Counting Up To Infinity Read online

  David just stood there for a few minutes when he interrupted her reverie. “Dee, can you tell me about Chee’our’i? Where is he from?”

  Dee finally looked up, “Chee’our’i is an alien from a race much older than our universe. His planet hasn’t existed for the last two big bangs. So a planetary origin is meaningless. On the other hand, his main locus is on a planet 23,724 light years from here, near the galactic center. It’s on a black hole.”

  David said, “He lives on a black hole?”

  Dee sighed, “Only part of him, he’s actually at a large number of places, including here.”

  “How many places?”

  Dee shook her head, “Chee’our’i says that’s a non-sentient question. At any moment in time, he can be in one place or over a million places. It’s like asking you how many different things can you do at the same time, like breathing, growing skin, thinking of your grocery trip, listening.”

  “Can you ask Chee’our’i what he was doing when he was only in one place?”

  “Chee’our’i says that was a good question for a non-sentient. He was listening to an epic story. It lasted 24 of our earth years. He was completely overwhelmed by the experience.”

  “What was the epic story like?”

  “Chee’our’i says that it is unlike anything you can ever imagine. It, of course involves all of his senses, which is saying a lot. It also involved not just our puny four dimensions, but all eighteen dimensions of space and time. The story was about the death of a race as told by one of their final kings. It was a classic work of the bard’s people. I’m doing a one-dimensional summary of course.”

  “Was it a poem?”

  “In a way. The bard used mathematical equations, like fractals, to tell the story.”

  “What does Chee’our’i think of our art?”

  Dee giggled, “He says in comparison to their standards, our music is like the sound of a horn playing one note for two seconds. No depth, complexity, length, etc.”

  “Do you like their art?”

  Dee looked at David then sighed, “Chee’our’i says I’m not ready yet for even their ‘baby songs’. He says I will love it though when I’ve grown up.”

  David said, “He knows the future?”

  Dee looked thoughtful for a second, “I can’t fully explain it to you. Time is only one way, even for him, but he can view and communicate with sentients in the past. Although matter cannot go into the past, information can. His future self said that I would enjoy it.”

  “Then he can talk to his future self?”

  “In a way, he just remembered the question and in three hundred years asked himself, and then, if he feels like it, he will answer it. He says it’s more complicated than that.”

  “So, if you could do transmit information to him in the past, you could tell him to kill your grandfather?”

  “Like I said, it involves physics and logic I haven’t learnt yet, but yes. I can tell him to kill my grandfather and never exist. Only he’ll remember that alternative future as one of the many possibilities, like you can remember a day dream.”

  David asked, “So that means you can change the past?”

  “Of course.”

  After a pause, David pursed his lips and asked, “So why can’t I talk to him?”

  “You are not sentient and will not be for many years. He is so far above people like you, that he has no desire to talk to mundane humans.”

  David was beginning to feel exasperated, “And you are sentient?”

  Dee hesitated, “No, not yet, but I will be in a few hundred years. Josh will also be.”

  “OK, I’m not smart enough for him to talk to me on a long term basis. At least, can he answer a single question to me directly, not through you, a newborn from his prospective, but from himself? The question is, ‘What can I do to help my race evolve?’ ”

  David felt a strange sensation in his brain. The words had an odd depth to them. Each word had links to thousands of related concepts. Some of these concepts were visual, as if Chee’our’i spoke in visual images, some were olfactory, others were mathematical. While one ‘word’ was predominant, the mixture of the others guided the meaning. It was like a brilliant spotlight moving along a path, with hundreds of related concepts picked up by smaller beacons. There were also odd ‘thoughts’ of forests and scents of Indian spices.

  Chee’our’i: You are on the right path. You don’t need any direction from me.

  David felt overwhelmed, “Is that you Chee’our’i?”

  Chee’our’i: Yes.

  “Thank you. One other question, Chee’our’i please. Who wrote the genetic code for Panacea?”

  Chee’our’i: Joshua will sculpt/evolve it, with his mate – your sister, with the guidance of yourself, and a number of non-sentient humans.

  ***

  David: That’s what he said. I didn’t think this was a trick by Dee.

  Martin: What did he mean when he said ‘mate - your sister’. Did you get any sense about that? Something that happened, is happening, will happen?

  David: No sense at all. I’m not advanced enough to understand them-there kinds of subtle things, paw.

  Martin: Don’t get annoying David. And stop being jealous. Do you have any idea what Chee’our’i is here for?

  David: I spoke to Dee about that. The brat said that Chee’our’i is here just for her evolution. I got the feeling that included Joshua’s too. He, or it, doesn’t care for any other human or anything from our solar system. Quaint was the word she used.

  Martin: This isn’t how it was supposed to go. In all the Science Fiction I’ve ever read, we were supposed to meet with a race one or two technological levels above us, not a million. Maybe they would be ten thousand years ahead of us, not 40 billion. Where we got that notion from, I don’t know. The universe is 15 billion years old and Sol is 4 billion years old. The chance would be miniscule that two random aliens would be any closer than a million years apart. I thought that the speed of light and the vastness of the cosmos were the reasons they didn’t visit us. Now, it’s that we’re beneath them. The aliens were supposed to be above us in technology, but we were always more clever or cunning then them. The ‘little green men’ turns out to be us, but from envy.

  Martin: You mentioned that Chee’our’i can go back in time. What other powers does he have?

  David: Dee wasn’t very forthright about this. I got the feeling of omnificent, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.

  Martin: Do you think that Chee’our’i is a god?

  David: How would I know? He isn’t a very friendly loving one. I can’t help but think of the quote from Arthur C. Clarke, 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.' My corollary is that any wielder of hyper-advanced technology is a god. Chee’our’i is so advanced that he doesn’t even need technology.

  Martin: Have you told Josh and his parents what Chee’our’i said?

  David: No. I was hoping that the parents of that little pedophile would break it to them gently.

  Martin: I guess it does fall on us. But it is nice to hear that Josh does write Panacea after all. David, why don’t you go home, get drunk or take a long hot bath or something. You sound out of it. You didn’t think you were going to be the most evolved creature in the cosmos for all of eternity? I’m going to call Phyl up.

  David: Night dad.

 

 

  Year 22.9 Meeting with the FDA

  Charles Ritchie MD, PhD had gone to many, many meetings since he was appointed the head of the FDA. This was one of the more unusual ones. He was asked by the head of a small start-up biotechnology company for a one-on-one meeting. Usually the FDA sends a number of appropriate medical experts and it never includes the actual head of the FDA, except for very special appeals. Second, the meeting was scheduled at a local hotel conference room, not the FDA. Third, he was asked to set asi
de a full morning for the meeting. Finally, he was told that the company would teleconference in three Nobel Laureates.

  Dr. Ritchie was intrigued. He never heard of a Nobel Laureate being the spokesperson for any medical program. And here there was not one, but three. He also heard some very strange results for their preposterously named product, Panacea. He agreed to attend.

  ***

  Dr. Ritchie entered a small conference room and was introduced to Janet and Sidney Ryan and Martin Klein. He was surprised to hear that they were ‘just’ program facilitators. The last person, a teenager, was obviously an assistant, perhaps a college intern. Ritchie debated on walking out of this low-budget charade – he had better things to do this morning. However, he was curious. A large computer monitor was turned on. Well he could leave any time he liked.

  After the introductions and the passing around of the attendance list, the monitor was broken into four pictures. In the top right was a face he had only seen on TV, Charlie Haines. The remaining three boxes were currently blank.

  Dr. Ritchie said, “Dr. Haines, I was not told you were involved in this meeting.”

  Haines smiles, “You can call me Charlie. Is Chuck ok?”

  Dr. Ritchie nodded. “What is your involvement, Charlie?”

  “I’m the silent financier of Organic Biotechnology. I’m here to ensure that the maximum safeguards are in place for Panacea. The maximum safeguards.”

  Dr. Ritchie shuddered, “Safeguards? Are there unreported problems? Are you concerned about your losses?”

  Charlie Haines had a half-grin. “No, for reasons you’ll understand later, we have not and will never sell Panacea. There will never be any profit. No sales. No income. But yes, you can say that the compound has problems, very unusual problems.”

  Bells were ringing in Dr. Ritchie’s mind, loud warning bells. Dr. Ritchie became awake. “Are you saying that there are unexpected and serious side effects? Have you notified our safety office?”

  Charlie Haines half grin intensified, “No Chuck. Just the reverse. Exactly the reverse. Well, in a way there are Serious Adverse Events, but they are all startling good ones. There were no deaths or disabling or prolonged hospitalizations, except for the treatment and healing time. As a departure from the usual SAEs, we are also informing our FDA representative with all the exploratory positive findings.” Charlie Haines grin broadened. “Are you familiar with the positive sequela from our initial patients?”

  Charles Ritchie had reviewed the material prior to the meeting. He was always prepared. “Yes, there were reports of a number of improved motor functioning.”

  Charlie Haines nodded, “The neurologists, including the FDA selected ones, said that the nerves grew back.”

  Dr. Ritchie said, “I believe there were some over-enthusiastic conclusions expressed by the neurologists.”

  Charlie Haines shrugged, “That was the conclusions by our and two of your neurologists. We plan to confirm that with some cases of completely severed spinal cords, probably quadriplegics. We also saw some other positive side effects like above average strength, repair of visual abilities – again far above normal for average people. We saw complete reversal in muscular decay following physiotherapy. Again their abilities as demonstrated on the treadmills used in traditional stress tests were far better than expected. But I’d like to bring your attention to one of the most startling side effects which necessitated this meeting. I’m going to project a picture on the other side of this monitor.” A picture of a 53-year-old pre-Panacea Martin Klein appeared in the upper right quadrant, next to Charlie’s image. “Have you ever met this man?”

  Dr. Ritchie looked at this picture and shook his head no.

  Charlie Haines had a half grin. “This picture was taken two years ago. Let me show you some other pictures of the same man. This one was taken 5 years ago. This was taken 10 years ago. This was taken 30 years ago. Do you recognize this man?”

  Dr. Ritchie shook his head no again.

  “Look around you.”

  At this time, Dr. Ritchie noticed Martin who grinned sheepishly.

  “Yes, this is the same man. He is Doctor Martin Klein, aged 55, an assistant medical director at this company. I’ll present a live picture of his wife, Dr. Corey Klein formerly Corey Rogers, now and two months ago, 8, 13, and 27 years ago.” The picture next to Charlie was replaced by a live head shot of Corey, who was waving at the camera. Below Charlie was a picture of her two months ago, the final quadrant had first a picture of her 8, 13 then 27 years ago.

  Dr. Ritchie looked at the right most pictures they appeared to be the same woman, except for the style of clothing and afro hairstyle.

  Charlie continued, “Yes, Panacea also regresses the aging process to age twenty, the peak of physical health. The Hayflick Limit has been eliminated. We also have some pictures of Bob Schmidt, a LPH patient, aged 12. The first was him before the treatment, the second a picture of him now, four months later. As you can see he has grown fifteen inches, his face now is more mature, he also shows all the normal sexual maturity signs of a late teenager or twenty year old. That is, beard, hair growth in the testicular region, et cetera. I’m now going to turn the presentation of to Dr. Toshio Matsuori, the Nobel prize winner in cell rDNA mechanisms, Dr. Alfried Knoble, the Nobel prize winner in cell differentiation and stem cell research, and Dr. Doris Horvitz, the Nobel prize winner in cell aging.” Their pictures were now in the three corners of the monitor.

  Charlie appeared to be looked at the face of Dr. Ritchie, although it was only via a monitor. “The remainder of this presentation will be what the Laureates observed. I should mention that there are actually twelve of them on the biomedical aspect of this project, eight in biology and four peace prize winners. In addition, we have another twelve, three in literature, three in peace, and six in economics who will be assessing the socio-economic issues with this treatment. A copy of their names is now being sent to you by e-mail. Feel free to call them up to discuss their findings. The first part will be the initial skepticism of the biomedical results and the proofs we have that they are valid. The second part will be the plans to validate exploratory findings in a scientific manner in additional studies. The third is where we recommend that news of Panacea be squelched from all publications and that all new information is on a need-to-know basis. That Panacea should be administered only by a rigid experimental protocol. The fifth will be a summary of the conclusions of a committee on the economic, sociological, and other implications of the next human species. Something which is almost as different from Homo Sapiens as Homo Sapiens is to a spider.”

  Dr. Ritchie felt his mouth dry up, “Socio-economic? New Species?”

  Dr. Knoble nodded and spoke up, “Yes, by any definition, a brand new species. The DNA snipper creates a single strand of DNA from our original 23 strands. Morphologically the patients look similar to normal humans. They are biologically similar, but by no means identical with major improvements. However, genetically they are radically unique. They could never mate and have children with normal humans.”

  Dr. Ritchie shook his head no. “I’m not understanding this. I’m sorry if I don’t follow drug applicant’s order of presentations, but why are you squelching your own product?”

  Charlie Haines took a deep breath, “Once news of Panacea gets out, there will be a revolution in our streets. Everyone will want it. There will be a revolution in the world order, a revolution in our entire economy. Its effect will be more radical than if an asteroid struck the Earth. People will be out of work over-night. No more retirement communities; in fact, no retirement at all; no nursing homes; no more health care; no health coverage; people will live forever; no health or life insurance. Even your job may disappear. That’s 19% of the US GNP for health care. Ninety nine percent of all doctors and hospitals will be permanently out of work in a month. Ninety seven percent of all elementary and secondary schoolteachers will b
e out of work in fifteen years. Another 21% of the country’s GNP. All sectors would be affected.”

  Dr. Ritchie looked at Dr. Knoble, “I don’t understand. Why would teachers be affected?”

  Dr. Knoble nodded, “We were initially very concerned. When we heard about the longevity issue, we were actually terrified about unlimited overpopulation. With no deaths to counterbalance population growth and the unlimited extension of the female’s reproductive window, we were terrified that over-population would occur. However, while the sex drive appears to be, if anything increased, the actual sperm produced by the males has no DNA - zero; therefore no babies. We were able to 100% verify this claim by tests from 54% of the male patients. We were told of a complicated compound that temporarily reverses the male’s impotent gametes. We are in the process of verifying it in another study on the remaining 46% of the Panacea male population. The results to date have been completely positive. The people working on the committee were in complete agreement that the reversible impotence of Panacea males is the optimum solution to the overpopulation problem. It also solves the population problem without killing any fertilized eggs, so various religious groups would be partially appeased. Any other questions?”

  Dr. Ritchie was lost in thought, with no other questions, Dr. Horvitz continued. “We were initially very, very skeptical when we were approached by this tiny start-up company to validate their claims. Speaking for myself, there are many charlatans in the industry who would love to use my name to further their causes. If anything, it was the exact reverse. With the help of Dr. Brown of Saint Louis Medical Center, we are constantly finding corrections of old ailments or improvements that Panacea corrects. For example, three patients had very noticeable heart murmurs. After treatment, no murmur and zero unusual EKG findings were seen. It even cured toenail fungus. We also initially thought that the patients were being switched on us, so we also ensured that they were finger and retinal printed at every visit, and took to tattooing patient’s heels. All results were also validated by the FDA or our investigators. These investigators were often changed at the last minute to prevent collusion. However, some tests can’t be faked. We have a demonstration of a 14-year-old girl picking up two thousand pounds over her head, a boy who held his breath under tap water for three hours. All of them videotaped. Things like that can’t be faked. However, given the magnitude of the issues here, we are taking all the test equipment apart and retesting it. The thing that has sold me the most is the geneticist at Organic Biotechnology, a J. C. Harding. When we ask him a question about a disease, he tells us what gene was responsible on the Panacea DNA and its analogue on the human DNA. Up to now, it’s been search for people with the disease, do a comparison with all the people who don’t have the disease, and then do a statistical analysis to detect where there might be differences. J. C. Harding actually reads the proteins involved in the biological process. He explains what each section of normal DNA is actually doing and what proteins are created, and where the process breaks down, or partially breaks down. All the biologist and botanists on the committee have our research projects going full steam to get new Nobel prizes for our labs. From the initial findings, Harding’s observations have all been 100% dead-on. He’s gone so far as explaining the DNA, reverse-RNA, and something new called the time-variant carrier-RNA chemicals. Even his cross-linking of a benign virus with a type-O red blood cell as a vector for the ‘snipper’ will revolutionize gene therapy. I recommended him to the Nobel Prize committee, even though all of his work is unpublished. He communicates by chintzy little e-mails he sends to our committees. Each one a breakthrough. I’ve seen a dozen new meta-processes he’s been able to explain. Things actually now make sense. Each one is as revolutionary as realizing that DNA has a double helix or the discovery of RNA.”