“So what do you want to start with first?” Alex asked.
“The number one thing I want,” Aris said, “is a brain like yours… or what yours used to be.”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“Can’t you figure it out? After all, you saved an entire planet with a gizmo you assembled out of rusty spoons and paper clips. Once you figure it out for me, you can upload it yourself. That way you will be back to normal.”
“Good point.”
Aris’s comment was enough to make Alex think, and as a result, he unknowingly derailed his chance of becoming a grinder. Alex’s mind was now completely occupied with solving a problem of her own. Even with her brain at a substantially reduced capacity, she was still a very capable hacker. She thought logically about the situation, and what would be needed to recover her ability.
“There’s a chemical compound known as psilocybin, which is found in hundreds of species of mushrooms,” Alex said. “Studies have shown that it can have profound effects on a person’s brain. Ingesting even a small amount can cause psychedelic experiences.”
“Great, so how does that help us?”
“If we ignore the good times brought on by the psychedelic experience, and instead focus on the chemical process taking place in the brain, we’ll discover that under the effects of the chemical, the brain is actually more connected. People often experience colours and intricate patterns because different regions of the brain are communicating with each other. Now, whose brain does that remind you of?”
“Uh… yours?”
“Very good. So perhaps if we study the sequencing of psilocybin and create a bio-hack from it, we can restore connections in my brain that were once linked — or in other words, restore my synesthesia.”
“But won’t the effects eventually wear off?”
“Naturally. That’s why we need to manipulate the code in such a way to make the effects permanent.”
“I’m not so sure about this idea,” Aris said.
“Do you have any better ideas?”
“No.”
Alex let out a deep breath and thought about it some more. She wasn’t sure if the psilocybin idea would work or not, but decided to set it aside while she approached the problem from a different angle.
“Okay,” she said, trying again. “Without knowing the exact process of what’s going on within me, it may be reasonable to assume it has something to do with post-mitotic cells.”
“See, this is why I need your brain, I have no idea what you just said.”
“I’m just sort of thinking out loud, bear with me a moment,” Alex said as she paced back and forth. “If the cells in my brain are incapable of proliferation, then they would be unable to repair or regenerate. Therefore, the solution I need is what?” Alex asked.
“No clue.”
“Come on, Aris, think. Do that thing you always do where you come up with the solution.”
“My thing?”
On several occasions, Aris had proven useful when others who were smarter than him had failed. His unorthodox way of viewing the world and thinking of solutions was invaluable in times like these. He was beginning to recognize his consistent contribution, which made him feel better about all the times when he messed up.
“Uh… okay, let’s see…” Aris took a moment to think. “Does it have anything to do with gold dust, because last time that was—”
Alex stared at him with a blank look.
“Okay, so no gold dust,” Aris accepted. “You said post-mitotic cells are the problem, so is there like, an opposite to that?”
“Yes, mitotic stem cells.”
“Okay, if you say so.”
“Hmm…” Alex contemplated. “Okay, we may be on to something.”
“We?”
“Don’t worry, you’re helping me.”
“How? Is my ignorance motivating you to become less like me?”
“We’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer, I can feel it. Watch, you’re going to give me a great idea any second now.”
“Perhaps you just need to dumb down your approach and not overthink it. That’s what I do.”
Alex’s brain was beginning to hurt as it was getting bogged down with processing so much information. “We don’t have much time. We need to think of something before I completely lose my ability. The longer we wait, the more difficult this will become.”
“Alright, let’s go again,” Aris said, cracking his knuckles. “I was just warming up before. I’m more focused now.”
Alex tried again, positing the question in another way. “Suppose we took renewability and regeneration, and mix them in a pot, what would we get?”
“I don’t know, the fountain of youth?” Aris said jokingly. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t being serious. The fountain of youth only exists in old stories.”
Alex looked at Aris like he was the smartest man on the planet. “Aris, you’re a genius!”
“I am?”
“Of course, why else do you think I keep you around?”
“Drunken make-out sessions?”
“What? No… look, this is good. Old stories,” Alex repeated.
“What about them?”
“For most living organisms, their cells age, but negligible senescence is a lack of symptoms associated with aging, and certain animals and organisms have it.”
“Like turtles?”
“Yes, exactly. Turtles can live for over 250 years, and some negligibly senescent organisms do not age at all.”
“What does this have to do with old stories?”
“When you said that, it triggered something in my brain to recall a line in The Epic of Gilgamesh…”
“The epic of what?” Aris asked in confusion.
“It’s not ‘what’, it’s ‘who’,” Alex said. “The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest written stories in human history. It dates back over 3,000 years. In it, a character named Utnapishtim said the secret to immortality could be found in the ocean, and more specifically in coral.”
“I’m with you so far.”
“As it turns out, scientists have discovered a species of jellyfish living in the ocean near coral. It’s called Turritopsis dohrnii—”
“Spell it for me.”
“Never mind that, just listen. This particular species of jellyfish is more commonly known as the immortal jellyfish, and they just so happen to be found in the waters of Japan. Gosh, I should have thought about this sooner,” Alex said, still revelling in the idea. “I actually saw some at the fish market just the other day.”
“Great, so all we need to do is figure out how these jellyfish work and come up with a hack based on their genome.”
“I already know how the jellyfish ‘works’ — as you eloquently put it. During rejuvenation, the Turritopsis dohrnii undergo cellular transdifferentiation, which is where one cell is replaced with a newer, younger cell.”
“So essentially they age in reverse?” Aris asked.
“Yes.”
“Very peculiar,” Aris said, pondering this new information. “So with this hack, will you grow younger or will you just stay the same age?”
“You know what, you’re right,” Alex paused for a moment of reflection. “In my excitement, I hadn’t followed my thoughts through to conclusion. If this works and I come up with a hack, I would become immortal, and would never age.”
“Okay, and?”
“That would be bad,” Alex said burying her face in both her palms. “I was so caught up in getting my brain functioning again, I was only focused on the byproduct of this cellular regeneration. But after you mentioned it, I’m not so sure I should go through with this.”
“Why not?”
“It may be the greatest of all curses — seeing all my friends and family grow old and die while I remained nineteen forever.”
“People would kill to have that, so I admire you for not wanting it. And may I point out, you only have two friends and one family member — you may not be thinking ‘big picture’ here.”
“No, that’s not true, that’s exactly what I’m doing. Let’s say you and some other friends who are currently around my age live for another hundred years. You will all grow old and your health will deteriorate over time. Eventually your bodies will fail you and you’ll all perish. That’s the natural cycle of life. However, I will be young and still in perfect health. What am I to do then — kill myself?”
“Maybe you could let others download the hack too and then we could all be young and live forever… or maybe it can be our little secret, you and I can… you know what, I’m not going to finish that sentence.”
“People need to die, Aris, or else the world will become overpopulated and unstable.”
“Not necessarily, some people would choose to kill themselves. After living full and complete lives, they would have had enough and would want to end it.”
“Really? Who’s going to do that?” Alex asked.
“I don’t know, there has to be someone out there.”
“That’s too few. It’s unnatural to want to kill oneself. Self-preservation is one of the strongest and most fundamental principles in human nature. Besides, life only becomes full and complete if you go through the various stages. But if everyone remains young and their friends and family never age, then they will continue to exist and create more babies. And those babies would grow up, and once they reached a certain age, they too would opt to have the so-called immortality hack, and society would eventually fall apart again.”
“You know, it’s kind of ironic actually. The Child Rearing Act is intended to prevent the world from becoming overpopulated, amongst other things, but it failed to prevent you from being born. If you create this hack and it somehow gets out, you would essentially be responsible for overpopulating the world.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t let that happen.”
“Look on the bright side, once society collapses and it’s deemed to be your fault, people will stop worshiping you. There will be no more parades and crazy mobs chasing you — all your problems would be solved!”
Time was not a luxury Alex had. While she toiled with the idea of creating an immortality hack, she recognized that her window of opportunity was closing. In time, her condition would worsen and she might no longer be capable of creating the hack at all.
“You know what, I’ve decided to go through with it,” Alex announced with sureness.
“Wow, that was quick. Are you being serious? Even after all the problems you just stated?”
“Here’s where I’m at with it,” she said. “I may only have a few days left before a task like this becomes too much for my brain to handle. And yes, it creates a whole other set of problems, but right now you and I are the only ones who know about it. So if I create the immortality hack for me only—”
“Wait, is that what you’re calling it,” Aris interrupted, “the immortality hack?”
“Aris, the name is not important right now.”
“Fine, I just thought we could call it something cooler like… I don’t know… the eternity hack.”
“Eternity is something completely different, but whatever — eternity hack. The point I was trying to make was that the hack will at least solve the most pressing concern, which is my deteriorating mental capacity, and bide me some more time. This way, I will still have a problem, but one that’s not so time sensitive.”
“Again, that’s ironic — if the hack works the way it’s intended, you’ll have all the time in the world to figure out a solution. But the problem is that you have all the time in the world.”
“Hopefully it won’t take that long.”
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Please don't forget to vote and comment. Thanks! ~ EM
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