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.
All, thank you for the support. Things have been progressing well...
Hi all. Well, I’m told that talking around one’s book can interest people. So here is the first in several instalments on Cloning Freedom and its universe. For starters, Cloning Freedom is set in what I call the Switch Board Universe. This comes from two curiosities of science in the universe of Cloning Freedom. The first is that the only method of Faster Than Light travel in the Cloning Freedom universe is a star gate. Star gates are point to point FTL conduits, effectively worm holes, which allow instantaneous transit between the conduit’s ends. Space is effectively folded like a piece of paper. Each end of the conduit is anchored into a huge ring. An interesting aside is that, thus far, physics, as we understand it, in the ‘real’ world would allow for this. I added a convenience that each end of a gate would have to be “anchored” somewhere on the outer fringe of a star system to work because the gravity of the star would disrupt the gate’s function. This was dramatic licence to allow for enough time for much of the book’s action to take place but also is not out of the realm of reason considering the forces involved. The real problem with star gates is that they require the energy of a super nova to create and only allow transit between the mated rings. As a result the interstellar Republic has, by in large, outlawed their creation to avoid destroying the galaxy. This is part of the Galactic Environmental Protection Act, and when a new species develops their first star gate they are given a one time pardon on the condition that they surrender one of the star gate’s ends and join the interstellar republic. This is where the switch board comes in because the surrendered star gate is transported to the switch board system where it joins one end of all the other republic star gates. This forms a FTL transport grid that interconnects all the capital worlds of the republic member species. The reason it is called the switch board system is there is a peculiarity of technological development that at sometime in their history every species ever encountered developed some variant on the old telephone switch board. As the old tech in a real way mimicked the mechanics and function of the switchboard system it made a suitable name. More as weeks pass as well as writing samples and other neat stuff. Stay tuned and please tell your friends about Cloning Freedom.
Hi all. Well, I’m told that talking around one’s book can interest people. So here is the first in several instalments on Cloning Freedom and its universe.
For starters, Cloning Freedom is set in what I call the Switch Board Universe. This comes from two curiosities of science in the universe of Cloning Freedom. The first is that the only method of Faster Than Light travel in the Cloning Freedom universe is a star gate. Star gates are point to point FTL conduits, effectively worm holes, which allow instantaneous transit between the conduit’s ends. Space is effectively folded like a piece of paper. Each end of the conduit is anchored into a huge ring. An interesting aside is that, thus far, physics, as we understand it, in the ‘real’ world would allow for this. I added a convenience that each end of a gate would have to be “anchored” somewhere on the outer fringe of a star system to work because the gravity of the star would disrupt the gate’s function. This was dramatic licence to allow for enough time for much of the book’s action to take place but also is not out of the realm of reason considering the forces involved. The real problem with star gates is that they require the energy of a super nova to create and only allow transit between the mated rings. As a result the interstellar Republic has, by in large, outlawed their creation to avoid destroying the galaxy. This is part of the Galactic Environmental Protection Act, and when a new species develops their first star gate they are given a one time pardon on the condition that they surrender one of the star gate’s ends and join the interstellar republic.
This is where the switch board comes in because the surrendered star gate is transported to the switch board system where it joins one end of all the other republic star gates. This forms a FTL transport grid that interconnects all the capital worlds of the republic member species.
The reason it is called the switch board system is there is a peculiarity of technological development that at sometime in their history every species ever encountered developed some variant on the old telephone switch board. As the old tech in a real way mimicked the mechanics and function of the switchboard system it made a suitable name.
More as weeks pass as well as writing samples and other neat stuff.
Stay tuned and please tell your friends about Cloning Freedom.
Rowan swallowed. Henry being serious told her more about their chances than she wanted to know.
Upcoming in Cloning Freedom.
Henry was an interesting character to write. He is a complete pig when it comes to sexuality, for reasons you’ll need to read the book to understand. He is also one of the most loyal friends, in his own I know what’s best for you kind of way, anyone could ever have. With an enhanced processing speed that mean he is done most analyses in seconds he is also one of the most board beings in the galaxy.
Having completed the rough draft of Cloning Freedom I was afraid that Henry would not play with women. Let’s face it, he crude and a jerk to deal with. What surprised me is that the women who critiqued the early drafts loved him. On the page what would be annoying in life was both funny and in a strange way endearing. I fully expected to have to tone Henry down to make the book readable but thus far if anything I could have played him up a bit more. It really just goes to show you that you never know with readers.