanted to make fun of that jerk.’ David decided not wanting to see himself as some type of hero.

 

   

It seems that the universe is heavier than it should be and that it is also expanding at an ever increasing rate.  So we claim that some unseen matter called dark matter is responsible.  One thing that stands in the way of this claim is that further away (and therefore back in time) galaxies are forming much faster than they should have following the big bang- this throws a number of assumptions about the early universe into doubt.

I’m not certain how often this is looked into, but I for one believe it is probable that a mass can be counted several times over in the overall ‘weight’ of the universe.  If two objects approach each other in space at some point in time before impact they will shift on some shared axis.  They will behave as a single mass rather than two unique masses.  Could masses be counted multiple times in the universe?  The individual mass of an object, the total mass a solar system, the total mass of a galaxy- and finally the universe.  If not in real mass than in how gravitational systems work?  Is gravity a localized force or could it be shared throughout a larger system?  There are some experiments that allow for a mass to exist in two places at one time until it ’snaps’ back into place- the more mass the faster this occurs.  At some point in time before physical impact two objects will behave as both individuals and as one depending on how close their masses are and relative velocity.  If a mass can exert its gravity multiple times it would display a behavior similar to if it had more mass.  Most of an atom is empty space, yet it has a gravitational weight- and at the same time the individual particles within the atom have weight.  Do these have to be the same force, or could the ’system’ act as a seperate weight altogether?  Could the solar system behave as one large mass with just a lot of empty space between planets?  Could a galaxy, the universe?  In which case we would have several times the real masses seeming to interact at one time.

I don’t like the conventional model of an object having mass and therefore gravitational force.  I like a step up model where you begin with the planets which are relative to themselves and then to surrounding space (the solar system) rather than to each other.  Next would be the solar system is relative to itself and surrounding space which would be the galaxy- rather than other solar systems.  And finally the universe which could only be relative to itself.

It’s a weak argument as I stated it, but I do think there are many plausible alternatives for theories on why the universe should ‘weigh’ more than it does.  And if a model such as I suggested does occur it might explain the missing weight.  The mass simply works in more than one place at a time.  A cup on earth has a gravitational pull, but it also adds to the gravitational pull on the moon and surrounding space.  It doesn’t have to be unique.  If it is simply a cumulative effect rather than being distorted and made a part of the earths total mass then it would be possible to see a ‘gravitational’ field and make out objects upon it based on the shape of the field.  That it would not be evenly distributed rather than a fairly even increasing sphere.  Another note on that topic, if the earths gravitational field is merely made up by the various masses on and under the surface- then is there a limit to how many gravitational fields that can exist in one space at one time.  Simiarly is there a limit to how much mass can exist in one space at one time.  I find the argument for ’self-relativity’ more userfriendly.  The earth is relative to itself, that is everything that makes up the earth and then is relative to surrounding space.  Something closely linked to mass or gravity bends space to create dimension.  Personally I think this is a left over effect of preventing two particles from occupying the same space at the same time in a super condensed universe where it would become increasingly likely.  I use the term self relativity often when trying to figure out what happens to an object approaching the speed of light- that it becomes increasingly relative to itself.  The ‘warp’ of space is bent back to where the object was at the last moment in space time.  The object would view that as a point closer by than surrounding space and would be more impacted by it’s previous gravitational field than that of surrounding space.  An example I use to this is if you’re driving down a road with letters on it and were currently on the letter C- it would take more time/energy to stop at C than to stop at D or further down the road.  If everything in the universe is in motion- one could extrapolate that to imply that point D and point B (depending on trajetory and momentum) are actually closer to the object at motion than the point it actually is.  You can break it down further and further as needed for slower and slower velocities but it would remain valid.  However, my thought is that when you approach fast enough speeds- the point C actually becomes closer.

  Dogs are going nuts and I think I’ve posted about this before.   Peace to any who reads this and let me know if it’s way off the wall.  I do think the concept of self relativity and that a mass can theoretically run into itself deserves to be looked into more- but the rest of it is more sci fi than anything else.

I’ve been thinking of Jung often lately even though I have not given his ideas much serious thought in the past.  In fact I am uncertain whether he has addressed this issue or not.  The collective conciousness, does it pertain to groups that have not had any interaction as well as groups that interact?  Could all human conflict be defined as the merging of seperate collective conciousness, could interpersonal relationships be defined in this same setting?  Rather than a bottom up approach to defining social psychology- could it be defined better from society down to the family unit and two people interacting?

The thought struck me while wondering how similar or different we would be with aliens amongst the billions and billions (thank you sagan) of stars in the sky.  Would we share similar ideas and desires?  Is conflict inevitable (or at least the preparation for it, the M.A.D. mentality that seems to guide so much of our political world)?  The idea of some collective conciousness seemed, at the time, best for trying to understand how human beings would react to a truly distinct intelligence-and it is something that has occured and will continue to occur on Earth.

Perhaps Jung deserves more credit than I used to consider his ideas, a mix of mysticism and the occult with a flash of reason.  Most of our words we use to express the world around us are just that, words.  Is it truly that abstract to define creation as a word spoken upon the earth or some great sneeze?  For most people this is enough, the idea that there was a ’start’ brings some sense of order and the platform from which to develop more specialized ideas.  Information is transferred between people, I’ve given a good deal of thought to the emergence of new ideas in the past.  Perhaps there is some critical structure to the collective conciousness that all human societies share-some division in the task of "group thought" that is orderly divided in proportion throughout society.  Perhaps this is connected to the roles and jobs people in society take on.  Is the job of priest relatively even in proportion to most societies in the past?  The job of hunters and warriors?  Artisans?  How does it shift and how do societies deal with increased specialization.  Are these simply extensions of very basic and primitive social functions that occur in the most basic of cultures-or are there truly "new" occupations or ordered thinking that have suddenly emerged as society reaches a certain point. 

There is still the question of the role genetics would play on our entire social consciousness-but perhaps the social conciousness is something that is apart from our genetic makeup, or it even is a driving force behind our genes and our physical evolution.  A program that is more than the sum of its parts, like human consciousness itself.  If that is the case, we may share more with any form of consciousness we may one day encounter than not.

At any rate, the view that all intergroup interactions in society is a form of merging consciousness provides a foundation for understanding the role of ideas in society and how they can come into conflict with one another.  The need for a ‘creator’ or a ‘driving purpose’ in some form is of course a critical one.  Various ideas emerged and were defeated in a closed group until one proved superior and took hold.  As different groups interact this same conflict reoccurs as a global conciousness seeks balance.  The democratic notion of accepting different beliefs and varied cultures co-existing would have required a merging of social consciousnesses. 

I’ve been reading a lot about the state of health care in the U.S. as well as still seeing the occasional news report on it.  Several things are disturbing, including the rise of DTC (direct to consumer) marketing of drug companies, the change from University run trials of drugs to private paid groups doing it, and the lack of requirement for full disclosure in medical journals on clinical trials.  One of the ideas that keeps making more and more sense to me is allowing workers to get their own health care versus the traditional company route.  Employees would get the money that would otherwise go towards the company health care plan to use themselves.  One report I heard the other night is that the average income in the U.S. is $18/hr with an added $6-$8 an hour going towards company health care.  Individuals would be able to tailor their own health care programs to meet their own needs and personal risks.  Health care companies would have to focus more on customer relations and individual needs versus a group policy/business oriented approach.  Of course I still think health care needs to be provided at an adequate level to people below a certain income line, the elderly, and especially people under 18 years of age.  I am against socializing our health care system because I believe that it still generates a good deal of money for the U.S. economy.  Competition should drive down cost of health care, but business health care plans versus individual health care plans involves different interests.  This of course would only be half the battle.  Drug prices also need to be controlled and I think we should expand the role of specialized nurses for people suffering from minor ailments.  For free health care service due to income there needs to be more restrictions on monetairy rewards for all but gross negligence- I personally favor the professional jury comprised of health care workers to oversee such a process.  More drugs should be available over the counter.  There is no reason that the most commonly prescribed antibiotics should not be sold over the counter, especially when it is already done in most developed nations.  The more powerful antibiotics of course should still be by prescription only, but it makes no sense to restrict access to an antibiotic where if resistent bacteria emerges in one part of the world or due to overprescription here- the regulation wouldn’t make a pinch of difference.  Another problem as I see it stems from the war on drugs.  When Doctors have to worry about their medical liscences it impacts the liklihood of them prescribing it for the patients who need it.  There are several staggering estimates on the number of americans who live in pain that could be managed with access to medicines- often opiates, which when taken properly, are safer for people than even aspirin is.  To kill two birds with one stones, and this has been an idea brought up by others- regulate poppy production in Afghanistan to go towards medically sound pain killers.  The only real difference between opiates created synthetically in a lab and opiates refined directly from opiate producing poppies-is about several dollars per pill.  It would generate a local industry in Afghanistan, help curtail the influence of terrorists and drug cartels in Afghanistan and around the world, and give farmers a similar level of income without the risk involved from state and cartels in growing the poppies illegally.

Other good ideas that I have heard is to stop direct to consumer marketing.  In the U.S., people have about an 80% chance of getting a drug prescribed they ask for by name.  This is compared with about 40 some percent in most developed nations where drug advertising is not allowed.  People die younger in the U.S. than in much of the developed world, while we may have good health care service it isn’t always the service that is best for us.  Doctors in the U.S. are much less likely to talk about lifestyle changes versus in most developed nations, and much more likely to prescribe a drug.  Rather than seriously working on a change of diet for high cholestoral-people in the U.S. are more likely to get a drug to take care of the problem.  We are over medicated all across the spectrum.  Kids get drugs to keep them from acting like kids, people are kept on psychological medications for years at a time.  We glorify drugs on one hand and blast them on the other.  Both causes harm to us, as it keeps people from the medications that should be using and on the ones they should not.  Vioxx and similar drugs are thought to have caused up to 50 heart attacks a day in the U.S., yet they were hailed as salvation simply because potential for abuse was low compared to opiates.  Some people might abuse oxycontin, but overall that drug and ones like it are much safer for people.  The DEA should not be involved in medical affairs.  The fact that a few people may abuse a substance should not mean the rest of us should suffer.  This goes as much for medical marijuana as it does for opiates for people living in constant pain and the host of other drugs that work, but aren’t used because people might abuse them.

 

For awhile now I’ve been toying with the idea of using artificial gasses (collection of soft metals) influenced by a magnetic field to heat up air.  Originally I was playing around with the notion of use in hover crafts or some similar technology.  The artificial gas would not have to be contained and the acceleration of the air into the chamber would be minimal compared to the velocity of the air exiting it.  However it was pointed out to me that this would require more energy than conventional methods.

Later, while discussing windmill technologies-I came across the premise that the perfect windmill (one that would absorb all possible energy from the air) would create a vacuum.  Albeit a small and temporary one.  Though the perfect windmill is most likely an impossibility at any near time in the future it made me appreciate how great vacuums could be in generating a much greater amount of energy than windmills do.  I imagined a device, roughly in sphere with several dozens of layers of very small electric generating fans.  Placed in the middle of a collapsing vacuum the onrush of air would generate much more energy than a much large windmill blade even given the greater volume of air.  Not to mention if placed right the displacement of air into the vacuum would be evenly distributed so as to maximize energy yield.  The energy requirement of creating a vacuum however, is again greater than the energy yield.

So I started thinking that if it were possible to create a bubble, that was basically filled with a vacuum and would exist momentarily before collapsing-it would drastically cut back on the power requirements.  If the bubble was responsive to an electric static filled, and the artificial soft metal gas (manipulated by a magnetic field to behave like air) could maintain and cause the bubble to expand.  A powerful magnet at the center then could turn on and pull the soft metal artificial gas back to the center faster than the bubble collapses.  The rapid diffusion of air into the new vacuum would then hopefully generate more energy then was required creating the vacuum in the first place-since the real energy would be generated by air that is already present around us it wouldn’t violate a conservation of energy law.

Of course this may not be feasible or practical at all.  However the idea of creating vacuums using an artificial gas that can be virtually destroyed on a seconds notice could have a wide range of applications.  Used in a mixture of some combustable gas could influence the direction and rate of reaction.  It could depending on conditions-one day hold back liquids generating areas of no pressure deep underwater.  The ability of an artificial gas, possibly even a liquid that can be turned off and on with a magnetic field rather than cooling or heating it (or pumping it out) could have an impact on how we produce electricity and chemical reactions.

Here are a collection of terms to the best of my knowledge I have either invented or use differently.  Some may already be in use though a few are probably original.

Social Prompting:  The necessary background knowledge that must be present in society before a new idea can emerge.  Example:  Einstein required social prompting before he could formulate his ideas on relativity.  If he was born centuries ago it is probable that he would have done some work on underlying principles in physics, however he could not have done all the work himeself.  It would be akin to reinventing the english langugage.  The principle can be derivitive of the notion that there is no original thought.  All ideas emerged from inspiration by nature and mutated or evolved into more complex forms.  If a thought was truly original it could not be remembered for we need some form of definition in order to store and recall a memory.

Enlightened Anarchy:  The recognition that if a law remained a law long enough it would no longer be necessary to be a law.  On a biological basis evolution would cause any penalized law that affected reproduction to become codified in our genetic makeup.  From a natural law stand point all true laws are based on some environmental influence and we are merely replacing the natural outcome with an artificial one for the benefit of society at large.  An example of this would be smacking a childs hand away from a hot stove.  The natural outcome would be that the childs hand is burned.  The social law is a lesser punishment of the hand being smacked.  Natural laws should not be confused with racist agendas which are inately flawed as the greatest benefit to human kind is the ability to better one another through invention and idea (if i was being chased by a lion I would prefer a gun to good genes).  Enlightened anarchy can also be achieved by knowledge if one subscribes to various game theories, memes, and psycho-linguistics.  Society innoculates itself over time to certain behaviors that are detrimental to society as a whole.  Activities that were acceptable generations ago are frowned upon at the least.  It is important to note however that there is a distinction between laws that are present with or without codification and those that are man made.  All forms of penalized laws have an impact on our genetic makeup so long as reproduction rates are lowered.

Intelligences role in evolution:  The idea that intelligence plays an equal role in evolution that biological based instinct and natural selection does.  A better term could be artificial selection.  In this instance any form of memory or learned behavior would qualify as intelligence.  It should be taken on seperate account because it can influence or counter influence natural selection.  A simple example is with human beings selecting traits that are also being selected upon by nature.  Evolution that could have taken tens of thousands of years by a low percentage rate of deaths in a generation can be sped up due to artificial selection.  The same is present in the animal kingdom whenever there is not a direct connection between a reproductive outcome (death) and a specific trait.

Self-Relativity: The idea that a specific object has the same basic laws placed upon being relative to itself as it is surrounding space.  Further the object can become more relative to itself or less relative to itself if conditions are changed.  Used in my ideas that in a super condensed universe such as would be present before the big bang particles would have the potential to run into themselves.  Also used when I attempt to describe what happens when an object would approach the speed of light.

Space-time paradox: The idea that as velocity and distance approach either infinitely small values or infinitely large values they can be used interchangeably.  An example would be that if an object were to move far enough away from the plane of the universe through space (outside of the universe) it would behave the same as it would approaching any velocity limits placed upon it by universal conditions (the same as it would approaching the speed of light).

Super-relativity: The idea that if an object were to increase in mass faster than surrounding space can account for it the object would become more relativity to its own gravitational influence than to outside influences.

Gravity as an place holder:  Not a good phrase to be certain, but the basic idea that gravity exists as almost an echo of a given masses potential to occupy a given space in the next space time.  Based partially on quantum tunneling (you cannot infintely divide a space between two points and trace a particles movement, at some point it will skip or tunnel between points); the idea becomes present when dealing with any super condensed space where the potential for two particles to attempt to occupy the same space at the same time approaches infinity.  A further theory would state that any two masses in relativistic space approaching each other regardless of velocity would turn on some relative axis before impact no matter how slightly.

Supra-sanity:  The idea that if insanity exists in any truly measurable form so would we have to acknowledge that sanity does as well and that some people would therefore be more sane than the majority.  If we were to go backwards in time, many beliefs and behaviors would be viewed as insane.  If we were to go forwards in time it would only be appropriate to assume the same about modern society. 

Functional truth:  The philosophy that as a truth is applied in specific contexts its outcome becomes more important as a truth than the initial observation.  An example is buying a pair of shoes for someone.  The initial truth is that they wear shoes.  Functional truths would exist as what size shoe they wear or what type of shoes they would like or they need.  Applied truth may be a better term but it seems to connotate that there are a limited number of new truths that can emerge from an original truth whereas under functional truths the number of new truths would be infinite.  Another example would be that evolution and creationism are functional truths whereas the original truth is that there is some purpose to life.  The functional truth becomes more important than the original truth by context.

Intelligence as the ability to receive, maintain, and transmit memes:  Follows with the ideas of social prompting and that there is no such thing as truly original thought.  Receiving memes would be necessary for social prompting as one would have to have information before they can mutate that information into a new idea.  Maintaining memes is necessary as the number of ideas they can hold in active memory at one time to increase the chance of creating a new idea.  Transmiting information is necessary since firstly one would have to transmit the new idea back to themselves or else it would be impossible to maintain the new idea (remember it).

More to come as I remember them.  Especially with physics and government.  Probably quite a few of these aren’t original but perhaps several of them are.

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Niche Classism:  Also referred to as classism in the information age.  Many people will argue in support of tearing down the walls of classes to form one super class.  However it is my opinion that in the information age so many classes will emerge that belonging to one particular class will be of little importance.  Originally products and services had to be marketed to people who could pay.  As society and industries evolved they had specific targeting markets based on general wealth and income levels.  If your product was outside of a persons price range you would not market to them.  In todays world however marketing is shifting not so much to affordability but to the actual potential for a person to buy a product.  A person is not going to market a CD or DVD to you based on whether or not you could buy it (unless they’re not a very efficient company).  They’re going to market the item based on your personal preference.  At first this can be seen with cliques and image based marketing.  As the information age progresses beyond infancy such generalizations will be viewed as nearly as broad as mere income lines.  Niche marketing will emerge based on the information age as each individual belongs to several distinct classes at a time-more on personal interests and purchasing preferences than belonging to any generalized group or monetairy based class.

I speak great thoughts,

alone in my head-

with no one to utter;

but that’s what he said.

The old ones died,

far before their time-

an apocolypse of rational,

was never so sublime.

The spider spun,

the web grew divine,

till truth spoke poisonous-

and tainted the wine.

Who called the ancients

to arise and to dance?

When beckoned to die,

they left us to chance.

Those who never live,

have no fear of dying.

A puppet of half strings,

abyssmal when trying.

Those who have lived,

fear only their shadows;

as the day ages-

they’re stunted, while it grows.

Long lines emerge,

as if on painted sand.

The face loses form-

sinking into the land.

So went the gods,

first by twos then in droves.

under the mountain side-

and agriculturally sound groves.

We called the gods to die,

before their time and beneath their sky-

when speaking out of term

we insisted upon a leveled why.

It wasn’t enough,

to see stars sparkle as jewels.

We pirated the crown,

like court jesters and fools.

Now looking around,

for someone to blame-

it’s upon each other,

we set sight and take aim.

No fallen angels,

or punished sins.

It’s all or nothing

else no one wins.