22 JAN 2013
Immortals – Saviors of the Human Species
Despite the downfall of communist Russia, the president's finger has
never left the close vicinity of “the button”. The world's
doomsday clock, used by scientists to gauge "the state of
existential global threats to civilization," is at five minutes
'til midnight – levels consistent with cold war eras. Homeland
security threat level is at a perpetual floor of yellow.
Governments around the world are worried that the extinction of the
human species is near – be it famine or war or bacterial or
otherwise. If any humans remain after a catastrophe, it's likely
there will be genetic damage that either prevents the species from
reproducing, or the offspring will not be able to survive. In either
case, the genetic code will be irreparably damaged. It's the genetic
code of the human species – the code as it is today – that
scientists, religions, politicians, and everyone else treasure so
dearly.
There is an operation to perpetuate the human species past the death
of the last human (as we know humans today). Operation Lifeboat
is an effort sponsored primarily by NATO countries to send humans
into space travel and have them return thousands of years later when
the effects of nuclear holocaust have deteriorated to a level safe
again for human life. There will be successive Lifeboat
missions that will be staggered in perpetuity so that the fate of the
human race doesn't rest on one lifeboat or one technology – the
rationality being that one cannot accurately predict when earth will
once again be habitable or as insurance in case other missions fail.
Let's assume that it will take 10,000 earth years for humans to
safely live and thrive on planet earth. One would have to send people
out into space and provide them with enough food, energy sources,
medical facilities, etc. for the humans on the lifeboat to survive
that long. What's more, the long-term exposure to the effects of
weightlessness could spurn alterations in the genetic code to the
human offspring (if you believe in evolution – if you don't, you're
safe as there would be no “genetic mutations” that could lead to
evolutionary changes to the DNA code.) But rest easy, space
life is a viable option to preserve the DNA code. First, one must
understand the effect of the speed of travel has on observed
time. Enter Einstein’s Special theory of Relativity.
One tenet of special relativity is that the faster one travels, time
slows down as the traveler approaches the speed of light. Take GPS
satellites for example which travel at 6,250 meters per second.
Despite the satellites being synchronized with the atomic clocks on
earth or having atomic clocks of their own, clock-drift
occurs. Clock-drift is the phenomena where synchronized
clocks, clocks that are otherwise accurate when side to side, report
different times when apart – notably when one travels at a faster
rate than the other. With respect to satellites, the observed
time on the satellite falls behind the measured time on earth. GPS
satellites' clocks must continuously be reset otherwise after two
minutes they (their accuracy in calculating geographical positions)
becomes inaccurate. On the international space station too, clock
drift has been observed. Thus, what I am illustrating is that there
is a proven relation between how fast an object moves and the
observed time. Now lets put a person on a ship traveling through
space. This person has a clock with him. The traveler counts off
1,000 hours then returns to earth. The clocks on earth will read the
hours lapsed greater than his clock, say 1,100 hours. If the traveler
had traveled at an even faster rate during those 1,000 hours, earth
would have experienced even more time, say 1,500 hours (it's all
relative to the speed at which the clock aboard the ship travels.) So
now we can put a person on the lifeboat
and instead of needing to provide supplies for 10,000 earth years, we
need only to provide him with a fraction of that.
We are getting closer to a viable Lifeboat program, but we are
not there yet. We need to address propelling the lifeboat to speeds
fast enough to effect our cause. So how fast do we need to go? If a
ship has the ability to accelerate at 1g (9.8m/s2) and has
enough fuel to continuously accelerate at this rate for 20 years and
decelerate at an inverse of 1g for 20 years (remember, as the time is
measured aboard the ship), the ship will return to earth 58,000
earth years
later while the people on board age 40 years. Now I do not know how
to calculate how long to travel on the lifeboat to get back to earth
in 10,000 years as one cannot simply divide 10,000 by 58,000 –
there are complicated formulas to determine the correct answer. What
I do know is that there is no technology developed yet to thrust (and
decelerate) a ship at a constant rate of 1g for several years with a
limited capacity for fuel. So we have to assume that the ship will
have to travel much more slowly than 1g which requires much more time
aboard the lifeboat while 10,000 earth years pass by. Hence, the
people aboard will have to live longer than 40 years or, much more
importantly, reproduction will be necessary, bringing us back to our
earlier problem of DNA mutations, supplies, etc.
What if people were able to live longer than 100 years, say 1,000
years? If we could put those people aboard the lifeboat, there would
be little risk of DNA mutations and no need for reproduction. There
is no technology, cryogenic or otherwise, however, for preserving a
human body or slowing down it's aging process. That leaves only one
solution, man lifeboats with
immortals. Yes, you heard that right
– man lifeboats with humans who do not die. Most people do
not know or refuse to believe there are immortals living among us.
Immortals are hard to find as many of them have had a lot of practice
in avoiding detection. What's more, they police themselves and take
action when an immortal risks revealing himself as one. An immortal
may be your next door neighbor who moved in two years ago and likely
will move out in a few years. An immortal may be your son or daughter
who has not yet reached the point where the aging process ceases.
Becoming an immortal is not like that as portrayed in the Highlander
television series where one must die first to live forever.
Immortality is a biological anomaly that affects random people at
random times in their lives. Perhaps there's a gene for it?
There is a manhunt in progress for these immortals. The backers of
Project Lifeboat are recruiting immortals to find volunteers
for the project – or potential shanghai targets. There is a
training center (I have not located where yet) that trains immortals
for life in close quarters for an extended period of time, much like
those training centers used by NASA or Navies.
Immortals are already concerned with being hunted down and killed for
their “unnatural” or “un<enter religion here>”
lifespans or by others seeking the fountain of youth, now they have
another concern on their hands – government support in the search
effort. Immortals will appear to be of different ages children to the
elderly as each immortal's aging process stops at a time unique to
them. Luckily for NATO there are clues as to which humans are
immortals, clues that I will spell out in future weeks – as I do
not want to expose immortals to the world, but for the sake of
mankind, I will have to – unless the immortals can convince me not
to. I truly hope some immortals read this before it's too late.
“I am one of a few immortals who know why I am
immortal, but I cannot nor will I ever divulge the signs I saw in
myself or the knowledge I’ve gained to become immortal – for fear
of my life. I can say that the knowledge I have comes from the soul
as Plato believed – that the soul already has all knowledge and we
learn by recollecting what the soul knows.
Though I can live for hundreds of years, I am still
susceptible (though much more resistant) to disease, murder, food or
water deprivation, etc. that afflicts everyone. Just know that I
know what it takes to live several hundred, if not thousands of years
and what made me aware of my gift. We immortals will not die of old
age, “The old man's heart stopped as he slept” will never be
uttered by a doctor on my death bed. More likely we will be
hunted down and murdered for the sake of mankind, though it is us who
will save mankind in the end.” - Anonymous
– 01 March 2013
I apologize for the delay in releasing the first of many
characteristics, tendencies, and customs (traits here on in)
immortals exhibit or come to exhibit. I was recently approached by a
man who walked me into a conversation about immortals then brought
the conversation about the hidden dangers of exposing the traits of
immortals. This man did not convince me of being an immortal but
perhaps he came to me as an ambassador. After lengthy consideration
this man's arguments have not convinced me to terminate this blog
post or my investigations.
– 23 March 2013
The “ambassador” as discussed in my previous update returned
to me. Again he requested I terminate this blog. To convince me he
represented immortals, he handed me a bauble – what looked to be a
carving of wood, worn and ancient. It's age appeared convincing and
the ambassador aged it over 4,000 years old. After a lengthy and
exhaustive investigation I found similar items – though not as worn
– made in Bolivia in the 1830's. I need not describe it as it was
grossly misrepresented anyways. I'd feel embarrassed for the
immortals if this person was indeed an ambassador, thus I will play
it off as a hoax. Funny.
The following will cover ten traits of immortals which will make them
easier to identify, traits on physical appearance, how and where they
live, how they support themselves financially, how they police
themselves, etc.:
- TEETHThe extensivity of orthodontic work is one indication of an immortal.Remember that all immortals stop aging at a time unique to each immortal, so one may stop aging at 80 years and another at 6 years. Imagine a child of six years old who's lived for one hundred years or more, relying on her baby teeth the entire time. There's little chance of those baby teeth lasting that long, let alone for hundreds of years. Before the advancements in of modern dentistry, child immortals often died of malnutrition/starvation just as old people did (due to complications of severely worn-down teeth). With the advancements in orthodontia, it became possible to replace teeth through the use of implants, bridges, crowns, and dentures.The longer an immortal walks upon the earth, the more they use and wear down their teeth, necessitating the need for orthodontic work. Though the need of orthodontic work is not uncommon amongst the aged – thus identifying an immortal through dental records is a futile measure – orthodontic work is, seldom, if ever, found in the young – except in the case of immortals. Children who have crowns, implants, et. al. on many or all teeth should be a sign a dentist is working on a human much older than they appear. Unfortunately, immortals will often see a dentist or orthodontist for one procedure then move to another (without the transfer of dental records) practitioner.
- LanguagesSome immortals will often be fluent in many languages. Often, like most people, immortals are comfortable staying in one country or in countries with like languages, but there are some who enjoy living in different cultures, living in the ways of the new society, and most importantly, learning their language. When you get into a conversation with a traveled immortal, they will often let slip foreign words into conversation, especially when they are drinking. You may say, sarcastically, that many people do this too, so are immortals all around us then? No, not exactly. Immortals will often slip words of ancient or extinct languages and when caught, will pass it off as another language and may have to go to the extent where they (falsely) admit they have the pronunciation wrong.Don't get too confident that an immortal will speak in an ancient dialect. Anyone who's purposely lost a dialect for another (southern drawl for the Standard American English dialect for example) will, over time, speak in the new dialect as if native to him. Over time one forgets things.
- Experts in <field of study>Immortals who work often gravitate to social sciences such as history, education, foreign languages, linguistics, anthropology, and sociology. It makes sense, doesn't it? Who better to understand the social sciences than those who've lived in many different cultures and eras? Being experts in fields of study have benefits – less need for study and higher pay included. But don't expect them to keep their career for long as they will need to transfer to new jobs elsewhere (more on migration in future updates). Careers are not limited to social sciences of course, as many are artisans, welders, store clerks, architecture, among others – just know that they will be masters of one or more professions.Speaking of linguistics, immortals are discouraged from holding careers in linguistics as immortals can easily expose themselves as immortals. I applaud any immortal, literate Egyptians (and Assyrians, Mayans, et. al. for that matter) who lived thousands of years ago. Man has spend millions of hours trying to decipher their hieroglyphics while no immortal has stepped in and corrected their mistakes or advanced their study. Perhaps all the immortals from those time no longer remain with us (remember, being immortal doesn't allow one to live after mortal wounds such as being decapitated or being crushed by a boulder).
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