PROLOGUE
By the time we read this article, The Journey of The Human Race,
the human race has exhausted nearly 60% of the fossil fuel and wiped off 70% of
the world’s forest from the face of the earth in the matter of barely 100 years
of this 4.5 billion year old earth and living a life style as if there is no
tomorrow. Now the science and technology allow us to predict what course the
life and universe will take in the future with the same mathematical precision
like how from earth we could launch Mars Path Finder and get it precisely
landed on Ares Vallis on Mars. The predictions mentioned here are not the kind
of cryptical aphorisms of Nostradamus, in which case it is left to the
interpreter’s creativity to guess the meaning of the aphorisms one way or the
other. All the scientific details mentioned in this article are facts and if
one of us lives so long as this article takes us into will be amazed to see how
the details mentioned in the article actually unfold into reality!
Special
Note: This story takes a retrospective journey into the history; story start date is 5 billion years into
the future! The story as read by
ESH - extra smart humanoid!
CHAPTER 1
Beep! The ESH enters the compartment inside the capsule. The
capsule is quite familiar to ESH, even though the details of the capsule coded
into ESH quite long ago. ESH recognizes the button engraved Entertainment. It
presses the button. The waves read “By the times this night is over The stars
are gonna shine on two lovers in love And when the morning comes…”. The ESH
looks at the panel which displays Kenny G, Era 5 billion years old. Quite
melodious, but few words in the lyrics do not make sense now, what exactly is
morning and night; very colorful period those ages were!
CHAPTER 2
The G-50 meet in 2030 discusses the now certain collision of 99942
Apophis with earth. G-50 unanimously agrees on diverting the path of the
asteroid. It commissions many agencies to tackle possible scenario if the
asteroid strikes the earth on 2036. One of the agencies has the main goal of
preserving the enormous knowledge database the human race has acquired till
date.
The G-50 commissions CERN, the agency which created Internet, to
preserve all the knowledge the human race possessed till date. CERN initially
proposes setting up well protected, Richter scale 10 resistant, underground
building in foothills of Himalayan range of mountains to preserve the knowledge
bank. The proposal gets outrightly rejected by the scientific community as the
earthquake generated by the asteroid impact will be higher than Richter scale
10.
After intense research CERN proposes next generation of
Internet named Interstellar Networking. The plan includes launching 20 capsules
containing satellites in different directions of the space which are stored
with all the knowledge acquired by mankind till date. These capsules are
interconnected among themselves and the substations called terra firma readers
around on the earth. All the capsules will be updated with information each
microsecond. The capsule has a compartment which scientists hope in the future
if any alien life were to come across this capsule could enter it get details
of life on earth. They also add one interesting feature. Inside the compartment
of the capsule there is one button which is quite conspicuous and has imprinting
"Entertainment" on pressing which it plays stored popular songs
selected from different regions of the earth. Scientists hope to entertain the
alien life with earthly songs!
The substations, terra firma readers, are installed in all major
cities, individual corporate offices, colleges, hospitals, government
buildings, homes of individuals who volunteered to join the program, and all
other places. These substations update the capsules, so real life situation
stored in the satellites would help the future life; if life could survive the
asteroid impact. Scientists come to conclusion that new technology will allow
them to store size of data to the extent of infinity. The capsules are supplied
by energy through proton decay which will make their energy source to run for
incredible 1036 years. The capsules were also designed
if situation requires to repair themselves. Few scientists object to this
entire trillion dollar exercise arguing why waste that amount of money, instead
live each day till the impact having merriment. One of them argues if they are
following B. R. Chopra’s Mahabharata now telecasted in Europe,
where the character Time tells the story to the posterity, and their
Interstellar Network would serve the same purpose of character Time in the
Mahabharata serial for the future life. The ESH chuckles! Quite convincing
argument as the Mahabharata telecast had a huge viewer ship in Europe.
The CERN’s Interstellar Networking progresses without any problem
and gets successfully operational. All the visuals recorded on earth till the
date including world wars, clippings of Gandhi, and the event resulting in
creation of Interstellar Networking also stored in all the capsules. The
capsules connected with Interstellar Networking travel different corners of the
universe and one of which circles the earth capturing images each moment
simultaneously updating the other capsules about earth. The scientific
community hopes in the event if human race were to leave the earth in the
future and reach different corners of the universe they will still be able to
connect with Interstellar Network and get all the required information. CERN
along with governments of all countries agree that all future space programs
will be interconnected with Interstellar Networking.
CERN gives high priority to Alpha Centauri being the closest star
system to the solar system. As scientists believe next closest solar system and
earth like situation can be found in Alpha Centauri and future human space
travel will be aimed at Alpha Centauri.
CHAPTER 3
The mission to deflect the asteroid path launches a missile with
payload having hydrogen bomb. The orbit selected for the missile would result
in collision with Apophis exactly on the 25th December 2035. A satellite with
powerful camera to track the result of the collision was also launched, which
follows the missile with a distance between them of 500 km. On the fateful day
entire world watches the path of missile, the satellite clearly sends image
back of totally pulverized Apophis to earth. It was the day the entire earth
celebrates the chance the science has given to all living beings to cherish
this beautiful earth for ever after.
The famous Astrologer in Puna glances at terra firma reader placed
at his house, while he tries to convince his middle-aged client that CERN
experiment on space dynamics would bring a lot of bad lucks to his family. The
ESH recalls history which reads - Astrologer advises the client not to wear
dress having black dots. He cautions black dots attract energy from black holes
created by CERN. He says his daughter will elope with her Muslim
boyfriend as he being Brahmin will have to bear the brunt of the society. The
ESH recalls history which gives information on Indian social system still not
able to outcast the taboo of caste system. The client says he is childless and
is there to ask him if he could adopt any child! Astrologer disappointed by his
own prediction going wrong says in astrology word meaning of daughter does not
necessarily mean his own daughter. It can be any girl child of his close
relatives. Not so convinced client asks what his fee is. Astrologer says 50000
rupees. Client says that is quite a high amount and he is going through tough
time because his company started to laying off employees from their Puna plant,
as the work being outsourced to US and Europe, as production cost in US and
Europe is far cheaper than getting work done in India. Astrologer finally
agrees for 10000 rupees. The ESH reads the panel which reads Era 2040.
CHAPTER 4
The ESH is having nostalgic feeling. The ESH gleans further
information from the Interstellar Network.
The Era reads 2110. The average temperature on earth reads 27
degree centigrade for the past one decade, almost double from 13 degrees a
century ago. There is an emergency G-75 meet on environment in Malabo, Equatorial
Guinea, the country with world’s highest per
capita income. The world has run out of oil from entire Gulf region and has
started new exploration of oil in Polar Regions
and in deep under sea. The pollution level is so much that it is made mandatory
for people to wear masks in all major cities.
On the date of G-75 meet most of the environmentalist and head of
states are in for a surprise. The data released on the meet says that earth’s
average temperature has come down to 11 degrees in the past 3 months. The news
of average 11 degrees on earth makes headlines. This is an unbelievable
situation. This means earth has reversed the global warming into global
cooling. The average 11 degrees could have existed only 400 years back when
there was no industrialization. The reduction in global temperature eludes all
possible scientific explantation.
Some news channels predict the current situation is nothing but
starting of end of the earth. There is no scientific explantation for the
current global climatic change.
The G-75 commissions TERI to study the reason for the decrease in
global temperature. After 6 months TERI submits the report. It says the carbon
particles in the atmosphere are reflecting the sunlight back to space. This is
resulting in only partial absorption of solar rays by the earth. TERI cautions
the sudden dip in the global temperature is only the sign of further global
warming and if the current level of carbon emission is continued there could be
no ice formed on the surface of the earth even in winter months including Polar Regions.
CHAPTER 5
The suave MIT graduate President gets huge cheers wherever he
goes. It has been one year since he is being elected to the Oval Office. He has
already made tremendous mark in all aspects of governance. America’s
foreign policy is most appreciated foreign policy of all countries. Time
magazine on its 2170 annual edition chooses him to be the Person of the Year.
The resource-constraint world sees a new leader coming to its
rescue. After his selection as the President of America there is a great hope
in the financial market. Stock markets around the world recover to some degree
after their great fall of 80% in the previous year.
Vanity Fair’s editor accompanies the President for all the foreign
trips the President makes. The editor could clearly see the difference the
foreign media adopted towards America
after the new President occupying the office. There is a colossal difference in
world leader’s approach towards America.
The editor is impressed. He accompanies President in all his foreign trips and
they have similar interest, they become good friends, but the editor does not
like when President not allows him to attend his personal meetings in foreign
countries.
The Presidents trip to Europe on
March 23, 2172 has only few accompanying team in the flight. The editor talks
to President about the Global Climatic Change meet which he is going to attend.
The editor feels the President is not feeling quite all right this trip, well,
the work pressure, and the President is not sparred. The editor is not convinced,
he is curious about President’s private meetings, especially while he stays in
the foreign counties.
On their return journey to America,
president asks the flight to be redirected to Podgorica, Montenegro.
He says he wants to have a leisurely time in this Mediterranean country and
also to meet the president of the Montenegro, a good friend of him.
Well deserved vacation for the president!
On their stay in palatial hotel in Podgorica, the editor is not at
ease with himself. His doubt is only getting larger. The night when the
president has his private meeting, editor goes out of his suite for a walk.
There are no guards around the place where president is staying that night. He
manages to have a small peek into president’s suite. The editor could hear few
conversations and the scene hits him like a thunderbolt. He rushes to his room,
drinks two pegs of vodka and tries to get sleep.
On their return flight to America, editor says he is not
feeling well and wants to rest. The Vanity Fair this week’s print is slated to
bring out copies 10 fold more than its usual numbers. The cover page has the
heading Traitor President!. There is a wide description of what went on when
the President stayed in Podgorica. The details of country’s vital security
information being transferred from President’s “Nuclear Football”, the
briefcase which has all the strategic defense details, to the enemy countries.
Also part of president’s conversation where he thanks the terrorist
organization to investing so much, so long on him to get him elected.
The Congress impeaches the president and he has been put on trial.
There is an immense discussion around the world how a terrorist organization
carefully plans and gets succeeded in their work after matter of more than two
centuries to plant their man in the most coveted position in the world.
CHAPTER 6
Lima, Peru.
There is a huge gathering in the Miraflores Square. All of them watching
the giant electronic display unit. The date on the display unit reads July 13,
2235. WOW! a big shout goes out from the crowd. The display unit shows the
world’s population at 40 billion. A girl baby born in Castries, Saint Lucia
becomes the 40 billionth baby.
Many countries adopt system of identifying citizens by radio tag.
This makes the tracking of the world population quite easy. The moment new baby
is born a new radio tag is activated and automatically the population count is
reflected in the official figure. Permission to any building and public places
are based on the radio tag reading. The advancement in technology in the past
few decades has rendered all previous century’s innovations already out of use,
but the technology is able to solve only a fraction of the problems what the
burgeoning population is going through.
There is immense shortage of resources on the earth. The shortage
of food is to some extent compensated by highly genetically modified plants and
livestock. Food riots become common in many areas of the world. Death and
destruction become common because of failing social system.
There is no urban and rural divide in many parts of Asia and Africa. The cities are stretched to thousands of
kilometers. The innovation in science is not able to cope up with the ever
increasing population and its demands. The technology now able convert solar
energy to electricity up to 80%, but the demand for electricity is so much that
only fraction of the demand is able to be met by different sources of power
generation.
Highly mutated viruses cause severe causalities. There is a total
anarchy is many parts of the world. Government systems collapse. Impossible
living situation causes many more destruction.
The raising water level of the sea encroaches thousands of
kilometers of the land once inhabited by people. This further causes great
stress on already failing social sytem. Some of the countries once existed
before vanish totally from the face of the earth for ever as there is massive
exodus of people to other areas.
CHAPTER 7
The global weather is so bad and it is very dangerous to make long
distance trips in small aircrafts. A group of adventurous flyers start from Sidney, Australia
April 2, 2312 to go around the earth one full circle. Their aim is to
personally witness how the earth has changed in the past 300 years. After 6
hours in to their flight, they suddenly see in the middle of the ocean
partially submerged buildings with no land area to be seen. Their flight
navigation system reads the place to be Port
Louis, Mauritius.
The images of the beautiful country once existed 300 years appear on the flight
TV which gives the grim situation the earth is going through.
London once warmer during summer months suddenly
becomes cold. There are unexplainable climatic changes around the world. Major
part of the northern Europe rapidly becomes
inhabitable due to the extreme cold weather. Scientists studying the reason for
the sudden change in climatic factor in Europe
come up with an answer. Scientists declare that “The Great Conveyor Belt” has
come to a complete standstill. The great conveyor belt which keeps the Europe warmer during summer months has suddenly ceased to
function because the global warming has fully melted away polar ice packs
resulting in complete disruption of thermohaline circulation.
CHAPTER 8
The earth has extremely rough weather. There is snowing in the
summer months in the entire Europe. The past
five centuries of hostile climate has rendered earth uncongenial for life on
earth has reduced the world’s population to 1.5 billion. There is an eerie calm
in all major cities around earth.
Even in this adverse climate science has made many progresses.
Interstellar Network is still functioning and corresponding with the terra
firma readers around the world. The capsules connecting the Interstellar
Network around 800 years back have now reached a distance of 500 billion
kilometers away from the sun. The capsules have sent back immense amount of
data about the universe to the earth.
Bangui, March 20, 2950. Native people are proud
to say that they once belonged to a country called Central African Republic. Bangui is hosting a major
athletic event of 2950 called GMH Olympics’50. Only the participants who have
certified as GMH, Genetically Modified Human, are allowed to take part in the
competitions. There are several world records being broken in the ’50 Olympics
games. In the 100 meter sprint race competition, world record being broken with
the record running time of 5.02 seconds.
CHAPTER 9
Earth now has only 10% of the land area which is livable. Many
countries around the world are covered with ice and are now only the part of
the scientific expeditions. There are no political borders of country exist
now. Based on the geographical division of the continents the earth is divided
into several Unions. The entire earth functions like one single country and the
union of different geographical regions is called United Global Union.
The Unified Global Forum of 3210 has a serious agenda to discuss.
There is a serious problem with navigation on both air and sea.
Brunhes-Matuyama Reversal is now eminent and all the Unions of the earth have
come to a common understanding on how to tackle the situation.
The recent flight accident of Southern American Union, in which
250 people died, has made the cause of the Unified Global Forum meet even more
significant. The flight carrying 250 people which was flying northwards from Campo Grande, Southern American Union to Mashhad, Western
Asian Union instead takes southwards route and crashes on Antarctica.
After a matter of around 785,000 years there is reversal of
earth’s geomagnetic field. Now the earth’s magnetic north pole is pointing
towards geographic north pole.
The Unified Global Forum comes to a common understanding on how to
address the issue with their current setup and fine tunes the navigation system
through air and sea.
The population growth has been highly regulated with the great
understanding of sustaining life on earth and not to have a situation like that
of the previous millennium. There is increase in population of barely 500
million over that last one millennium and earth has reached total population of
2 billion in a matter of more than 1000 years.
CHAPTER 10
The great celebration is being showed on live streaming video.
People from earth greet people on Mars. Some of them are their own loved ones.
The great celebration is named Heavenly Mars Year 3600. It has been successful
20 years since the people started living on the Mars. This is a great moment
for the second generation kids born on Mars. The video shows the history of
Mars colonization. The previous millennium’s attempt to colonize Mars was
unsuccessful because of huge cost of chemical rockets. The new generation of
ion propulsion engine has made travel to Mars quite easier. There is a great
hope for the future of life on Mars.
The original numbers of 5000 people on Mars are now increased by
addition of 10 more by the birth of second generation kids.
CHAPTER 11
There have been many attempts of sending probes into intergalactic
space. Most of probes send back the report to earth that it is not possible to
sustain life form in the journey spanning more than 1000 of years into
intergalactic space.
Scientists are now able to genetically induce hibernation in human
beings which allow them to make trips spanning thousands of years. The aging
gene is also genetically altered which gives human beings life span of 200
years.
It is a momentous day for the Unified Global Union on May 5, 4500.
For the first time in the human history a space craft is travelling to Alpha
Centauri with a certain hope that they can colonize some of the planets in
Alpha Centauri.
It would take hardly 4 generation to reach Alpha Centauri and
start new life in new planets. The new generation plasma thruster would reduce
the time taken to reach the Alpha Centauri dramatically. With technology on
their side scientists are quite hopeful that the life will go on for ever and
spread around the universe as the resources on the earth are dwindling.
The Interstellar Network is keeping track of the Intergalactic
Space Mission. It is the second generation of people who are in the
Intergalactic Space Mission and 300 years have passed since they have left the
earth.
CHAPTER 12
There is a great breakthrough in the artificial intelligence.
After 8000 years it has been first hypothesized scientists could actually
create a robot which has the intelligence outwitting the human beings. The new
robot is named by scientists as ESH, extra smart humanoid. It has the survival
instinct 100 times more than that of human beings. It can do the calculation of
500 billion trillion combinations in a second. It can mimic the emotions of
human beings. The reasoning capacity of ESH is far better than that of human
beings. All possible situations are fed into ESH which makes the ESH
invincible. It also has the ability to repair and recreate itself if required.
All the future intergalactic space trips contain few numbers of
ESHs accompanied with them.
CHAPTER 13
Scientists have tried over the past 100,000 years to make human
beings eternal, but they never succeeded. Scientists have only able to make
human beings reach maximum age of 400 years.
Scientists find alternative methods. Even though the physical body
cannot be sustained after 400 years the brain can be preserved and the thought
process of the same individual can be revived through process called
BioElectronic brain. The brain is hardwired into a processor which in turn
revives the thought process of the same individual, but without blood and
flesh. The lifetime of these BioElectronic brains are estimated to be infinite.
Most of the scholarly people agree to get themselves into BioElectronic
brain project after their physical body wear out. By getting their brain
preserved they do a great service to mankind guiding future generation with
their valuable knowledge.
CHAPTER 14
All of the previous Intergalactic Missions are disconnected from
the Interstellar Network and have reached far corners of the universe. The hope
of colonizing the universe has totally eroded, but scientists never give up. It
has been complete one million years since the first Intergalactic Mission left
the earth.
The latest Intergalactic Mission takes the same path of the
previous missions which left the earth one million years ago. On their way few
of them meet their previous Intergalactic Mission spacecrafts. It is very
saddening moment for the people on the latest mission to see there are no
survivors in the previous missions. It is very clear now that the hopes of
finding earth like planets in other galaxies are just about nil.
The imminent similar situation to their own mission makes them
quite gloomy about sustaining the life forms for ever on this universe.
CHAPTER 15
The ESH reads further into the earth’s history. The era reads 250
million years. The plural form of continents does not make any sense now.
Pangaea Ultima represents one single continent formed by continental drifts.
In the past 250 million years no human beings from the
intergalactic mission makes any contact with Interstellar Network. As per the
Interstellar Network there were no further intergalactic missions by human
beings after their unsuccessful missions in the first one million years.
The people on earth are still hopeful that some day Interstellar
Network would send them back the images of greener earth like planet in some
corners of the universe and make their mission just targeted to that particular
planet.
The situation on the earth is barely livable. The earth has lost
most of its atmosphere. The UV rays from the sun rendered entire earth barren
land. People now stay underground to protect them from sun rays during day time.
The BioElectronic brains of many wise individuals still
functioning and they tell the story of the past to the current generation.
CHAPTER 16
It has been 5 billion years since ESH left the earth. ESH is
lonely in the eery sky. All the human beings who accompanied ESH 5 billions
years ago, in a journey filled with hope of finding a green planet in the
remote corner of the universe, could not survive so long. ESH is still drawing
power from the proton decay and still in the pink of health.
The sight of familiar object in the sky evokes strong reaction in
ESH, which it had not seen in almost 5 billion years. The ESH sees a unique
kind of structure nearing its spacecraft. It does not take much time for ESH to
recognize the structure. It is Interstellar Network capsule.
ESH is quite familiar with Interstellar Network system, even
though the details of capsule coded into ESH 5 billion years ago. Interstellar
Network and consequent creation of ESH was human race’s greatest hope in its
search for an alternative planet to earth in the possible scenario when the
earth runs out of resources and becomes unlivable.
CHAPTER 17
The ESH watches the earth in the Interstellar Network. It has been
such a long journey from the earth since it left the earth. It is a momentous
day in the ESH’s entire life time. ESH could contact another space craft which
has the same origin as its.
According to Interstellar Network there is no life form left in
any of the Intergalactic Mission spacecrafts. ESH is very eager to see how the
life on earth is going on.
As it sees the earth of the current day, there are unimaginable
things happening. The ESH cannot recognize the solar system. The earth seems to
be very closer to sun. The ESH makes sense out of it. The sun has transformed
itself into red giant and has increased its size by 250 times. The sun has
already engulfed Mercury and Venus. The sun’s outer surface has extended so
much that it is very closer to earth. The earth is getting very very closer to
sun as the ESH watches what is happening to its place of origin, in a few
minutes’ time the earth gets engulfed by the sun.
It is very saddening moment for the ESH. Now there is no
descendant of its creation left in this entire universe and it feels quite
lonely.
The panel displays Louis Armstrong and the waves read…
I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see them bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.
THE END
Copyright © 2008 by Dr. Hemanth
All rights reserved, including the right
to reproduce this article or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
For Information, mail hemanth26@hotmail.com
