I. History

Welcome To Eternity Systems --The Leader in Afterlife Software. We at Eternity Systems are proud to offer a wide selection of afterlife alternatives. But before we continue, an overview of the historical and technological developments that lead us to the forefront of the afterlife software industry.

It all began in the 1960’s. Sociologists suggested that man created God and that He was no longer needed in our society. This inspired a debate between churches and scientists all over the world. Each of the two groups soon became convinced that they were enemies. This was an unfortunate incident. Both groups had part of the truth and both of these truths would be necessary for the problem to be resolved.

The social theorists of the time were quite willing to kill God, but were ill prepared to offer any viable alternative. The theorists were wrong about one important point. Mankind needs God. More importantly, human beings need to know there is an ultimate reward or consequence for their actions.

The Church knew man needed God. But they were unwilling to let science investigate God, or offer other alternatives. The Church could see no reconciliation between the supernatural and technology. This resistance would prove most counter-productive.

Both groups still put every effort into their propaganda machines. Science would prove better marketers, but the Church gave as good as they got. This war of words served only to confuse the general public. A consequence of this was a general moral decay. Man wanted to believe in God, but didn’t. So not only was there no consequence for his actions, he felt guilty about it. Frustrated and morally distraught, violent crime spread like a virus. Crimes against people were especially prolific. It was almost as if the guilt for killing God was being executed against anyone unfortunate enough to cross another’s path.

However in the mid 1990’s, a small under funded biotechnology company began integrating living cells onto computer chips. This was the first step in resolving a conflict that was deemed irreconcilable. The first commercial application of this technology was to fully integrate prosthetic limbs to amputees. Its first trials were awkward, but as the technology grew it soon became evident that the artificial limbs incorporated into the human nervous system responded just as efficiently as the original limb. This technology forced science to push the envelope in fully understanding the method the body uses to communicate with itself.

In the first decade of 2000, the criminal justice system was overwhelmed by the sheer bulk of crimes being committed. Tougher legislation was being passed, but the consequence was not outweighing the potential reward. It was estimated only one out of 10,000 serious crimes were being prosecuted.

The drug trade was the most profitable business in America --both the legitimate and illegitimate. Social theorists believed this was due to the pressures of a fast paced society. Later it was realized euphoria was a necessary part of human experience. Once again, man, now denied the rapture once fulfilled by traditional religion, was searching for a substitute. They found it in themselves. Receptors in the brain allowed euphoria. The receptor’s very existence served as proof that euphoria was an essential part of human life.

It was during this time another scientific discovery was made. Bioengineers were able to alter and design human cells. Not only could science alter a cell to hold almost limitless information within the DNA strand itself, it was able to patch it to computer chips.

Science was now at the point where it could link human cells and computers and alter human cells to hold limitless amounts of information. These two factors are crucial for Eternity Systems. One break-through remained elusive, one key to understanding ourselves --consciousness.

The quest to discover what makes us aware and sentient proved to be the most difficult of tasks. Until 2012 no one knew for certain where the consciousness resided. For certain it was in the brain, but it’s location within proved most intangible. Were we just the sum of our memories, or was there some ethereal spirit or soul running through the convolutions of our cerebrum?

The answer came by accident. Neurotransmitters in the brain were being synthetically produced for years to augment deficiencies in the human neurochemical system. A new therapy was initiated in which neurotransmitters from individuals with overactive neurochemical production were introduced into patients with underactive production. A funny coincidence happened. All donor recipients reported having vivid past life experiences. So vivid they could actually recall skills they were never taught. Studies concluded the recipients received more than boosted serotonin levels. They actually received the skills and memories of the donor.

Another problem developed in the therapy group. Complaints from family members included severe changes in behavior, newly acquired quirks, and odd activities. Some of the recipients drove to the donor’s job started performing the job perfectly and interacted with the co- workers just as the donor would.

The therapy was discontinued when the entire recipient group was diagnosed with multiple-personality disorder. This therapy suggested, very strongly, that consciousness and the individual psyche was located in the neurochemicals of human beings.

Shortly after this revelation, Eternity Systems began experiments on removing the neurochemicals from the brains of coma patients and inserting them in specially prepared biotechnical housing units. These units were integrated with a synthetic nervous system and linked with a molecular level CPU spliced into a DNA strand from the patient. The theory being the brain was just an organic computer and the consciousness of the individual, with training, could learn to utilize the CPU in the same manner in which it had previously manipulated the brain.

When first attempted, random patterns of artificial limb animation were seen as success. But the movements couldn’t be conclusively tied to the consciousness of the individual. An idea was conceived to inject some neurochemicals of a technician familiar with the computer system into the patient consciousness pool. This was an ingenious idea but we didn’t want our patient receiving the technician’s memories and personality. We had to design a way to selectively solicit the neurochemicals responsible for the target learning. The solution was found in engineering a computer program to insert the code in a DNA strand and have it control a small structure that would produce small amounts of liquid metal into the neurochemical stream while someone learned the technique from scratch. This enabled computer enhanced medtechs to track and sort specific neurochemical movement through an advanced form of magnetic resonance. The procedure was a resounding success. The procedure accurately tracked specific neurochemical currents and conclusively linked them to the newly acquired learning. The procedure dramatically reduced the amount of non-related neurochemicals and gave researchers the tool they needed to extract the correct neurochemicals.

Once injected, the random patterns of artificial limb movement became increasingly accurate. Soon voice synthesis was included, and it was conclusively proven that the entire individual had been transferred to the biotechnical housing unit. Almost immediately, psychologists were counseling the individual on how to adapt to there new body.

As you can guess, immortality was synthesized on that day. People could live forever. This soon became a problem. Overpopulation, medical costs, food shortages, and a plethora of criminal justice problems burdened almost every government on the planet. Even with the colonization of Mars, the ocean floors, and certain moons of Jupiter; there were just too many people. Wars didn’t even help cut the population. Death could only occur if the individual was completely evaporated, or in a severe case of decomposition. Head hunting became a favorite form of kidnapping. Instead of keeping the whole person, kidnappers would just hack off the head of their victim and toss it in a freezer. Certain social programs were initiated to try to offset some of these problems.

Lifespan limitations were imposed, but were quickly overturned through almost worldwide revolution. No government could afford to stay in existence. Not only that, this indestructibility easily acquired by almost anybody soon became the breeding fields of super criminals.

Knowledge was limitless and easily available to everyone. All human knowledge was placed in the Human Experience Biochip and was implanted into every fetus in the womb. Everyone was a doctor, lawyer, computer technician, survivalist, and just about anything humanly possible. It soon became evident that knowledge was not the defining aspect of character. It was the application of intelligence and creativity that soon became a much-debated aspect of nobility.

Religion was declining rapidly. Not because of a lack of conviction to God or Allah, but because most religions were against man made immortality and refused to be transferred from their human bodies to the Biotechnical housing units. Many of the religions were also refusing their children to be engineered with the Human Experience Biochip. This meant that most morally responsible people were dropping out of the gene pool. In other words, the sinners were out living the saints.

These were chaotic times. No one was safe. No one had to die. No one was afraid of eternal consequence. These were the times to which Eternity Systems brought order.

Eternity Systems approached the government with a possible solution.

06/03/2004

Author's Note: This is a short story I was working on and was wondering if it was worth continuing. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Posted on 06/03/2004
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