Sergio De La Pava - A Naked Singularity

I would grow wings and shed the shackles that kept me tethered to this place and day. Thus freed, I would soar up and through the air, above the Earth, to exotic locales where I would be pampered beyond my wildest dreams . Venice, Paris, Rome, Sydney, Tokyo, Rio, Athens would be my homes.

No, better yet, I would be homeless. Owning and owing nothing and no one. I would exist well outside the norms and concerns of society, my only concern my personal advancement and evolution as a human being. As such I would only intake the very finest our tepid species had been able to produce. Only the finest foods in my shell, which shell would be subjected to only the finest medical care. Through my repaired ears and into my melon only the most angelic music would pass, which by now you know would include a healthy dose of live Ludwig. And along with those notes only the finest thoughts, arguments, theories, hypotheses, assessments, deeds, proofs, actions, creeds, kudos, slogans, phrases, sayings, limericks, and memories. Okay that last one’s tricky but beauty in, beauty out, as I would be transformed into a timeless yet evanescent superbeing who didn’t know what anything cost.

“Success Casi! Sweet success!”

I recognized Conley’s voice but didn’t see him. “Remember this date for it is truly a great one! Not this date actually, rather the date success was achieved. Today’s just the day I confirmed the findings.”

“The hell you talking about?” I said as I entered his jack o’ lantern office where he sat alone on his couch waving a newspaper.

“The Human Genome Project, what else?”

“Oh that, right.”

“The project has borne the sweetest of fruit my friend who possesses fine feathers and you’re one of the few people here who can appreciate the awesome significance of this.”

“I know, they’ve mapped the human genome or whatever.”

“Jesus, you say it like you’re ordering fries with that. Are you sure you understand exactly what has occurred?”

“I’m quite sure I don’t, but I have to get going actually.”

“Fine, I’ll explain. You were once a single-celled egg. That’s right you. A single-celled egg! Did you ever wonder how you were transformed from that into your current condition?”

“Genes?”

“No, genes! Your genes orchestrated the whole thing, cooking you from a raw egg into a fully-functional human being. What do you think of that? Genes are the life force! How you say? What are genes? Think of genes as little packets of instructions that tell a cell what to do. They’re hereditary instructions written in a four letter code.”

“A, G, C, T.”

“The letters of this alphabet are A, G, C, and T. Each letter corresponds to one of the chemical constituents of DNA namely Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, and Thymine. So note that while genes give you life they also serve as a type of prison. By using this language to tell cells how to behave, genes ultimately tell your body what to look like, how impressive to be, what diseases to fall victim to, what infirmities to have and all other sorts of freedom-stultifying limitations. Scientists looked at this situation and said Fuck You, no way shall human beings be thus treated for long! And so was born the international consortium of scientists known as the Human Genome Project. They set about studying the genome or the entire collection of genes with a goal of identifying and locating all the genes and what they are responsible for. In essence they were looking for the blueprint for making a human. You see genes are made of DNA or rather they are in fact short segments of DNA. DNA, as you know—”

“Yes.”

“—is that long threadlike, double-helix whammy-jammy that’s coiled inside our cells. If you look in the cell’s nucleus, as I have done, you will see that the DNA is packaged into 23 pairs of chromosomes. If you look inside any of those chromosomes, which I have regrettably not done, you will see up to thousands of genes arranged like beads on a string. Now if we knew what each gene was responsible for we could have all sorts of fun. The problem is there are about a hundred thousand of these slippery suckers and they used to take forever to find and identify. I say used to because we’ve done it!”

“We?”

“I won’t bore you with a detailed description of the amazing machines and computers necessary to do this but realize that through the use of certain genetic markers, such as distinctive pieces of DNA that serve as landmarks, we have created genetic maps that allow us to pinpoint the exact location of a particular gene. So, for example, we now have a detailed map of chromosome 22. We know it contains 545 genes, 298 of which were unknown to science before The Project. Mind you, we haven’t gotten to that level of detail with all the chromosomes but we do have a rough map of humanity’s genetic makeup and we will relatively soon have a perfectly precise map of the entire genome. I don’t have to tell you what that means do I?”

“I suppose we , there’s that word again, could better treat genetic diseases for one. Although I seem to recall one kid dropping dead from early attempts at gene therapy. I guess you could better identify high risk people for various illnesses and engage in preventative measures. Maybe we could find the gene that causes this guy I know to sometimes double over in ear pain.”

“My god! Will you forget medicine? Of course people are talking about those things but they’re idiots. I’m thinking big. Because while I’m fascinated by them I also know that genes are evil. They’re our enemy because they are fundamentally unjust. They tell us who to be and what to do and there’s nothing I hate more than being given orders. But now we’ve been liberated. Because of the Human Genome Project mankind will soon leapfrog several evolutionary phases. This is how it should be. I’m pissed I was born too soon. I should have been genetically altered in the womb. I want the gene for extreme intelligence not the run-of-the-mill shit I got. I want to look like the guy in the Calvin Klein ad. And throw in the big-dick gene too. We will create superhumans, thereby fulfilling our destiny to replace the God we killed off long ago. I’ll even throw you a medical bone. Life spans will triple. We will conquer death, the impediment God threw in our path to keep us in our place. All women will be as beautiful as Greta Garbo, as brilliant as Emily Dickinson, and as charming as Snoopy. Of course all that is secondary to the advances the Project will make possible in the field of human intelligence. We are meant to figure out this whole mess called Life yet we haven’t. Intelligence is what’s gotten us this far but past intelligence will seem quaint in comparison. Last century belonged to Theoretical Physics but this one and the rest will belong to Biology. All other fields of science will have to defer into a lesser role. This is obvious if you think about it. If advances in biology lead to the creation of a race of superhumans far greater in intellectual ability than the humans that have existed heretofore, then predictable advances in other sciences will follow. This is extremely necessary as we appear to have hit some dead ends. In Physics we still haven’t reconciled the very large with the very small. And what of Time? Does it even exist? What in the fuck is it? What about consciousness? What the hell is it? What causes it? With respect to this last question especially, it doesn’t just seem a question of needing more effort to answer these questions. Something more radical appears to be required. I agree with this nut Colin McGinn who says that when it comes to the vexing questions about consciousness our brains, as currently constituted, are simply incapable of adequately wrapping themselves around the problem. What is needed are new and improved brains and because of today’s news we will soon have them.”