Ad 2120: Life 100 Years from Now

By David R. Earl

This is the story of attorney Sean O'Reilly and psychologist Carmen Estrada who marry in the year of 2120. He belongs to a hard-drinking Irish family, has two brothers, one in the military, and the other owns a commercial real estate firm. Carmen is of African-American and Honduran ancestry. Her brother is a biologist.

Women are at the forefront in academics, professions, business, government, politics and other white collar pursuits. America has had several female Presidents. The strength and aggressiveness of men is no longer necessary because robots and androids do most of the things that men used to do.

Until a new law was passed, half of all births were accidental with the less educated women having the most children. Congress, where women are the majority, passed legislation allowing birth control medication to be put in the water supply. Prospective mothers must apply, be tested and obtain permission from the government to have a child. Designer babies, who are now free from most illnesses, outnumber naturally born children. Birthing labs are available so women do not have to carry the baby. Sean and Carmen are intent on having a designer baby, called a Tudor, but problems occur.

Black women have been mating with what is called "the cream of the white males." This infuriates a small number of the African-American men who believe America's white culture is overrunning their race. A minority of these black men formed a cabal which worked to stop the mixing of black and white races.

Nanotechnology has come into its own. Due to this miraculous technology, Androids are almost human, have high IQs and have become companions to humans. Many humans live only with an android. They have detailed human female or male gender characteristics of body and mind built into them at the factory.

Our sexual paradigm has changed radically toward the liberal persuasion. Some people still get married or register their domestic partnerships, but many men and women live together without any legal status.

Murder and other crimes have lessened in civilized society, but atrocities still happen, more often in nations of the Third World. Many people still do adhere to religion, but others wonder about theories that different entities may have created the Universe. Perhaps by Intelligent Design, an almighty God, or perhaps by random chance. Humans continue to attempt to obtain equal justice for all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 27, 2006
• ISBN: 9781462838059

David R. Earl

David R. Earl's previous books were the well acclaimed, The Bankruptians and Confessions of a Bill Collector from Poverty Knob. He started writing in 1946 when he was a 16-year-old farm boy as a country cousin for The Portland Oregonian and the Oregon Journal. Over the years his articles have been published in state and national magazines. He was editor of a trade association magazine for 10 years. He sold his numerous business interests and retired in 1998. He and his wife, Ann, live in Eugene, Oregon. A sequel to 2120 a. d. will be published in 2007.

Book preview

AD 2120

Life 100 Years From Now

David R. Earl

Copyright © 2006 by David R. Earl.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

30381

Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Author’s Note

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

—Albert Einstein

INTRODUCTION

Technology is changing our culture so rapidly no one can actually grasp its

full implications, though we often try to predict the future. Sometimes prognosticators are right, and sometimes they are wrong. Hopefully, this novel will be a prophecy of some aspects of life 100 years from now.

As science advances, the aggressiveness and vigor of males become less necessary for civilized society. Robots and androids will become stronger, faster, and more efficient than men in doing the manly things of strength, energy, stamina, and heroics. Machines of all types will do what men used to do. Most women are born with more verbal skills than men. Most men’s potential for science and mathematics may exceed the women’s. In 2120, aside from technology, clear communication and psychology will be essential skills. The more we become civilized, the more advantage women will have over men in academics, professions, business, government, politics, and other white-collar pursuits.

Educated women will have fewer children. Less-educated women will have more offspring themselves or hire surrogate mothers to bear their children. Or they will ignore, in the emotion of the moment, and forget to use the multitude of birth control medications. There will be those who have multiple births for the purpose of increasing their race’s percentage of our population. This will be true of some ethnic groups and not others.

This situation provides the perfect opportunity for our government to increase its power over our citizens, in a small degree, by stopping unwanted children but actually controlling our population. The government will want to control birthrates, gender relationships, what ethnic group should or should not have children, and who may or may not be parents for the good of the nation.

People have talked about creating designer babies since the arrival of Louise Brown—the first baby born via in vitro fertilization—in 1978. Today you can hire the Fertility Institute in Los Angeles, California, to do an in vitro fertilization technique called preimplantation genetic diagnosis. By creating embryos outside the womb, in a petri dish, and testing them for gender, PGD could guarantee—with almost 100 percent certainty—the sex of your baby.

Very soon through manipulation of DNA, in addition to choosing the sex, parents can prescribe the body type and other physical attributes of their child. Later on, they will be able to free the baby from serious genetic diseases. Finally, the scientist will learn to genetically predispose the mental processes of the baby to increase IQ, aptitudes, and personality traits.

Applied Digital Solutions Inc. of Delray Beach, Florida, won approval of its VeriChip system by the FDA last year. It is a tiny electronic capsule the size of a grain of rice planted under the skin with a voluminous database that can be read by a scanner. The device can be injected under the skin in a quick, painless procedure. A person’s entire medical history can be recorded and kept up-to-date. Doctors can scan patients like cans at the grocery store. It also works as a location device. A handheld GPS system or a satellite can track it.

Neural prosthetics, which has long been the stuff of science fictions, is becoming a reality. Cyberkinetics of Foxborough, Massachusetts, has developed a baby-aspirin-sized microchip that can be implanted under the skull that will allow the patient’s mind to help heal spinal cord injuries, Lou Gehrig’s disease, cerebral palsy, and other maladies.

We are at the brink of another radical new age—nanotechnology. It is an embryonic field in which researchers manipulate structures at an atomic level to create new—and better-performing materials and products. This technology will have an enormous impact on humanity and the biosphere, larger than the Industrial Revolution, nuclear weapons, or environmental pollution. In the last three years, the U.S. government has given $4.7 billion and Japan has given $20 billion to their universities for the development of this miraculous new science. A nano is one billionth of a meter in size, roughly four atoms wide, and it takes 75,000 nanometers to equal the width of a human hair.

On November 18, 2003, there was a tie-breaking final game of chess with man vs. machine. It was the best player humanity has to offer, Garry Kasparov, vs. X3D Fritz, the best chess-playing machine in the world. Kasparov played the final game to a draw. So it was two draws and one game each. Neither the man nor the machine won the match. In 1997, Kasparov was beaten by Deep Blue in a match that was truly frightening. Not because the machine won but because of the subtlety of its moves. The subtlety makes one think there might be something stirring in all that silicon.

Today only humans, chimpanzees, and orangutans (some say gorillas) have convincingly demonstrated self-awareness. Millions of years ago, neurons started firing—allowing mindless organisms to move about, avoid deadly stimuli, and exist. When these neurons were put together with enough complexity, all of a sudden, you got us—Homo sapiens.

The next step is for scientists to break the final prohibition—crossing humans and lesser animals. Chimpanzees share 98 percent of our genome, and a mature chimp has, at least, the ability and consciousness of a four-year-old child. Researchers say creating this hybrid is possible. If human-animal hybrids happen, it could create a creature so human that questions regarding its moral and legal status would throw four thousand years of ethics into utter chaos.

Androids, whose appearance and actions cannot be distinguished from a human’s, are in the embryo state today. Partly by nanotechnology, androids can be built to have brilliant minds with computer-like accuracy but still be under human control. Within one hundred years, this new class of artificial intelligence will come into its own. Though it was originally designed by humans, it will evolve into something other than the original form: it will be alive under any reasonable definition of the term. It may be that the artificial intelligence of machines will eventually achieve consciousness that will result in some aspect of self-will and self-awareness.

In 1900, the average life of a U.S. citizen was forty-seven years. In 2000, it was seventy-nine years, which means it has increased by 70 percent in one hundred years. Computing this to 2120, the average life span will be over 130 years. Research on telomerase, the immortalizing enzyme, tells us that we may be able to live five thousand years. It may even reverse the effects of age so that an eighty-year-old couple, who look and act as if they were thirty, may be seen pushing their baby carriage down the street with their newborn child in it. Those who say I don’t want to live to be that old and those who say That’s playing God need to realize that each time there is a heart bypass, an appendectomy, treatment for cancer, an immunization shot, or any other medical procedure, it is to extend life or make it more livable.

Humankind has barely begun to live out its destiny, which may be to explore the universe. If we avoid killing ourselves from atomic bombs, biological pathogens, chemicals, or accidental chaos from scientists, in a mere century or two, we may live in a world far beyond what we are able to conceive of today. Although this novel is fiction, it deals with human conflicts, murder, attempt to obtain justice, nanotechnology, designer babies, androids, and the changing of the sexual paradigm. The novel has something to say about these awesome possibilities, both good and bad.

David R. Earl

2005

CHAPTER ONE

As Carmen ran her finger around the rim of her martini glass, she said to

Sean, We’ve often talked about having a baby. To have a child would change our lives forever, hopefully for the best. And we could have a made-to-order baby that would eliminate most of the risks. Do you think we’re emotionally mature enough to apply for a prescription for an antidote? Then she took a sip of her vodka martini.

Sean leaned across the small cocktail table to hold her delicate hand in his large one and said, You certainly are. You would be a great mother. It’s hard for me to know about myself, but I hope at my age, I’ve gained enough wisdom to be a father. You would know more about that than I. I doubt if they would find anything that would disqualify us. We would have to get married or register as lifelong partners to qualify. Then we’d have to pass the psychological, physical, and precrime tests.

With her free hand, she ran her manicured fingers lovingly down his cheek and, leaning over lightly, kissed the top of his hand. Sitting back, she crossed her exquisite legs. Rubbing her foot against his leg, she said, I think I would like being married.

He leaned across to give her lips a light kiss. If we have a designer baby, what characteristics would you like?

I’m not sure, but if it’s a boy, it should look a lot like you. The agency should be able to answer all of our questions. What about you? What traits would you like?

If we choose a girl, she should be as gorgeous as you with your personality.

Thank you, lover, she said. Something had started to make her aroused. His light kiss had helped the sensation along. Carmen found herself beginning to feel that tingle of lust that happened to her so often with Sean.

They were sitting in the El Toro Lounge at the elaborate El Gaucho Restaurant on the fiftieth floor of the New Benson Hotel in Portland. Carmen’s jet-black hair was cascading over her bare shoulders. She is six foot tall with the lovely dark complexion of her African-American and Honduran ancestors. She has an entirely female body at age fifty. Her elegant face has a wistful smile. Perhaps it was because of her Latin genes, but she felt the room was undeniably romantic.

The wall of the extensive bar is decorated with pictures and paintings of the Pampas of Argentina. Ornately designed cocktail tables and chairs made of roundwood from Argentina’s forests lined the room. Behind the magnificent bar hung a painting of an old-time bullfighter who is waving his cape at the beast to antagonize it. In this year of 2120, bullfighting is considered repugnant and Carmen agrees with that but in a way the fighter reminds her of her life’s partner—strong, brave, and unafraid of life’s traumas. Despite being six foot five, Sean is sensitive and gentle. At age fifty-five, along with his brilliant mind, he has a good sense of humor and often makes her laugh. After many years together, she still lusts after Sean’s sculpted male body. His mind and his soul, which she adores, are all aphrodisiacs to her. She knows he has similar feelings about her.

He put his charge card into the slot and entered the payment for their drinks on the keyboard built into the table. It deducted the price of their drinks and the tip from his bank account. A small light on the table turned green. They walked to the elevator, and he punched the button for the Criss-Cross train level. Alone in the outside elevator, they viewed the city’s lights as they descended. Standing beside her with his arms around her waist, Sean gently nuzzled her neck. Then he gave her a passionate kiss. She pulled his head down to hungrily return his kiss, inserting the tip of her tongue and then withdrawing it. After ten years together, you turn me on as if I were still a teenage girl.

The two had met at a charity event. Sean spotted her across the room. He had to meet the woman with the luscious figure. He introduced himself and quickly learned her mind was as impressive as her body. When Carmen heard his full-toned baritone voice and looked up into his penetrating blue eyes, something inside her purred like a kitten. When the event was over, they went out for coffee. An hour and a half later, they walked out holding hands.

On the way to Eugene, Sean used his satellite video link to tell their Bots they would arrive in half an hour. B-Daniel, her Bot, would have their car waiting for them at the station. Squeezing his hand, Carmen said, Do you have our pills with you? He took out a small plastic container and opened the lid. She took a pink pill and downed it with a bit of water from the tiny flask that she always carried in her purse. She offered the bottle to him. He kissed her on the ear and took a blue one.

In Eugene, their car stopped after it had passed the roofed platform. As they ran for cover, big drops of rain splattered them, wetting Carmen’s mock fur coat. Waiting on the covered train platform, B-Daniel said with a hint of a Latin accent, I’m sorry. I should have brought an umbrella from the car. Did you have good trip?.

Yes, Carmen said, it was very satisfactory.

The android drove them to their condominium in the South Hills of Eugene in Carmen’s new bright red 2120 Mercedes electric car. He carefully parked it in the underground garage so that the socket under the front bumper plugged into the nuclear battery charger. Nuclear energy had become the number one source of energy in the United States that contributes practically nothing to the greenhouse gases. Most third world nations still use some combustion engines.

They took the elevator to the fifth floor and walked down the hall to their apartment. She stared at the security eye. It read both of her retinas, matched the full pattern, flashed a green light, and opened the double doors for them. Inside his Bot, blond-haired B-Bridget greeted them with a slight Swedish accent. Sean instructed the Bots that they did not want to be disturbed for the next two hours. With his hand around her waist, he accompanied Carmen to the upstairs bedroom. He waved his hand across a panel by the large double bed. The lights dimmed. Their favorite lovemaking fragrance filled the room, and romantic music began to softly play. They reached for each other.

An hour later, lying on her back, Carmen pulled the sheet up to cover her breasts, rolled over, and gave Sean a loving kiss. God, the older you get, the better you are, she said.

I doubt that. Probably, the drugs are getting better.

I really love you, Sean.

Maybe that is why you think I’m getting better. He chuckled.

You don’t take compliments very well.

Carmen, you are the most marvelous and sexy woman I have ever known. I can’t get enough of you. You’re the woman I want to be with for the rest of my life.

I guess that means you love me.

God yes, I love you without limits.

Carmen pulled the sheet away and got on her knees above him. Sean’s lips eagerly accepted her turgid nipples. Carmen slid her hand down past his abdomen to discover all of his body had come back to life.

Sean and Carmen entered the office of the Federal Drug Administration Division of Conception Control. The receptionist asked, What can we do for you, folks?

Slightly nervous, Sean cleared his throat and said, We came to ask some questions about applying for a prescription.

We can certainly help you with that. Please fill out and sign these papers. One of our counselors will be able to talk to you in a few minutes.

Twenty minutes later, they were ushered into a well-appointed room. A short stocky middle-aged Asian woman stood up from behind her desk and shook their hands. I’m Nora Inouye. Please be seated, she said.

I understand you are interested in a prescription.

Yes, Sean said, at least we would like to know more about it.

Normally, you must take a one-day government course on what has happened since birth control was put into the water. If you will allow me to give you something of a historical perspective about how our culture has changed since then, this class can be avoided. You probably know most of it. Before you leave, I will give you a microchip explaining our process in detail, which will give you all of the information from the course.

That’s fine with us. Right, Sean?

Yes. Go ahead and tell us.

This medication and the production of Bots and their uses have caused the most radical change in the sexual paradigm since the introduction of the original birth control pill way back in the 1960s. The availability of made-to-order babies, or Tudors, has also altered our society and many other parts of the world. When the FDA allowed the use of telomeres, which may allow us to live five thousand years, the government created the Population Adjustment Theory Committee to try to determine how many children need to be born to adequately care for our population and especially to attend to our older population’s requirements.

We are familiar with some of the problems already, Carmen said. We understand our birthrate has fallen 80 percent while third world countries’ have not. Their children are overwhelming the more advanced nations.

Correct. Too few couples of the so-called civilized nations are having children. Before we put medication in the water, over half of the babies born in the U.S.A. were conceived by accident. Most of these babies were born to lesser-educated women and those who refused or forgot to use any of the medications readily available for birth control. Now 95 percent of babies born are planned, but all are not Tudors. When Congress voted to put birth control medication in our drinking water, women had a choice about becoming pregnant. If a woman who is twenty-one years of age or older wants a baby, all she has to do is take the government tests to show that she is qualified and apply for a prescription for an antidote. This ended unwanted teenage and adult pregnancies and accompanying abortions. It is illegal to sell water without the medication. They have passed a federal law to stop women who are trying to avoid the medication by drinking from streams, wells, or other source. Women who get pregnant without the government’s OK are not prosecuted yet. Too much wrangling in government enforcement agencies.

I would think that some of those qualifications might be considered a ‘Big Brother’ regulation or, by some groups, genocide, Sean said.

"That’s a consideration. However, there is a diversity of ethnic people on the governing board who are supposed to see this does not happen. Guidelines for prospective parents have been legislated to protect the children. Congress decided that parents must have a stable marriage or a registered relationship, be in good health, be financially secure, and recently, the government added a precrime test.

There was discourse about the government becoming what you mentioned a ‘Big Brother.’ The most important objection was from the Catholic Church members, even though the church has become liberal over the years. Some members said ‘it’s immoral,’ ‘playing God,’ and ‘unconscionable.’ Everyone thought the pope would find birth control in the water unacceptable, and he is still against abortion, but he made no statement against Tudors. Since the majority of the members of the House and the Senate were female, they were sensitive to women’s issues, so they ignored such complaints and passed the legislation. Some thought that our president then, Elizabeth Southern, would veto it, but she did not.

I remember that because she was our first African-American woman president. She is a descendent of the Condoleezza Rice family, Carmen said.

Yes, that’s right, Nora said. The law was appealed to the Supreme Court, but they decided to let it stand without hearing the case. Also, very significant things have happened after the law was passed. Not all of them were caused by the medication.

Sean said, I disagree on what Congress had in mind when they voted for the medication. In my view, it was a perfect excuse for them to severely control our population with another powerful bureaucracy. I don’t like it. But at the same time, I am not sure it’s the wrong thing to do, depending on how it’s managed.

In my position, I cannot agree nor disagree with you about that since it is political, Nora said.

I understand that made-to-order babies have had a terrific impact on our civilization and our culture—physically, mentally, psychologically, and even financially, Carmen said. There have been some changes for men, but the most important changes have been for women.

Nora said, I think I can say you’re correct about that. Through analysis and manipulation of DNA, scientists are able to produce babies on a made-to-order basis. People have talked about creating designer babies since the arrival in 1978 of Louise Brown, the first baby born via in vitro fertilization. At that time, most people opposed allowing parents to genetically select the personality traits of their children. At the same time, they did agree that they approved of using reproductive testing to help parents have a baby free of serious genetic disease. They did not approve of using the same technologies to identify and select such traits as strength or intelligence. Europe was first to successfully produce superior children through genetic manipulation. Then Americans changed their minds. We decided that to make an almost perfect child of high intelligence was far better than producing one who might have to endure a life with medical, emotional, and learning problems. With Tudors, no baby will be born that is blind, deaf, dumb, or deformed. It has, and will in the future, reduce much of the suffering in the world. It has taken some time for Tudors to catch on in the United States. Now their futures appear unlimited.

It all makes sense to me, Sean said. Eliminating abortions, eliminating most diseases, eliminating mental disorders, making people smarter.

Nora continued, About the same time, nanotechnology came of age. By combining atoms at the molecular level, it created a new nanotech revolution even more momentous than the industrial age, the atomic age, and other previously phenomenal events. Nanotech creates products using nanometer that is one billionth of a meter in size, roughly four atoms wide. It takes 75,000 nanometers to equal a human hair. Tiny computers, or nanites, injected into the human body produces a super human with the strength ten times than that of a normal person. That person can see and hear over long distances, can communicate with computers and other electronic equipment around it. Nanoshells, which contain tiny flecks of gold, can be injected and will attach themselves to tumors. Then doctors can take infrared light that passes through the skin and shine it on the tumor. That activates the gold nanoshells, which heat up and kill the tumor. It does away with the need for radiation, much of the need for chemotherapy, and surgery. Nearly all treatment of the body today is by noninvasive procedures. Some say nanotechnology is a miracle.

As a result of this, and other discoveries, thus came the Bots, the counselor said. Biologists, dermatologists, nanotechnologists, biogenetic engineers, pharmacologists, robotic designers, and other experts have made androids so real that no one can tell that they aren’t human without a close examination. Japan was the first country to manufacture them, followed by America. Body types, body heat, gender, skin that feels real, artificial blood veins, personality traits, mucus membranes, and other attributes can be made-to-order. As you know, each Bot has a B in front of its name so all will know it’s not human. A Bot’s primal command is to take no action that will harm a human, nor can a Bot’s inaction allow a human to be hurt. Both female and male Bots are built with complete sexual organs, as designated by the purchaser, and can even have electronic orgasms. Body types may be Caucasian, African-American, Asian, Latino, Native American, and others. Ordering these variations is similar to ordering your preferred accessories from an auto dealer. Also, they can be sent back to the factory and have their personality changed or reconditioned to fit various situations. They are expensive. Bots are designed to last one hundred years. Their life can be extended by rebuilding the unit. Used androids are much cheaper to buy than a new one, but it may not have all of the advanced features.

Yes, Carmen said, both Sean and I have fairly new ones. The new model’s features are not perfect. Just enough different to try to make them look more human. We do understand they can be returned so their brain can be reprogrammed. And yes, they are expensive.

Nora said, Bots are not only used for domestic help and other duties, but people started ordering them to be used as sex partners. Bots, which are at the total command of the owner, became very popular with ladies. An android’s sexual stamina far exceeds that of a human male despite today’s marvelous libido and potency drugs. Powered with a nuclear chip, Bots have endless energy and can do whatever the man or woman owner chooses for as long as it is wanted, including passionate sounds. Some women without partners have formed gigolo clubs. For the wealthy who could afford Bots, along with the birth control in the water, marriages and having children have been decimated.

Yes, Carmen said, but having sex with a Bot, although it seems almost real, is just high-tech masturbating. Physically satisfying but with no real romance and not as emotionally fulfilling as with a person you relate to or love. I do admit that most women who can enjoy a man, but can’t have an orgasm with him, can usually have it with a Bot after she has given it instructions. None of this is as psychologically satisfying as relations with a human.

That is true, the counselor said, plus there is not the same companionship, intellectual intercourse, and affection one receives. As you indicated, in the last few years, the so-called civilized nation’s birthrate has been cut radically. The majority of babies now being born are Tudors. Our government decided to offer parents a large tax deduction for each Tudor they had. Having made-to-order babies, who have very little medical or mental problems, reduces the cost for national health care. Monetarily, it is a very good arrangement for government. Soon many medical doctors will be working in research laboratories and will not be needed to treat patients.

Sean said, I hesitate to mention this, but what happens to the child if the couple separates or get divorced?

This is taken up in detail in the microchip I will give you, but through tests and interviews, the federal government decides which parent will have custody or joint custody and the amount of support to be provided by each parent based upon their income.

Big Brother again, Sean said.

"Well, it is very similar to the old court proceedings and the formulas used by the state courts for years, except this is a federal regulation. Sometimes the result will be that the government will take custody of the child. Licensed professional mothers, who have been well trained, are available to care for the child if the state takes custody. Each progenitor is monetarily liable for the child’s support until it reaches twenty years of age. A few years back, parents were liable for the higher education of their child. But with the federal government supporting the education of those who pass the tests up to and including their first Ph.D., it takes away much of the expense from parents. Of course, if the child does not pass the tests for higher education, he or she may continue their education if it is paid for privately. It is more expensive for a professional mother to care for the child than if one of the parents cares for the child. If one of the parents disagrees with the government’s decision, they may appeal it to a federal court.

Having a baby may be emotionally satisfying to a woman, but it is accompanied by nine months of inconvenience to her, loss of time at work, possible medical problems, and stretching of her body, which may not return to its original shape. It became easy to combine the female’s eggs and male’s sperms. In the birthing laboratory, due to the recent advancement of nano technology, the fetus can be fed all necessary nutrients by a process, which is similar to hydroponics, just as we grow nearly all fruits and vegetables. Successful introduction of oxygen in the artificial blood made this process possible. There is no need for a woman to bear the child. A surrogate mother can bear the child. It is possible now to exactly reproduce mother’s milk so there is no need for breast feeding unless the mother wants to. If she does not carry the child, she can produce milk with an injection of drugs and still nurse the baby.

Of the number of babies born now, how many are Tudors? Sean asked.

Their popularity took off slowly, but in the last few years, their numbers have increased rapidly. Fifty-eight percent of the babies born in the USA in 2119 were Tudors. As this figure climbs, our health care costs will become smaller and smaller.

Carmen said, "It seems to me that we are beginning to take control of our own evolutionary future. Soon nearly all human embryos will be subjected to some kind of assessment before it is allowed to grow and mature. Since we don’t know the origins and destiny of the species, the planet and the universe, how can we be sure of making the right decisions about forcing the attributes of our children both physically and mentally? I wonder what will happen when all future evolution will be controlled by one of the products of the past natural evolution, the imperfect Homo sapiens. The fact we can do it does not necessarily mean we should do it. But the genie has already been let out of the bottle. Human beings now have the knowledge and power to determine their own destiny. It may change the fundamental nature of human beings. Will our species be happier or somehow better? We have no way of knowing."

There was a moment of silence. Sean said, Carmen, are you thinking that having a Tudor is a mistake for us?

Not exactly. But I felt compelled to tell you what I was thinking about becoming the mother of a Tudor. Even though this may not have been the right time nor the right place. It is too late to stop what is called progress. Time will answer my question. I simply hope future generations will be happier than our generation without as much trauma as we experience now.

Carmen, what you have brought up are fundamental core beliefs. I also have to admit I had similar thoughts to yours but never mentioned them. I don’t think I am worried about them because I believe these manipulations of genes will be good for humankind.

Assuming you want to continue, I can tell you how this started. Strangely enough, much of the research started in Reykjavik, Iceland, the counselor said. "Kari Stefansson, founder and president of deCode, pioneered a powerful new brand of population genetics. His company analyzed DNA samples from thirty thousand Icelanders back at the beginning of the twenty-first century. They eventually found genes that caused more than fifty genetic conditions. At UCLA,