Chapter 11
“And then we arrive at January of 2009, when Barack Obama took office at the White House. According to your strategy, at the time, the economy was still not ready, as the world was in the midst of the financial crisis. Is this when you decided to change your strategy to reveal Telomerax?”
“Yes. The turning point was the meeting we held in the fall of 2009, in a resort on the Greek island of Patmos. It was no coincidence, as this is the island where the apostle John is said to have received the final book of the Bible, Revelations.
Once again, the group was split between George and Helena versus Valerio and Tarek. George and Helena, who were now dating, were pushing to make the announcement of Telomerax within the next ten to fifteen years, while Valerio and Tarek did not see this as a realistic timeframe. Dora and I were arbitrating in the middle. We argued for three days, and eventually we came to the conclusion that it was time to start “preparing for the preparation” or to set “a date for the date”, if you may.
It is better to go directly to the motif of the meeting, which was opened by Helena, who gave a bleak outlook on the economic perspectives.”
“Gentlemen,” she said, “as we traveled here we saw how dire the situation of Greece is. I can tell you, that this crisis will spread to the rest of Europe and there will be governments falling from Ireland to Italy. Our data at the firm shows that China will manage to dodge the crisis, and the US will bounce back in three to four years, but Europe and other areas will stay stagnant for several years.”
“All right,” Tarek jumped in, “so we can adjourn the meeting to 2015. Even though politics are somehow improving after George Bush and his cowboys, we do not know how the crisis is going to evolve. Europe could divide itself, creating an uproar around the world.”
Helena fell silent, staring coldly at Tarek for a long second and then turned her eyes to George without changing expression.
“Tarek, please..”, George said, “..if we keep following this line of reasoning we will never be ready. We saw over the past sixty years that the window of opportunity opens for a period of two or three years maximum, and by the time you realize it’s there, it’s already gone. If we continue like this, we will wait for centuries.”
Valerio slowly raised his hand, with his impeccable manners, and waited a few seconds before starting.
“George, if there is one thing we have on our side, it is time. We have tested the identity change process and it worked perfectly, buying us enough time until at least 2035. I have looked over the research that Helena and you started back in 2000 and got in contact with my connections at the World Bank, and you know what I found out? That despite all the uneasiness, things are improving overall. Slowly, but surely.
If you look at these slides, the statistics show that international income, deaths caused by violence, and births per woman are all going in the right direction. So there is evidently no reason to rush. We can sit back and relax.”
“Valerio, for once I do not agree with you,” Tarek burst out. “Your statistics would have shown you the same thing for Europe on the eve of World War I, and we all know how that ended up. On the other hand I do agree we can talk about this over a glass of wine for the next thirty years and do nothing in the meantime. In other words, just do usual business.”
“That would mean we sit around twiddling our thumbs while someone else is discovering us or, worse, discovering Telomerax. You know that very well, Tarek,” Helena hissed. “You did not wait for Israeli pilots to plan their attacks and then make up a strategy to counteract them back in 1973. Apparently all these luxuries and petty conspiracies have washed away the fighter that was in you.”
Tarek was about to reply, his eyes seething with rage, but George was faster and harsh enough to defuse the fire Helena was starting.
“Helena, please cut the bullshit now. It is getting personal and we cannot afford it. The fact is, we have a huge opportunity here to become the most famous people in the history of mankind, surpassing Jesus Christ, Mohammed and the likes, and we are letting it slip through our fingers. We just cannot let that happen.
May I also remind you, that research in biotechnology is expanding big time, from fertilizers to - guess what - techniques that fight aging. I know it because I am investing in a number of ventures. But I cannot control everything forever. How long do you think it will take before someone else finds it and we become the biggest morons of all time? Louis, do you really want your discovery to go to waste?”
This hit home. “I agree,” I said, “We can no longer rely on my strategy we have followed for the last ten years. I was also approached by a number of biotech firms and these guys are starting to get ideas of how to get to Telomerax. They are still far away, as there are a number of obstacles they have not yet figured out, but nothing that could not be solved over the next thirty years or so.”
“So in my opinion we must at least start preparing the disclosure, so that when the next window of opportunity appears in the next ten to twenty years, we are ready to go public. I think we should forget about all the talk on politics, and economics, and focus on a very simple question: how do you prepare mankind, of the Internet age, to the idea of becoming immortal?”
As Tarek was still getting over the attack from Helena, Valerio took over the challenge to answer on behalf of the team.
“We certainly cannot set up courses of philosophy and biochemistry for billions of people, nor ask the Pope to announce it from the balcony of Saint Peter, after briefing him that our invention is not so much at odds with the Catholic doctrine.
We first have to get a communal idea of immortality. One that fits Telomerax, yet stays generic so as to upset as few people as possible. Our goal is, when the announcement comes, it is not totally unexpected and everyone can cope with it. Just think of aliens. We see and read so many movies and books with enough evidence, that if a spacecraft appeared in the sky, quite a few people would say it was high time they showed up.
Anyway, a number of trends are already working in our favor. For example, people know that there is a lot of research and money being spent on biotechnology, so something extraordinary can pop up at anytime. A bit like when people were talking of computers eventually being in every office, during the sixties. It sounded like science fiction but it naturally became part of the world.
Second, there is also a trend to delay aging and stay fit as long as you can. This obviously gives us a lot of leverage. Third, at least in developed countries, people are coming to terms with the fact that as long as you are fit, you have to work to keep society sustainable. This means major macroeconomic and political adjustments might be accepted, for example you don’t retire until you are dead.
Fourth, there is undoubtedly an ethical and, in many cases, religious aspect. Who has access to immortality? At what cost? Is this lifestyle acceptable? I can imagine all sorts of reactions. But let’s face it, even today discrimination in healthcare access is a reality and the same applies to ethical values.
Think of access to cancer therapy and abortion in the United States, just to focus on the most developed nation on the planet. The question here is if adding immortality to the equation would cause people to run away, or embrace it. I do not have an answer.
When it comes to the environment, global warming, and all the way down to the preservation of whales, I believe immortality will be nothing but yet another variable in the puzzle.”
“Good summary Valerio,” Dora intervened, “but how do you translate that into a program? What do we have to do? We are just six, and unlike Saint John, we have got no revelation.”
“Do not underestimate the power of media and word of mouth. I mean, you do not need an army of people to build an efficient communication system. We have to immediately spread scientific propaganda. I think we have to use a two-pronged strategy.
The first one should be led by George and Helena. They have all what it takes to go out in the open and fund biotech startups with
the goal of increasing longevity by let’s say, a two-hundred year lifespan. Of course this will be initially dismissed as marketing hype but…”
“…It will reach people in the right circles,” George took over. “They are the ones who fund studies, give us other ideas, make investments….in a nutshell, it will alert the wealthy that a major change is on the come up. Some will like it, others will not, it does not really matter. Everyone will find a way to adjust to it.”
“Exactly. Part of it will also leak into the mainstream media, where it will become part of pop culture,” Dora finished.
“And this is where you come in, Valerio,” said Louis. “How do you plan to spread the word?”
“I do not have a clear plan yet. Let me take advantage of the extra time we have,” he chuckled.
“If it’s any help, I do not see anything drastically different from what you do now in advertising. Promoting a few good movies is an easy task, same goes for books – which, by the way, now you can publish them online yourself. We must use the occasional scientific discovery or celebrity misdeed to spread some uncontrolled rumors on new drugs that can extend youth.
The good thing is that with the Internet nowadays, we can determine the effect all those campaigns will have. At my new company, we have developed software that monitors how news trends and even personal reputations are spreading around the Internet and how new events affect them. The point is, we can create a kind of “immortality readiness barometer”, or “Immortalometer” to make it short, and monitor how it evolves.”
So the decision to initiate the preparation was made, with everybody in favor of it, except Tarek.
Since it was not a vote to announce Telomerax, we did not need unanimity to move forward. However, I was a bit worried, and asked Tarek why he was opposing.
“I have no reason, at least not a rational one,” he said. “if I was rational, I would buy all the arguments that have been discussed. All I have is a gut feeling, telling me this is not a wise decision.”
“In retrospect, he was right. The next ten years proceeded in a much different way than we could have ever imagined.”
Part Two
Detection and Awareness