THE COMMON GOAL
It was upon reaching this peaceful age that unrest began to show again. A great divide formed between those who believed in an indifferent and unjust God. There were those that looked upon this being with anger and hatred at his experimental and careless attitude toward mankind, and those who looked upon him without animosity, but with the same indifference with which he regarded them. This divide was worsened still by young radicals who wanted to see each other’s faction marginalized or completely obliterated. Action was taken in order before any real hostility could arise. A meeting was arranged between the factions, which would not end until their differences were settled. After much debate it was concluded that though their views conflicted, their goals were effectively the same. Both had long dreamed (and such had been the dream of all man) that they could one day find this being and make contact with it, for whatever purpose. It was believed that man had now definitely reached the technological stage where such a goal could be achieved: all that was left now was for man to reach the stage within himself where he would be ready to do so. They devised how he would achieve this level through his now unequivocal mastery of genetic modification. A new, improved man, worthy of contact with God, would be created.
With the abolishment of nationalism, the Earth was now run by a World State, which contained equal members of all three factions; the two forms of believers and the atheists. This was a state that, up until now, imposed very strict restrictions on both genetic engineering and space exploration. Both of these were practised, but in moderation. This was the case with genetic engineering because the believers within the state feared within themselves the capability of becoming like the creator himself, bringing into existence a new species of man purely for the sake of scientific experimentation that would not be loved or nurtured. It was the case with space travel because believer and atheist alike feared the individual colonisation by any single faction on a separate planet or moon where it could not be monitored, thus having the capability of starting a rebellion. After the landmark meeting of the factions however, it was decided that man was ready to be given total freedom in both these fields (though with guidance), to aid him in reaching his single goal. Philosophers gave assurances through their own reasoning, that by God having created life from physical matter once, and that physical connection having once existed, he must be reachable, and it must be possible for that connection to be re-established. It was realised that the new form of man to be created must excel in many ways that they did not.
For many years it was debated whether the creator could be reached through a predominantly spiritual, physical or intellectual being, based on speculation of the creator’s own make-up. Some argued that since the universe was created of physical matter, then the creator would logically himself have to be a physical being and exist somewhere out there in the universe. Others argued that religion, in both its old and new form has always been rooted thoroughly in the spiritual side of things, and they argued that it was only through the soul, and through man’s oneness with existence that God could be reached. Others still, argued that God must be a being of unfathomable intellect to have created such a wonderfully complex thing as the universe and that the only way to make contact with him would be to advance man’s intellect to the highest stage possible, upon which the means of contact would become clear. It was then rationalised that by covering all angles they could not fail, and it was eventually decided that they would make one species of man excelling in each attribute: for if they tried to make one that embodied all, the combination of factors would result in a confusion of aims and principles that would result only on failure.
The moral implications that previously placed restrictions on genetic engineering were brought up again. It was suggested that this could be solved by treating these new beings purely as equals, not as inventions of man. This would (in man’s eyes) shift any blame that could be cast from man onto the very creator he was aspiring to find. Regarding deep space exploration, a theory was put forth which it became extremely important to prove. Man’s previous, restricted exploration had discovered life, but only miniscule and bacterial. No intelligent life had ever been discovered. It was reasoned among man that if any intelligence was discovered then it would prove God’s experimental attitude towards his living creations. The thinking behind this was that if another intelligent species existed in the vastness of space then it was only logical to assume there were many more to be found. Man figured that the more numerous God’s creations, the less he cared for any one specific race. It was also thought that if evidence could be found that an intelligent species had once existed and been wiped out to the point of extinction, then this would prove that God had not intervened when one of his creations was threatened and thus cared even less about their fate. Lastly, if such a race was found, it was hoped that they would have the same aspiration as man and be able to help him with his quest.
Of course, not all were in full support of mankind’s new united goal. The atheist factions that still existed among them viewed man’s new quest primarily with amusement, in that they thought it a futile mission to search for something that wasn’t there; over time this turned to anger as the vast majority of man’s attention and resources was being put into these efforts. They thought there was many a better way in which such resources could be spent. This did not mean to say they didn’t relish in the findings acquired through space exploration, being themselves men of science.
So man took on the first step in the journey, creating three completely new species of man.
Chapter Three.
THREE NEW MEN
Intellectual Man
Initially it was designated that thirty humans of each species would be created: fifteen male and fifteen female. Intellectual Man was the firstborn. His brain was designed to be precisely two and a half times the size of a normal man’s. He was thus given an enlarged skull to compensate. The sheer weight of this new man’s head demanded that his body be designed to have an extremely large and muscular neck and shoulders, not to mention legs stout and sturdy to hold the excessive weight. In order to accommodate the huge muscles necessary for all of this, Intellectual Man’s average height was brought up to around 7 foot, making him an extremely powerful and intimidating creature. The high levels of intellect were instigated through certain parts of the brain being injected with a substance that could increase activity in that region. This was administered to the parts of the human brain that normal man knew would benefit from such increases.
The way these men were brought up and educated throughout their youth, it was realised, would play a great part in how their intellects would evolve. They were subsequently given the best education available, by normal man’s finest, from a very young age. These beings (to the delight of their engineers) responded positively to this and showed a hunger for knowledge and personal advancement in a way that would be considered abnormal among ordinary men. Upon having described to them man’s aspirations to reach God, and the role they were to play in what was to come, Intellectual Man seemed to find the prospect intriguing and took pride in the importance of their species. By the age of sixteen these beings had taken in everything normal man had to offer them intellectually, they were thus encouraged to create their own experiments in many fields and to continue to pursue their advancement of intellect. Intellectual Men relished this sudden change and worked exclusively with each other in these experiments, relegating normal man’s role to that of mere helpers. After a while even normal man’s top intellects, assigned to the demeaning role of observation, started to lose understanding of what was being explored due to their inferior intellect. Thus was normal man reduced to funding experiments they knew nothing about, and although they were angry at their complete lack of comprehension, they trusted that whatever these new men were undertaking was very necessary and beneficial towards their goal. In truth Intellectual Men’s work was progressing at an exponential rate, as indeed was their intellect, and though appreciative of their creators they looked upon them as pathetic, feeble minded creatures.
Physical Man
Physical man was designed to possess all the abilities of normal man’s best athletes multiplied tenfold. This supreme athletic skill was engineered to be achieved naturally through growth from childhood to adulthood, rather than having to be achieved through strict repetitive training. This amazing skill obviously required a strong, large physical stature, even larger than that of Intellectual Man, placing the average height of this race at 8 ½ foot. This similarity in size and stature made Intellectual Man’s overly large head and brain the only way to tell each race apart visibly. Normal man was technologically able at this time even to manipulate evolution itself and thus encouraged in Physical Man a rapid progression of such by rearing them in specific environments to develop within each of them an astonishing abnormal ability. There was a vast range of environments used in order to acquire diversity, the result of this being that each Physical Man developed a power unto his own. Among them lay the gifts of abnormally great strength, astonishingly developed agility and speed, the ability of some to breathe and thus survive under water and even in some cases the power of partial flight, though not sustainable for very long. They paid a price though for what has been described; their mental state suffered heavily and they were barely able to achieve intelligence at the level of the average normal man. They were however shown great love and affection, making them kind and loving yet very powerful beings. Some argued that this was a race close to the old image of God from the time when religion was rife; an innocent, all-powerful yet loving and caring being.
Spiritual Man
Spiritual Man was a far greater challenge for normal men to devise than the previous two, for spirituality had been something strongly linked throughout the past with religion. These men were raised then with very idealistic values. It was reasoned by normal man that even though it had been established that God was not the creator, or at least the nurturer of all that was good in the universe, goodness still existed in some absolute form and was an important thing to connect with. During the time of religion long ago, many men had claimed to be able to achieve a state of mind on a different level to that of the average man through various methods including meditation, the use of drugs and religious experiences. Over the years man had discovered that this higher state of mind was no delusion and that there did indeed exist something all around us with which we could mentally connect. Much debate at the time included the argument that this very thing was God himself. A method was devised to give easier access than before to this plane of thought: a very complex and expensive to produce drug named Tribathiew B. At the time this was only affordable by the very rich, or was given freely to men of great intellect with the aim of advancing mankind in their fields. The drug itself only enabled a very short period of time in this state as it was found to be often fatally dangerous otherwise. Thus not much was discovered. Gradually, with the progression of science, man had devised a way to genetically engineer his senses to the point where new ones could be created. Much inspiration was taken from the study of the wide range of senses various animals hold and the way they use them. Thus man learnt that a sense could be engineered within a being which automatically connected them to this strange frequency which existed everywhere, without the need of any drugs at all. This was tested and re-tested with minor beings until it was perfected in theory and thus put into effect with Spiritual Man.
Here then was a being that could tune itself in and out of this state of clarity at will. Of course no new knowledge could be discovered if these creatures suffered from low levels of intelligence, so from childhood they were given the best education available and encouraged to develop their own experiments much in the way of the Intellectual Men, though at nowhere near the same level due to their brains being of an average size. So although not as intelligent as the Intellectual Men, through this higher state they could achieve a form of understanding beyond the reach of Intellectual men (at least for a long enough time to gain anything from it) and were potentially already closer to God than mankind had ever been before.
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