Future Polymath

In Boron City on Ariel, a Moon of Uranus, I was Mayor, and I liked to dream of being a polymath. I was already a skilled politician and writer. But I wanted to be a biologist and a chemist, so I studied hard and got myself some science apps which enhanced my ability to think scientifically. Finally, after ten years of hard work, I was a successful biochemist, and I had a few patents on forestalling aging. Ultimately, my patents were bought out and eternal youth was here to stay. Ninety-nine percent of people wanted it. The one percent that didn’t were mostly living for the day and didn’t believe they could live forever.

I was still Mayor of Boron city. The people were glad to have a polymath as leader. I continued to write novels, too. One novel was about humans who lived to be 1,000 years old and experienced everything that humans could do and nearly all of them were wise. But some were totally foolish, despite their years. In the end, this world in the novel put a limit of 1,000 on people's lifespans. And so when they reached 1,000, they had a great wake and highlights of their lives were shown and everyone was boisterous. In the story, however, one man turned 1,000 and refused to die. There were others who felt the same way, so in the end it came down to a war between the two camps and the pro-millenniums won. But the losers said that those over 1,000 were greedy troublemakers, and that the oldest wanted too much power and control. It was the battle of evermore.

Another story I wrote was about a crazy thinker who imagined himself to be the smartest person in the world today. To prove it, he had debates with leading intellectuals and always chose the least popular position to argue. And time after time the audience voted him the winner. Then he ran for politics and succeeded as leader of Chile. As leader, he stuck up for the masses and gave them all brain apps so they could be like him. Of course, the apps caused many to go insane. But most took it slow and improved gradually. He also had an app for the insane to make them sane again.

I wrote another novel about a crazy woman who is a prostitute and wants to clone herself thousands of times so she can love every man in the universe. She is very popular and many of her customers chip in for her cloning fund. She figures her clones will last forever.

Also, I wrote a novel about a utopia which features the God machine. The God is made up of the best 100 minds in the Galaxy and creates and destroys life everywhere.

And I wrote a scientific treatise on the sun and how I had discovered new elements in its make-up. It was unknown what the new elements could be used for. Some had the characteristics of heavy metals. Some were radioactive elements. I wanted to build a super diamond spacecraft that could penetrate the sun’s corona. I also studied other stars remotely.

I had a very active and successful life. And through it all, I loved my girlfriend, Beta. Beta was a mathematician who through trial and error simulated new chemical elements that had yet to be discovered. I was in love with her mind.

And Beta told me, “In the future, everyone will be a scientist. It’s just the way evolution will work. Children will all have enhanced minds, and the sky is the limit as to what science can do.”

I said, “All science and no art makes Jack a dull and geeky boy. And many people are not cut out to do science. Not in a million years!”

Beta said, “Maybe not everyone will do good science, but at least everyone will know something of science and be useful as guinea pigs and such.”

Tom is currently senior editor at FLEAS ON THE DOG (fleasonthedog.com). He has published novels and stories with the likes of Planisphere Quarterly, Down in the Dirt Magazine, Conceit Magazine, Poetry Pacific, Lone Star Magazine, and many others.