North Bay, Canada, September 17th, 2051

The Canadian city of North Bay has witnessed a miracle. The wildlife reserve “Mammoth Land” located in the foothills of Lake Nipissing, in the province of Ontario, has moved into the history of biogenetics upon supervising the birth of “Nesi”, a beautiful example of a female Mammuthus Imperator that weighed a hardly insignificant 120 kilograms at birth. Her mother, “Eva” had a natural birthing after 13,000 years in which the species was considered officially extinct, just after the last glaciations and, presumably, after the explosion of a massive comet that affected the Northern Hemisphere. The cloned proboscides, the progenitors, of 15.42 feet high and 8.6 tons (Adam) and 14.11 feet and 7.4 tons (Eve), seem to be very happy, and specifically, the mother and the daughter are in perfect state of health. The International Organization of Bioethics of the United Nations supervised the project from the beginning, starting 45 years ago, when the experiments on the mitochondrial DNA that was found in North America began. After reconstructing this as well as the protein sequences of Indian elephant embryos, they took in the cloned genetic material, repeating the process with his descendents until they obtained an “Adam” and an “Eve”, that can be considered mammoths by 86%. The creature that they gave rise to could be, genetically, almost identical to the enormous mammals –now extinct- that populated the world from 4.5 million years ago up until only a few thousand years ago.     

Cyberspace, April 4th, 2056

BitGary Cooper wasn’t out at “high noon” alone, but with hundreds of his digitalized colleagues, who went with him to the most crowded protest ever remembered within virtual characters. BitVincent Price, BitAva Gardner, BitVictor Mature, BitWoody Allen and BitBette Davis headed the protest together with their leader, the perfect reproduction, although virtual, of the actor that received his first Oscar for “Sergeant York” by Howard Hawks. During the march, that can be followed online, shouts were heard along the lines of “Respect and decency for replicas of actors” pronounced by the protesters without any of those who represented film stars with more sinister and violent looks protagonizing any kind of altercation. Upon arriving at the Square, crossed by internaut’s paths from all over the orb, BitRod Hudson read a manifesto that demanded, for himself and his collective, an exquisite treatment by producers, some of which, in recent times, had stained the figure of actors that starred in films with perfect technicality but questionable ethical quality. Then BitMontgomery Cliff spoke and said, paraphrasing the title of Fred Zimmermann that protagonized the actor that he represented, in 1953, winning the applause of those present: “From here to eternity nobody will revile the great film figures that we represent again if they don’t want to end up in court. Thus said.” 

Rome, Italy, EU, August 31st, 2054

Its’ electric consumption is insignificant. The sixth form of material-condensed fermium, -conveniently “channeled” by a magnetic field act as a certain type of bosons, meaning, without hardly any opposition to the electricity that runs through them. From when a transformer in the electric substation converts the current from alternate into continuous, this flows with hardly any resistance by the superconductor’s route with astonishing omega values of very few ohms. After the successful previous tests, cities like Granada and Bordeaux in Europe, or Lima and Mexico City in South America have become especially interested in the project. The technicians are asking for prudence and warn that it is a pilot initiative, despite that the electric current that feeds the wagons deride the Joule effect of loss of energy, one must observe the resistance of the materials used, (superconductors), in time, as well as the capacity of the cryogenic posts along the route that keep the temperature constant. The “cocktail” of electrons, protons and quarks of chemical elements that form the superconductor material (Oxygen, Calcium, Copper, Thallium, Bismuth, ions of Barium and Yttrium) form a delicate compound which is extremely sensitive to changes in any order. In a few months we will know if scientists have found the way to run through the city in the cheapest and cleanest way ever thought of.

Clarke Orbit, November 2nd, 2048

After nineteen years, the most ambitious engineering job ends, from The Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. That was the biggest hydroelectric project in history and will be the biggest photo-voltaic. All the information that orbits (never better said) around the project is huge: 264,789 kilometers long and the same (squared) of surface being the ring of mirrors, conceived of by the engineer Peter Kensner, one thousand meter wide. A photo-voltaic efficiency that is around 24% will generate, if the optimistic previsions come through, 7.9 terawatts of power. Three anti-seismic cables of 35,800 kilometers long each join the gigantic structure with Earth at Quito (Ecuador), Libreville (Gabon) and Johor Bahru (Malaysia), places that will transform the electricity from continuous to alternate and will be distributed within a principal network. The project engineer’s idea is to implement, when technically possible, an energy transmission system without cables: The famous WiTricity that we already enjoy on Earth, from decades ago. Until this moment, the cables, through which energy obtained from the Sun will move towards our planet, will dispose of the corresponding beaconing to avoid the collision of spacecrafts. At the same time, the Kensner Ring, situated almost in geostationary orbit or Clarke (really a few dozen meters away, so not to interfere with the satellites that spin with us at the equator), disposes of a system anti-meteors by laser to avoid damaging its expensive structure. The project has always been surrounded by controversy, especially because of the shadow of the titanic structure projected towards Earth that can be observed clearly from the surface.  

Tranquilitatis Base, Tranquility Sea, the Moon, June 9th, 2051

The Mare Tranquilitatis of 873 kilometers diameter, to the East of the Crisium, south of the ‘Serenity’ and northeast of the ‘Fecundity’ houses, as of a lustrum ago, the first permanent non-spatial base not on Earth. At a slight distance of the historic geographic point of 0º 41’15” North and 23º 26’ East, where Apolo XI moon landed, was the chosen place for the human establishment. ‘Tranquilitatis’ was constructed, in different phases, in a total of 13 years until reaching 1,890 m2. Three interconnected, cylindrical modules, with two floors, twenty meters in diameter each one, constitute the habitable area of the base and in the next few years the useable surface could be doubled, a similar project to the one that is expected to be built on Mars. The installation disposes of its own micro-biosphere that makes it self-sustainable when it comes to cultivated transgenic alimentation, farm animals as well as water coming from an enormous source found in the selenite underground. The oxygen supply is obtained by electrolysis of the elemental liquid that was believed to only be found in the polar lunar cracks. It is expected, in the next few years, that it can be extracted directly from some lunar rocks (silicates) and/ or from photosynthetic cyanobacterias. Also from the lunar dust, and concretely, from the isotope Helium 3 the ‘combustible’ can be obtained for the small nuclear fusion reactor, that feeds the whole station with energy, complemented with electricity coming from photovoltaic panels. During these years, the base, ‘Tranquilitis’ has been visited by more than 8,000 people who had to previously subject themselves to a pharmacological treatment in order to counteract the harmful effect of the ultraviolet radiation that is used there for the treatment of water. The settlement has been used during these years as a laboratory for tests before taking the big step of colonizing the moons Jupiter and Saturn.         

Chulung Reserve, Taiwan, July 26th, 2055

Tweety and Omeron are two sweet cetaceans of the bottlenose subspecies that live in the marine reserve of Chilung (Taiwan). There, on the shore of the Asian Sea, scientists from the Oceanographic Institute of Southeast Asia (OISA) achieved a miracle. They previously triplicated the I.C. thanks to a complex gene therapy of synaptic multiplication, which made them ideal for the experiment. The microphones located in the enormous marine aquarium picked up the complex combinations of whistles and clicks proceeding from the deepest parts of their larynges and spiracles (external respiratory orifices). The delicate instruments were capable of detecting frequencies of between 80 and 200,000 Hertz and, according to the final results, fulfilled their function perfectly. Right afterwards, a quantum computer processed the information through logical diffuse software, before the impossibility of defining a precise mathematic model that picked up the huge complexity of “dolphinide language”. The computer program was able to translate 73% of the emissions of the happy dolphins into English. At the same time, the scientists were able to make themselves “understood” by the animals thanks to the inverse process by the software, which emitted synthesized clicks and whistles through loudspeakers situated in the aquarium. Linguistic experts decided that the communication was valid and considered it “intelligible, interactive, with an acceptable grade of fluidity and cognitive enough for both parties.” A translator of concepts, more than words, the new technological innovation was able to make the first communication of this kind in history between different earthly species reality. The finding has also coincided with an astounding piece of news in the field of communication….

Oviedo, Asturias, Spain, EU, June 12th 2053

The mistake has unleashed a downfall of criticism towards the people responsible for the prestigious prize, of universal fame. The Indian Nobel Prize winner Aurangzeb Rajastán, president of the jury defended the verdict to the grave: “We have to accept that one day this moment would arrive, we all knew it. The human candidates were wonderful, their exquisite quality is undoubtful, after the first deliberation there was a quorum. If we accept that a machine can compete for the prize then we should subject it to rigorous scrutiny without prejudice. ‘Victor Hugo 9000’ has revolutionized the modern historical novel, giving it an unusual and spectacular impulse. Its novels “Shakespeare’s Muons”, “Hawking’s Alexandrines”, “General Belisario and the Tao Proteins” or “Socrates or Drake’s Formula” have constituted a point of inflection in neo-literature upon imbricating in a sublime way the history of science like no one, or no thing, has done before.” The truth is that the potent and imaginative machine has been the eternal candidate for the distinguished prize for more than fifteen years, although no jury dared to do what this one has done. The controversy is served and has coincided with the sale of the human form intelligent robot from the Claymstrom Corporation, Copernicus X. Gonzalo Hernandez Parra, the president of the International Association for the Defense of the Rights for Humans declared, making himself the most steely detractor of the decision made by Oviedo: “Art is the last redoubt, the last island of humanity surrounded by a technological ocean. We don’t want machines that look like humans, neither on the inside nor on the outside, there’s no damn need for them. I propose that this court boycott the informational pamphlets, badly names novels, of that filthy machine.” 

Jupiter, December 7th, 2057

It isn’t a coincidence that the translation of the Japanese ‘Divine Wind’ is kamikaze, meaning that the physical and conceptual fusion of the craft and cyclone (The Great Red Spot) will be perfect. The Asian Aerospace Agency (AAA) with its headquarters in Tokyo bet seven months ago on a suicide mission that, nevertheless, will contribute an enormous amount of very valuable data to astro-biologists. So that the adventure doesn’t finish right after starting, the “Divine Wind” is constructed based on ultra-resistant neo-materials synthesized in the ‘New Material’ laboratories in Hamburg, like carbon polymers, iridium, carbides of tungsten and diamond. They all form an ultra-robust and compact shell, without mobile parts that reach a level of 811 HRA on the demanding Rockwell scale of hardness. The probe already spins anticlockwise within the huge anticyclone vortex, following the wild rhythm of the winds, which, only on the perimeter of the storm reached 477 kilometers an hour. When ‘Divine Wind’ stopped transmitting its signal as anticipated, the temperature inside the ‘Great Red Spot’, detected for the first time by the scientist Robert Hooke three and a half centuries ago, was 114º Kelvin. The project’s sponsors are waiting to obtain data of organic molecules beyond those formed by hydrogen and helium detected by the spectroscope, with the conviction that it will give off the existence of extremophiles or at least traces of them. Before the device reaches the nucleus it will transmit all the information that has been picked up from four different procedures, radio waves at 55 GHz, quantum, laser and microwaves with the hope that they will go through the powerful screening that the huge jupiteresque abyss did on the way to Earth. If the mission finishes with success, the AAA will not discard other similar ones in the White Oval (also on Jupiter) or on the Great Black spot of Neptune.      

Not the Arab Abbaás Ibn Firnás, who tried without success in splendid Cordoba halfway through the tenth century (and paid for his odyssey with his own life). Not the fabulous Leonardo da Vinci whose designs influenced Otto Lilienthal in a strict way, not even him, who was at the same time determining in the layouts for the airplane of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Every day there is more proof that point to the ancient Egyptians as the ones who constructed the flying machines. After the archaeological findings from the last decade, an extremely valuable map chiseled into rock in a tomb located northeast of the Valley of the Kings seems to hold the key. The relief details the tangle of tributaries from the delta of the Nile with astounding precision that coincides in a concrete area of the mouth of the Mediterranean, Lake Burullus. According to the experts, the topographic exactness of the map reveals that the area necessarily had to be cartographed from the air. The tomb where the engravings were found belonged to a high positioned court worker of a pharaoh from the twenty-first dynasty, who died in the Third Intermediary Period, between the New Empire and the Late Period, this means, according to the tests done with Carbon 14, approximately in the year 980 before Christ. The Egyptologists believe that the man that was buried in the tomb could have been the chief of the cartographers of Pharoah Osocor or Amenemope although this extreme is still unconfirmed. The map is joined to drawings of winged devices, written into daily scenes, and aerodynamic figures sculpted in bronze found in the sarcophagus of one of the women of regency of Iuput I, from the twenty-third dynasty. 

Tonga, Polynesia, December 21st, 2056

Would you believe that under the earth’s crust more beings live than on its surface? Do you remember the great “Journey to the Center of the Earth?” In the fabulous novel (and later cinematographic adaptation in 1959) its protagonists discovered a biological macrocosmos in the inside of our planet. Not dinosaurs and other pluri-cellular mastodontic organisms but scientists from the University of Cornell, Ithaca, New York, have confirmed previous studies that reveal a brutal ecosystem of extremophiles that are born, live and die in the earthly mantle, under the crust. An extremophile is an organism that lives in extreme conditions respect to the ones we consider “normal” when it comes to temperature (thermophiles), pressure (barophiles), acidity (acidophiles), salinity (halophiles) or humidity (xerophiles). The Mariana Pits, Kuriles and the Tonga, all in the Pacific Ocean have been the test bank in order to confirm what scientists already suspected. The different research of the fleet of bathyscaphes saved the so called Mohorovičić discontinuity and reached the Superior Earth Mantle and took enough samples to result empirically significant. The organisms found respond, fundamentally, to the type of archeo-bacterial prokaryotes and greenish-blue algae. The mere existence at a great scale of these unicellular organisms opens up amazing expectations to the possibility of the existence of life on other planets. Scientists from Cornell are not discarding that pluri-cellular complex beings could live under our feet in very different conditions to those that we are used to.

Richmond, Virginia, USA, March 5th, 2053

Like in the old science-fiction movie Minority Report, a “pre-crime” brigade, formed in this case by psychologists, neurologists, criminologists and psychiatrists is throwing out some spectacular results. The key resides in our pre-frontal cortex. Lesions or alterations during infancy in this region of our brain, including the limbic system are determining for tilting balance, although not in all cases of course. The enormous ENIAC 9000, the biggest quantum computer in the world located in Richmond, Virginia, previously selects the “candidates to kill”. And it does it according to the data picked up in elementary schools all over North America. Some kinds of murderers, although in making, are chemically different to the rest of mortals. Sometimes a fast tetra dimensional TEP is enough. Sometimes a chemical analysis that indicates low serotonin transmitter or significant variations of adrenaline or noradrenalin is. In many cases many genetic and psychological tests are needed, the old way, in order to detect disorders and tendencies, impatience, lack of empathy, frustration, cholera and aggression in children, which are immediately treated pharmacologically and with psychotherapy, sometimes for life. The reduction of crime, after ten years of the program has no comparison on a world level. Now just tenths or entire numbers need to be scratched from the statistics to reduce the maximum violent crime rate to 40.69% that still happens every year, with those that happened a decade ago, the great subject waiting are the psychopaths, immune to these early detection techniques. The directors of the project indicate, in a gesture of humbleness that honors them, that such an early detection of criminals is only a piece in the global plan that also includes, among many other measures, the regularization of the content of virtual video games and the control of weapon sales and alcohol. A scientific delegation of the European Union already obtained information to implant the successful system as soon as possible in the Old World. 

Bordeaux, France, UE, July 11th, 2051

The pharaonic water transfers from the Loira to the Garona in France and the Tajo or the Ebro in Spain don’t seem to be enough. Cirrus, but more than anything cumulonimbus in the region of Bordeaux grew in a considerable way ‘helped’ by the silver iodide that was bombarded from nine baby planes. The clouds, after charging themselves up with water from the Gironda Estuary, absorbed the compound thanks to its convection currents, generating rain of a volume that exceeds the 100 cubic hectometers spread out in a space in time of one day for its better absorption and channeling. The technique is more than eight decades old which doesn’t make it new at all, although the precision achieved by the pilotless airplanes impelled by laser, is new. It achieved the irrigation of a perfectly rectangular region of a surface of 9,000 hectares for 23 hours 57 minutes and 12 seconds. The rising of the marine level, deforestation, fires and floods have killed millions of people in the last decades. Southeast Asia has turned into the most affected region and its leaders soon wait for the benefits of the new meteorological advance systems. The great precipitation cycles have gotten shorter in the North of Europe and 37% of the Amazon has disappeared in the last half a century. Because of all of this, a rational use of resources, contamination control and the new technical advances are the only things that can save the disaster.