Aug 26, 2015

Hi one and all. One of the things that has always surprised me about science fiction is how often medical science has remained more or less static. I look at the advances in the medical field made in my lifetime thus far and am astounded by this. In Cloning Freedom I wanted to address this. Thus later in the book you have the following scene. I will mention that Kadar is an old friend of Ryan’s who happens to be a doctor.

Kadar patted her hand. “If Ryan is doing what I think he’s doing, I wouldn’t worry too much. He has a place in mind where your origin won’t matter.”

“Nice to know. So why’s he different? Why’s he a clone?”

“Murack Five.” Kadar’s dark complexion blanched.

“I’ve heard the name, but I don’t know what it is.”

“It is a planet. There was a war. I do not wish to discuss the rest. Let us leave it that both Ryan and I received a massive dose of radiation. It so damaged us that nothing but the most radical of treatments was a viable option. It was, in effect, a death sentence, but Ryan was only eighty-seven at the time.”

“EIGHTY-SEVEN!” Rowan’s gaze leapt to Ryan then locked gazes with Kadar.

“My dear, did you think medicine would have failed to advance in the years separating the technologies we are accustom to? The average human, without use of cloning, can expect to live approximately two hundred Earth standard years. That’s about one-hundred and ninety New Gaea years, give or take based on individual biology.”

“Two hundred... Star dust!” Rowan’s already pale skin grew even lighter. “So he was eighty-seven. What was he doing in combat?”

Kadar smiled. “Paying his son’s way through university. Rowan, you cannot think of him as an unaltered human of the age of eighty-seven. Think of him as a man who was just entering his middle-years. Perhaps thirty-five by your standards.”

“Wow. OK, so he got a dose of radiation and needed a new body, so they grew him one.”

“Then transferred his memories and consciousness into the new shell. That’s the tricky part.” Kadar coughed and it doubled him over. Rowan rubbed his back until he stopped.

“If they could save Ryan by cloning him--.” began Rowan.

“Why couldn’t they save me?” Kadar smiled sadly. He looked exhausted. “They could have, but I was a hundred and ten.”

“So?”

“Humans Ascendant is a powerful lobby group in the United Earth Systems. They feel all cloning and genetic manipulation should be banned. Years ago they pushed to have limits set on the use of medical cloning. An age was chosen beyond which the extreme measure of cloning a replacement body as a treatment was illegal. The politicians and environmental lobbies helped push the law through. You see, humans tend to breed, and keeping our population to manageable levels is a major concern. They picked a nice round number, with no regard to scientific reality.”

Rowan stared at Kadar. “One-hundred.”

“You are clever. Thus I was left to rot in my cancers while Ryan was issued a new form, though....”

“Though?”

On other matters, Humans Ascendant crops up as a bunch of busy bodies dictating to other people how they should live on several occasions in the book. In fact, most of the problems Ryan and Rowan face are the direct result of this oppressive organization’s interference in politics and society in general. In other places we find out, that with rare exceptions, cancer is little more annoying than a cold in this future time. Speaking as one who lost his mother to cancer and had it play a role in his father’s death, the day we defeat it can’t come soon enough. Thus I show the future world as not all black. Actually, much of Ryan’s world is a near paradise but humans inhabit it so perfection is impossible. Until next time, Keep smiling.