Transhumanist Wager, The (15 page)

Jethro Knights was not afraid of
love. His heart and mind were simply without experience, without a map. Because
he was neither wounded nor compromised, he was not educated in these matters.
Yet, here he was, shocked at the stunning task before him. Spending his life
with Zoe Bach, pursuing their bliss. It was such an obvious choice. So natural.
You don't meet a loving, wild, adventurous, life-seeking doctor out in a war
zone and pass it up. You don't walk away and not support and protect her in any
way you can for the rest of your life. Millions of years of biology was
speaking to him, was shouting at him, was motivating him. This was the
once-in-a-lifetime chance described by so many of the great books he read—their
tributes to the altar of love. So many had passionately raved of the
irresistible beckoning and unmatched dream.

Despite it all, Jethro forced
himself to end the relationship. He forced himself to finish what he wanted to
do: sail around the world and discover himself, continue his quest for
immortality, and find the direction it should take. He took a week off from
staying with Zoe and flew to Tibet to write another
International Geographic
travel article. In those few days he taught himself to shut down his heart. To
not pay attention to its yearnings. To still his emotions.

When he returned to Kundara, he
embraced her and made love to her for one enduring, sleepless night—then said
farewell at dawn.

Leaving Zoe was the most painful
experience Jethro had ever endured. The wound smarted, twisted, left him with
insomnia, left him unable to eat for days. He lost weight, caught the flu,
coughed all night in bed, watched his hair follicles turn gray. Jethro forced
himself not to contact her again. He didn't want to keep in touch. He couldn't
bear both worlds. Zoe cried, laughed, threatened, and finally screamed at him
when she saw him walk off at dawn, carrying his backpack and camera. She
marveled at his heart. At his stubborn mind. So ardent, so desiring of
knowledge and power, so needing to fathom and control the universe and its
mysterious ways.

For the first few days after he
left, Zoe felt little more than a phantom, empty and void. She could hardly
believe he was gone; that he would really insist on halting their extraordinary
path of love. Then, over the next few weeks, she gathered her peace, accepted
it, forced herself to believe it was okay, and practiced her quantum thoughts.
She chose to deliberately lose herself in her work and focus on her career. She
was leaving Kashmir soon too, back to her residency in San Francisco. The
endless hours in the operating room would help get her mind off him.

Besides, deep down inside, she knew
he would be back. She could wait. This was just the beginning.

************

Jethro Knights arrived in
Singapore, his heart concealed in the most cavernous part of his mind. He
finished the remaining maintenance on his yacht, and a week later departed
through the Straits of Malacca, lightning casting its way across the water in
front of him. He was bound for the Indian Ocean.

He reached Sri Lanka in his third
year away from New York City, and stopped in Galle to re-provision and research
the highlands for an article. There, Jethro had all his mail forwarded to him
from the past twelve months. In the small postal box were school loan
consolidation offers, alumni donation requests, U.S. Census Bureau
questionnaires, chain store coupons, health insurance notifications, driver’s
license renewal forms, and much more. All system garbage, thought Jethro, who
was so far removed from the nine-to-five world with its oppressive tax
statements, life insurance premiums, and cable bills.

At the bottom of the package he
noticed another letter, slightly crumbled but recently mailed. It bore the
insignia of the World Transhumanist Institute. The name of its president, Dr.
Preston Langmore, was in the upper left corner. He opened the envelope and
read:

Dear Jethro Knights,

I recently had the pleasure of
reading your Victoria University senior thesis:
Rise of the Transhuman
Citizen
. In all my readings on the subject of transhumanism, few essays have
moved me so much. Your paper reads like the arrival of a revolutionary
manifesto—a new planet discovered in a long-established galaxy. The ethics and
ideas of TEF and the omnipotender are radical but simple, raw but convincing.
They are also, refreshingly, without a hint of remorse.

The paper has been getting some
notable attention recently—mostly in the underground circles of our movement.
Transhumanists have taken over the liberty to post it everywhere on the
Internet. I’ve seen it on a dozen websites and blogs.

In light of this, I’ve been
trying to contact you, but have found it quite difficult to do so. Recently,
Dean Graybury, whom I’ve known for years, assisted me. He informed me that
you’d
built a boat and were sailing around the world—writing articles for
International
Geographic.
He put me in touch with your editor, Francisco Dante, who has
given me this address to reach you.

If you are the man who wrote
Rise
of the Transhuman Citizen,
please contact me. I am most interested in your
welfare and in making use of your eloquent articulation, if in fact you are
still interested in transhumanism.

Yours truly,

Dr. Preston Langmore, President

World Transhumanist Institute

478 Fernright Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C.  20004

Before Jethro departed the
following week for the Red Sea, he wrote back to Langmore. Jethro thanked him
for the letter and welcomed correspondence with him. Jethro informed him of his
travels, his articles, and the books he was reading. He also wrote of his
unyielding commitment to his own immortality and the field of transhumanism. He
told Langmore that the sailing trip was both a test and a training mission: a
time to strengthen his core self so he could successfully accomplish his
long-term objectives in life.

Jethro promised to regularly check
his personal email when he could. Soon they began corresponding frequently and
candidly via the Internet.

One of Jethro’s earliest emails to
Langmore read:

Good Morning Preston,

Thank you for that transhumanism
essay you forwarded three days ago. It was an engaging read. Tomorrow I’m
leaving again
,
headed up the coast of Africa. Just came through
bullet-ridden Yemen. Filthy, dangerous, and brutal. It's hard to fathom that
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and that nearly one in four
on the planet are now Muslim. Don't people realize the teachings of the Koran
are totally incompatible with a free, functional society? Don't people see how
male-chauvinistic and xenophobic its ideas are? All the women here are totally
covered up in black—I can't even see their eyes. How do they expect to live in
a world when half the population can't see or be seen? Just like the Bible and
other major religious texts, the pages of the Koran are not remotely suited to
instruct humankind.

Unfortunately, most of my
travels have increasingly led me to feel cross at many cultures, societies, and
governments. There's much to scoff at with the human race, much to criticize,
much to transform. Honestly, most of it should be scrapped and recast entirely.

Nevertheless, some things I do
appreciate—at least in small doses. The authenticity of the indigenous peoples
of the South Pacific, for example. The honor and efficiency of the few
remaining Japanese Samaria clans I visited. The unyielding militants in
Kashmir, as misled as they are. Or that magnificent floating community I sailed
by near Singapore—where, apparently, they create their own laws. Still, I see
mass culture as a formidable enemy. It seems to me, this is the most dangerous
thing about people's perspectives on immortality and transhumanism. Culture has
been based for centuries on fear and on God or a divine power delivering us
from that fear. And not what we can do as a species or as individuals,
especially in science and technology.

Feel free to send me more of
your thoughts and essays.

Sincerely,

Jethro

Langmore emailed back more essays
and also related personal anecdotes of his own travels, including the lessons
and perspectives he had accumulated along his extensive path of transhumanism.
In one email, Langmore sent eight favorite quotes of his youth to Jethro,
knowing the young man would appreciate the intensity and wisdom in them:

1) I'm a skeptic of humankind, but
a believer of its potential.

2) There's one sure way to
destroy yourself: by not being honest.

3) Life is essentially a choice
between pursuing personal godhood or dust.

4) The evolution of humans is
long overdue for a major upgrade.

5) People may not be interested
in life extension, but life is interested in extending them.

6) All levels of society must be
subject to the sanctity of the individual.

7) Transhumanists have a
religion; it consists of asking the question,
Why?

8) The soul of a human being is
that which wants to survive in life-threatening situation.

Jethro smiled when he read the
quotes, and responded by emailing his own set of gathered imperatives:

Preston,

Here are the meditations I've
found essential to me so far—to get what
I want out of life. I read and
consider them every day. And, on occasion, add to them or even rewrite them.

Cheers,

Jethro

1) Let my thoughts always
utilize statistical analysis of value as the highest means of interpretation
possible—then let my actions follow the best, most logical path derived from
that information. Form follows function.

2) Strive to always know and
recognize the difference between my rational and emotional self. Slavery to
emotions (or anything else) is slavery to the universe—and by its nature,
counter to TEF and the omnipotender. Slavery is its own variation of death.

3) Understand that society's
mass culture and its reverence for its history is a dominant adversary—and for
me not to give it credence or power. I am not fundamentally one with the Earth,
its people, or its multitudes of life; I do not view myself as a beholden spawn
or child of the universe. I am alone and distinct.

4) Understand that any sense of
social pride from others or in myself is another formidable detriment—do not
let it manifest in any way. Do not respect others who suffer from it.

5) Understand that I will make
mistakes but will accept them humbly, and not justify myself to them; instead,
I will learn from them, and will make fewer and fewer mistakes as the years
pass.

6) Adhere to these rules and
accomplish my goals by always focusing on long-term growth patterns, outcomes,
and evolutions of self-worth and value perception—and not necessarily the
immediate moment, which may reveal little of reality or my ultimate destiny.

7) I must have zero tolerance
for betraying my ambitions and quests or I will quickly lose valuable time and
headway attaining my best self. In a closed system like Earth's life-and-death
cycle, that lost time and potential progress may be irrevocable and
unrecoverable. The universe and one's existence can offer no forgiveness for
failed opportunity. Always maintaining and applying the utmost integrity in
myself and of my philosophy, TEF, is essential.

8) An omnipotender doesn’t fall
in love. I will fail to achieve my goals if I lose myself in another, live for
another, or place my happiness and aspirations in another. I am
self-sufficient, not needing anything or anyone else.

After more email exchanges, each
letter longer and more personal than the former, Langmore asked Jethro how much
he knew about the fifty-year history of transhumanism and its immortality
mission—the science, the multi-decade clash with religious America, the highs
and lows of the movement. Jethro admitted he didn't know the full details,
pointing out that he had never joined any groups in his life, nor bothered to
know much about them. Additionally, he told Langmore he was often skeptical of
groups—even an organized scientific one such as the World Transhumanist
Institute—but that a comprehensive history would be appreciated.

Langmore responded in a curt,
all-capital-lettered email:

NOT A DAMN GROUP, JETHRO, BUT A
BUNCH OF OVERACHIEVING SCIENTISTS FED UP WITH MOB MEDIOCRITY AND PIG RULES, WHO
DECIDED TO BAND TOGETHER FOR GREATER EFFICACY. ESSENTIAL BOOKS AND MY LECTURES
ON THEIR WAY TO YOU—PICK UP NEXT WEEK AT XAVIER HOTEL IN DOWNTOWN CAIRO.

REGARDS,

PRESTON

Jethro grinned. Langmore’s response
contained fire, and he liked that. Perhaps there was more to these gentle
scientists than he thought. Perhaps they just needed to be ignited.

Seven days later, Jethro docked
Contender
in the Suez Canal, took a bus to Cairo, and collected his three-foot-high
wooden box at the Xavier Hotel. In it was every important book written about
transhumanism and its foes, and every essential lecture and speech that
Langmore had ever made.