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Two weeks later, Jasmine's dad bought a beautiful, large house on the Jersey shore. Jasmine met him there to see the place. When she questioned how large the house was, over 7000 square feet, he told her that a portion of the house was permanently for her and Jake to come and go as often as they pleased. And, he added, he wanted it big enough to have bedrooms for any grandchildren.
"I love you so much, daddy," Jasmine told him when they had to go. He would move here from his home in North Carolina right after closing the loan. He hugged his daughter and told her he loved her and really looked forward to seeing her often.
As she left, she turned back around to wave good-bye. She looked at him for an instant longer than was needed. For, she thought she saw something she had not seen since she was a little girl. She thought she saw that sparkle in his eyes again. He had been steadily building a publishing business with exciting success, and he felt really good about his newly chosen field. When he's here, she thought, we'll spend a lot more time together. And I'll bring him to the monthly meetings of The Group. He'll love those people and their sense of life. And they'll love him. He belongs with them.
*
Sally delayed Operation II for two weeks. She needed that time to perfect head-robot. People around the world groaned upon news of the delay. Every day meant lives lost.
Jake and Jasmine were intensely busy writing articles and, now, anchoring Web TV updates.
They just finished writing We've Come A Long Way, Baby! about the mind-boggling changes that the superpuzzles had brought humanity. Jake read it over from beginning to end one last time before print. Surprisingly, upon reading the article, the changes did not shock Jake, and they actually seemed natural. The descriptions of the old civilization, however, shocked him and seemed like ancient history, like the Dark Ages with all the violent wars and crime, although the anticivilization was just a few years prior.
Although the changes of the supersociety seemed shocking when juxtaposed to the anticivilization, the changes themselves and the accelerated rate of progress seemed only natural now, almost as if things had always been this way. It seemed natural because God-Man was designed for accelerated progress, which could never happen before with external authorities.
The huge contradiction still plaguing the supersociety, however, was death. Of course, human suffering had been eradicated "long ago".
Jake and Jasmine's article qualified "long ago" as two years. They pointed out that knowledge advanced so rapidly now that expressions of time had to be recalibrated. Two years qualified as long ago or long, long ago and the anticivilization now qualified as ancient history. Moreover, today would be ancient history within one year or less.
"Jassy, where do you think the supersociety will be ten years from now?" Jake asked his beautiful wife while reading over the article, realizing that his question could not be answered because technology advanced too rapidly to extrapolate more than a month or two ahead. That would be like asking, in the previous anticivilization, where we would be in 200 years or 500 years. There could be no answer.
"There's only one way to try to attempt that," Jasmine answered, "and it's kind of fun to do. Try to imagine anything and everything that's good for man and falls within the laws of nature, and there's your answer. It's fun to try because you come up with some really good ideas about the future."
"How about the incredible feeling inside of everyone today? That couldn't be foreseen by anyone a few years ago," Jake said. He knew why people in the anticivilization could not foresee this incredible feeling: life was, beneath all the good experiences, a subtle burden. Therefore, the incredible feeling could not be anticipated.
Jasmine thought about what he said. The feeling inside everyone now was so different to the feeling inside everyone a few years ago. She said, "The feeling we now have inside started the frantic drive to end death. That feeling was the turning point from the anticivilization to the supersociety."
The turning point. Jake thought about that expression Jasmine used to describe the feeling people now carried inside them each day. Suddenly he stood up and ran to his computer.
"I hope I kept that bit I wrote but deleted from our last article about burden and boredom!" he cried across the room to Jasmine while racing through his computer index. "Oh, thank God, here it is!"
He printed the short bit about the burden of life and read it out loud to Jasmine:
"The act of living requires responsibilities," he had written. "The problem before was, in the anticivilization, those responsibilities of living were dead-end responsibilities. The daily effort put into one's responsibilities of living a self-sufficient life did not go anywhere significant. There was no Friday-Night Essence, no creation.
"So, since the daily effort put into one's responsibilities of self-sufficient living did not go anywhere, then the effort for living was really a burden.
"There were many valuable experiences that made life worthwhile, such as pursuing a promising career, falling in love and getting married, having children and raising a family, maybe even traveling and seeing the world during retirement. But in the anticivilization, those wonderful experiences eventually ran out, and underneath it all, life was a burden. Therefore, the thought of living forever did not appeal deeply to people in the anticivilization. In fact, living forever in that mode would have become torture.
"But, we could not foresee what we now feel inside. If we could, we would have fought for biological immortality long ago. Indeed, not until we began to get a clue of this incredible feeling inside did the mass interest in not dying start."
Jake put down the paper. He felt odd that a feeling changed humanity from the death-destined anticivilization toward the life-eternal Civilization of the Universe. A feeling! How people felt inside brought about the superpuzzles that raced society ahead so rapidly.
"What causes this incredible feeling we all walk around with every day?" Jake asked out loud. "What prompted the turning point?"
For the next several days, that question of what caused this incredible feeling inside hung heavy on his mind. Of course, he knew the answer involved man's evolution into God-Man and the many revolutions that followed in politics, business, love, and medicine. But, he thought, what made us feel such powerful harmony with ourselves and with everything around us...with the Universe?
Late one night, Jake lay quietly awake in bed, thinking about Ian's Overlay Charts that proved that the very advanced God-Man, whom Ian and Miss Annabelle named Zon, created the Universe we live in. A Zon created the galaxy that we live in, too. Ian's Overlay Charts increasingly proved that existence is controlled by Zons, controlled through creation. The role of consciousness, his Overlay Charts increasingly showed, was creation. Indeed, Zons controlled existence through the greatest power in all existence: the power to create.
At that moment, a thunderclap shook Jake to his roots. He felt the connection between Zons and the incredible feeling everyone now walked around with every day. And Jake knew that connection between Zons out there and us down here explained the powerful harmony everyone now felt every morning and throughout every day with himself, with the world...with the Universe.
Jake jumped out of bed and called out: "Nature's Quintessential Secret!"
He now knew how to answer his question: what causes this incredible feeling we all walk around with every day? The answer: it started when man's mind effected Nature's Quintessential Secret and became what man was meant to be -- the creator. Through Neothink, people one by one began creating values, not just routinely producing values, but uniquely creating values that never existed before. Then came the division of essence and its job revolution where people who discovered their deepest motivational roots could really exert the new, puzzle-building Neothink in their entrepreneurial jobs of the mind. They created new values in all fields of knowledge, all jobs of life.
Once this started happening, then their responsibilities for living were no longer dead-end responsibilities. The effort for self-reliant living no longer was a burden that went nowhere. For, now, the responsibilities for living went to exciting new heights and were open-ended. Each new created value opened up multiple new directions to pursue. The effort for living not only went somewhere, but went to a dimension where man and only man was made to enter: to creation. The role of consciousness in our Universe is creation, not stagnation!
"What? Jake...what's going on?" Jasmine asked, slowly sitting up in bed, still half asleep.
"Every morning, when we wake up, what do we feel?" Jake asked her, but in his enthusiasm, he answered his own question, "Exhilaration. Why? Because we are finally living in harmony with ourselves, the world around us, and the Universe, for we are finally fulfilling the role of consciousness. It's what that sermon was all about, remember...about adding values to Zon's Creation? Let's see: the Universe consists of three fundamental components: mass, energy, and, as Ian demonstrated, consciousness. Human consciousness is the component of the Universe that is the creator. The role of consciousness in the Universe is creation by unfolding black holes and gravity units...releasing mass and energy, creating conditions for new consciousness. Through creation, consciousness brings more consciousness to the Universe, adding growing, open-ended value to its home. When the question is asked: what is man's purpose or why are we here or what is the meaning of life...the answer is: to create -- to add values to Zon's Creation!
"When Neothink enabled the ordinary person to start creating, he discovered something so much more than mere exhilaration -- he discovered eternal harmony with himself, with the world around him, and with the Universe. The burden lurking beneath the good experiences of life eternally disappeared along with boredom. The contradiction of conscious life on Earth vanished. The anticivilization vanished. Every religious, every mythological desire or quest vanished, for man's harmony with the universe was found."
"Jake...you're so right," Jasmine said, now wide awake and looking in awe at her lover. "Mankind went from routine ruts to open-ended creation."
"Each person now delivers profound, unique values to the world," Jake continued, nodding in agreement with what Jasmine just said. "His creations click into the large superpuzzles throughout our supersociety. His contributions to the supersociety are loved by his fellowman. He is famous and admired by society. And, he is rich. But he lives for his creations. Or, rephrased, he lives to create. Man no longer lives for good experiences that mask the burden underneath. In the days of the anticivilization, seeking out good experiences to escape the burden of life actually had drug-addict-like control over people and was the reason for so many self-destructive activities like overeating, overdrinking, too much partying, promiscuous sex, and distractions...from entertainment to vacations -- in the lifelong, desperate quest to escape the burden of life."
He's really something, Jasmine thought as she watched Jake pull together the big picture. She said nothing more, for he was on a roll.
"Nature's Quintessential Secret is: the forces of nature -- mass and energy -- do not control the cosmos and the consciousness throughout it, rather consciousness controls the cosmos and the mass and energy throughout it through being the creator...through what ignorance once called God. Consciousness also grows the values in the Universe by creating new realms of existence to be filled with new consciousness. Until now, the forces of nature on Earth have controlled mankind. But man has finally turned that around. He has finally pulled free from the forces of nature through becoming, at work, the creator...through what we now call the God-Man. Finally, man on Earth has discovered Nature's Quintessential Secret and lives in harmony with the Universe and with Zon, the creator of his Universe."
Jake stopped to catch his breath and to think. After a pause, he concluded, "The turning point came when man leapt from a value producer trapped in his routine rut to a value creator. How simple. For then, the burden left, the contradiction vanished, and man discovered harmony with the Universe. Conscious life was not meant to stagnate, which slowly kills it. Man was meant to create. The great search for `something more' in our lives was finally found, for there was something more than stagnation -- there was creation. Nature's Quintessential Secret: man is the creator. He's the creator of heavens and earths. He's the creator of eternal life. He's the eternal creator of values. He's the creator...he is God. Eventually, he becomes Zon."
Jake and Jasmine worked the next day for 18 hours straight on this article about humanity's leap from value producers to value creators.
*
Jasmine called her dad in North Carolina to talk to him about their latest article on humanity leaping from value producers to value creators. She and Jake considered it their best article ever. Jasmine called her father two or three times a week now. They were already getting close again and could not wait for his big move to New Jersey. Jake stopped to watch Jasmine as she called. He loved being around when Jasmine talked to her father -- she was always so happy and giggling like a little girl. Jake saw the excitement on her face as she dialed, and at that moment he identified the beautiful nature of love: even when one's life was bombarded with deadlines as was Jasmine's life leading up to Operation II, love still shined through with unyielding delight. She was so excited about his move to the Jersey house, she had to talk to him. She loved hearing his voice. Although he did not call her "sugar pie" since she was a child, the sweetness in his voice was always silently saying, "I love you, sugar pie." No other voice in the world could ever be that way to her.
He was not home. Before bed, she sent him an email.
The next morning, her father's bank called Jasmine and asked if she knew how to get a hold of her father. He had written her name and phone number on the loan application as his closest relative. He had missed his appointment for closing the loan the afternoon before.
Worried, Jasmine went to her computer and noticed her father had not answered her email, and he usually answered his email first thing every morning.
Something must have come up with his new publishing business, she thought. She called his home and got his answering machine.
"Daddy, where are you?" she said after the beep. She called his office. His secretary had not seen him today yet, or yesterday, but said he's been busy with his move.
Jasmine felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. She called every hospital around her father's home and felt relief when it became obvious he had not been admitted.
She then called the police and said her father has been missing for two days. She told them he lived alone, and she wanted them to check inside his house. The police told her not to worry, that this kind of thing happens all the time, but they would check it out and call her back within two hours.
An hour and a half later Jasmine's secretary put the call through.
"It's the Raleigh Police from North Carolina," her secretary said.
Jasmine stood up and nervously picked up the phone.
"Ma'am, are you Mozar Khalil's daughter?" she heard a voice say.
"Yes."
"We searched your father's house, and we found him. Ma'am...your father was unconscious. We rushed him to the hospital..."
Jasmine could not feel her legs beneath her. She knew she was swaying. All she could hear was the sound of her own blood swooshing through her head. But she made herself listen and get the details of how to get by her daddy's side.
*
To the nurses, Jasmine looked as though she were lost in oblivion, staring at her father. But inside her mind were thunderous emotions and memories.
She gently slipped her little hands into his.
"Oh daddy," she said so sadly, seeing her precious father like this...frail and unconscious. "The house is waiting for you. Jake and I will be there with you every weekend."
But she feared he would never live in that house, and the special closeness between them that she so missed and so looked forward to having again would never happen now. The doctors told her that they could not do much for him besides make him comfortable. He had suffered a burst, aortic aneurysm. That burst aneurysm also set off a serious stroke. Operating on the aorta was still a risky procedure. In his unstable state, an operation would kill him. He would have to stabilize first, yet he continued to deteriorate.
His eyes were closed. She looked closely at his face. He still looked so young! His face was so smooth. He can't be...dying.
Jasmine kept her hands in his and leaned over him, looking at her father with all her love. She sensed she would not have him much longer.
Suddenly, as though his senses perceived his princess there, with a Herculean effort, her father opened his eyes and focussed on Jasmine.
"Daddy!" she cried. Her heart jumped with joy just as it did every time he came home from work to be with her when she was a little girl.
Jake sadly watched the profound tragedy happening before him. Although Jasmine's father was perhaps minutes away from death, the intense celebration they felt whenever they were together could not be stopped, not even at the end. The celebration filled them both, perhaps greater than ever before. Her father had lost all motor capability from the shoulders down, but Jake could have sworn he saw her father's hands squeeze hers.
In his weakened state, he was performing superhuman feats...for his daughter. As Jake silently, sadly observed, he realized just how much they loved each other and that her father did everything for her growing up...just the two of them.
"Daddy, thank you for the most beautiful childhood and all that time you spent with me. That was so special. I can remember everything as though it happened last month. I can never forget those times we spent together," Jasmine said in the saddest voice Jake had ever heard. She could see her father was fading, and this was good-bye. She clutched his hands and leaned very close to him, looking deep into his eyes. Jasmine and her daddy suddenly knew this was the last of their special moments together.
Jake noticed that as her father faded, his eyes wrestled their way back open, looking at his little princess. He was clinging onto every last moment...every last moment with his beloved daughter.
"Daddy, I love you. Oh...don't go. Daddy, don't go!" Jasmine pleaded, trying to keep the life in him with her love.
Then, with a heroic effort, her dad focussed his eyes on her one last time...and he spoke to her. His words were soft and barely audible.
"What, Daddy?" Jasmine asked, putting her ear directly before his mouth. But, at that moment, he was gone, and she could never retrieve his precious last thought. ...When Jasmine had turned her ear to her father, he was still there; when she looked back, he was gone.
"Daddy? Oh no...Daddy? Daddy! No!" she cried and wrapped her arms around him, putting her head sideways upon his chest, hugging him like a daughter hugs her daddy. For the first time in her life, he didn't hug her back. His incredible love for her was now gone from her life.
She lay down on the bed and curled up next to him like she used to so many times when she was little. When Jake saw this, tears just fell from his eyes in clumps every time he blinked.
"Did I remember to tell you, Daddy, how much I looked forward to walking along the beach with you when you moved to the shore house?" Jasmine asked in complete helplessness. For the first time in her life, her beloved daddy could not hear his darling daughter. A few seconds passed in silence. She looked so devastated when her father's wonderful voice -- that was always silently saying "I love you, sugar pie" -- did not answer...and would never answer again. She looked up at her father's face and cried, "You can't hear me anymore. Oh, daddy...you can't hear me anymore. Oh..." Then, her eyes shut tight, her face grimaced and then contracted into tight wrinkles, and she cried with all her might while hugging her daddy.
It was the saddest thing Jake had ever seen.
*
Over the next two weeks, Jasmine sank into a paralyzing depression. Aside from the shock of suddenly losing her father, she could not reconcile how someone so valuable whom she loved so much could be gone for eternity when humanity was days away from immortality!
Jasmine could not work, even though the days leading up to Operation II were the most exciting days in human history. She was caught in a crushing paradox that was nearly killing her. The immeasurably valuable event of achieving immortality juxtaposed to the loss of her dad just a few days prior plunged the dagger of irrationality to an intolerable level.
Jasmine sank and sank deep into depression. She increasingly became despondent. The pain at times turned to numb nothingness; it worsened each day as Operation II approached. She reappeared from her separation from the world long enough to tell Jake that being on the edge of immortality makes her loss too overwhelming.
Jake remembered the talk Miss Annabelle had with Sally in third grade when it was imminent she would lose her mom. Jake remembered how Miss Annabelle put peace into Sally's soul. It was speculation, Jake knew, but the logic seemed solid. The basic idea was that Zon -- the value creator -- would not let his greatest value creation, human consciousness, the greatest value in the Universe, die if Zon had the technology to save our spirit. Of course, Zon The Creator would have such advanced technology.
Jake called Ian and carefully explained the situation. Jake knew that Ian's Overlay Proofs, demonstrating God-Man controlling the mass/energy dynamics of the Universe, gave a lot of weight to the theory that those technologically advanced conscious beings could possibly save our consciousness -- our spirit -- when we physically died. In other words, Ian's theory meant that Jasmine's father, his spirit, could still be alive and happy. Of course, this was speculation, but Ian even proposed that perhaps the ether, the existence field that he was famous for discovering during the Super Bowl, may act like a super-quantum computer with the circuitry that enabled advanced conscious beings to download their knowledge to a Universal Computer of eternal knowledge. Perhaps, Ian suggested, the ether could also be the tool used by Zons to transceive our consciousness into the eternal Civilization of the Universe at the time of our deaths. ...Of course, that was something we would not know until we achieved the Civilization of the Universe on Earth.
Ian came and talked to Jasmine. He spent a couple of hours going through the scientific background to the theory. Jasmine was separated from the world, but Ian talked. After about a half hour into Ian's description, Jake noticed her eyes were looking at Ian's Overlay Charts as he described them. Jake felt enormous relief. Jasmine was quietly listening. Her sensory perceptions were, for the first time since her father's death, opening up and letting some of the outside world in.
About an hour after Ian had left, Jasmine looked at Jake. She had not spoken in five days. She was a skeleton frame and face, having dropped fifteen pounds in 12 days from eating what little amounts Jake could coax her to eat since she lost her father. Her doctor and two eating specialists were not able to help her.
"Let's go out for a quiet dinner," she said in a weak voice. A mammoth wave of relief rushed through Jake and pushed tears into his eyes.
"Certainly, my love," he said gently.
*
At dinner, Jasmine ate a little, and for the first time since her father died, she entered into some conversation. What she said floored Jake:
"Ian's theory is interesting, but we have no evidence," she said. Jake looked at her in amazement. That was the last thing Jake expected her to say. "I see his theory," she continued, "as a metaphor for the love and compassion that would fill a Zon. But, we must do it ourselves. We must drive forth our civilization to bring it into the Civilization of the Universe. Thinking Zons do that for us after we die will only hurt our progress. We must not let what happened to my father happen to anyone else!"
All Jake could do was look at her in awe and admire her. What strength, he thought, what heroic honesty. If there were anyone who could latch onto some wishful-thinking hope, it was her.
"We just don't know what the dynamics would be for Zons out here. We just don't know," she said, her voice starting to shake. "It would be a mistake to let up on our drive, even now in our final stages. There can be no more life-after-death beliefs -- not even saved-by-Zon beliefs -- or we won't make it, Jake. It's up to us."
Caught up in the determination in Jasmine's voice, he felt like cheering. What guts it took to admit this, Jake thought.
"You're an incredible woman, Jasmine," Jake said, overcome with admiration for her courage. He reached out and took her hand in his. "I love you, Darling."
For the first time since losing her father, Jake saw life in her eyes again. He leaned over the table and hugged her. She hugged back. Mountains of respect and love filled them in silence.
As Jake sat back down and looked at Jasmine's face, radiating beauty and strength once again, he realized she was absolutely right. The dynamics of Zons went beyond what he or even Ian could possibly imagine. To do what we needed to do, we had to forget about Ian's theory.
Jake's thoughts shifted back to Jasmine who had just lost the most incredible father and precious love Jake had ever seen. Goddamn, Jake thought, of all people...what a heroic person she is. ...At that moment, he knew the time was right to tell her something he knew.
"Your father was absolutely right, you know," he said.
"About what?"
"Darling, when he was dying, I could see it in his eyes. You filled his last moments with the greatest happiness he ever knew -- you. As he clung to his last moments of life, he was immensely enjoying those last moments. He was viewing his greatest creation, his greatest piece of art -- you."
"Oh, Jake..." Jasmine said, very sadly. The emotional impact caused her beautiful sad eyes to blink several times. She tried to speak, but couldn't. She helplessly looked at Jake and tried to smile.
"Darling, you don't need to say a word," Jake said gently. "I'm now going to tell you what he said at the very end, OK?"
All Jasmine could do was nod.
"I barely heard him, but there was no mistake: he told you what filled his soul at that last moment. Darling...he said, `Being with you is beautiful.'"
*
The day the world was waiting for had arrived. Operation II began, like the first, on international web TV. Jasmine stood next to Jake in the media room just outside the operating room. She had regained some color and a little weight, but she still looked frail.
The paraplegic's name was Andy Konosovic. Although only in his forties, he had an estimated four weeks to live and would be the next to die in the nursing home; so he was selected for Operation II. Once again, the world stopped to watch.
With biological immortality in reach, destructive and dangerous habits had long since vanished around the world. Children and teenagers now thought responsibly like adults. Destructive and dangerous activities from doing drugs to driving in fast cars had stopped. Children and teenagers valued their lives too much now to damage or risk their health. Children and teenagers sat down with their parents to watch Operation II.
Leading up to this day, Natasha continually said on her radio show that, ever since the peaceful political, job, and love revolutions, humanity had discovered three new frontiers of happiness. The Group talked about them often: the preciousness of every living moment; the celebration during time with loved ones; and the bigger-than-life joy people felt every day as their responsibilities of life changed from eventual dead ends to eternally open-ended creations. In other words, life was no longer a subtle burden that people overcame for a few decades by having good experiences like getting married, having children, and raising a family. Life now was an expanding journey filled with excitement as people everywhere built new values for the world. Neothink was the reason for this change.
Humanity's three new frontiers of happiness generated the powerful desire not to die, not to lose the love and joy and happiness of life. Thus, nearly the entire human race watched Sally this day.
People looked forward to what Natasha told them they would get when we achieved non-aging biological immortality: she said that humanity would discover a fourth new frontier of happiness similar to the carefree happiness seen in children. The ultimate deadline pressures and absurd irrationality of death would no longer be part of their psychological makeup, Natasha said. A heavy, heavy burden they all assumed would be lifted from every man and woman. ...As the people watched Operation II, Sally and her team had their hands not only inside Andy, but inside the heart and soul of every person watching around the world. Sally and her team had the power to avert the ultimate scourge and pull off the heavy burden of imminent death.
Jake watched through the glass, in awe of Sally and her team -- the epitome of competence. Before she started, Sally turned in his direction to look over the operating instruments behind her. Jake could see into her eyes. He saw the most powerful determination he had ever seen, generating and overflowing in the vast mind space behind those awesome eyes. At that moment, he knew that, like Jasmine, Sally had long ago let go of her hope that we are saved by Zons after we die, for her eyes screamed, "We must save man from death! We must do it ourselves; I must do it!"
As the doctors prepared to begin, Jake put his arm around Jasmine.
"How are you doing, Darling?" he asked her.
"It's hard, Jake. It's still so hard," Jasmine said, leaning her tormented head against his shoulder. Jake held her lovingly.
Sally had the same three teams of neurosurgeons with her and one new team to simultaneously remove the head from Andy's breathing, cloned body.
When Andy's cloned body was rolled out, the viewing audience gasped, for it was already "alive". A few hours prior, when the cloned body was warmed to the ideal temperature, the electrical system had been started. The heart was beating and a ventilator was attached at the base of the trachea, regulating the breathing. Upon seeing the breathing cloned body, everyone remembered why Martin had died during Operation I.
Sally asked Andy if he would like to say something before Operation II began.
"Yes," he said. Then he looked at Sally. Dragging his speech a little because of a strong relaxant he was given earlier, he said, "I want to thank this great woman, Dr. Sally Salberg, for her lifelong drive to save the human life. You're my hero Dr. Salberg. ...I also want to thank Jonathan Ward for creating the Freedom Paradigm that enabled Project Life to proceed. I want to thank Theodore Winters and Jeremiah Jones for their financial and commercial drives behind Project Life. Thank you each member of the God-Man Group for orchestrating Project Life. Thank you. And thank you everyone everywhere for your emotional and financial support. You've all made this possible. Thank you."
Andy, laying on his back, closed his eyes, and the doctor anesthetized him.
The two teams began at the same time. A rush of pride went through Jake as he watched mankind conquering the most powerful negative force of nature. As he watched the two teams go to work, they almost seemed to be synchronized, almost as if choreographed to music. There was something about seeing two teams working at the same time doing the same thing that changed the appearance from chaos and brutality to order and finesse.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Jasmine whispered.
The exchange of Andy's paralyzed body to the robotic body and from the clone's head to the robotic head was performed simultaneously. It was beautiful.
A ventilator attached to the base of the clone's windpipe breathed for the clone. The cloned body and Andy's head were very close to each other as the neurosurgeons worked on connecting nerves.
Finally, after fifteen hours, the time for removal of the robotic head and the robotic body had arrived. The connection of the priceless spirit in Andy's head to the new, replaceable tool in his cloned body had arrived. The announcers on the television could feel the excitement of the big moment of uniting healthy head and brain with new, healthy body to give Andy his youth again.
The switch began beautifully. Here, at this magical moment of giving healthy youth back to the priceless spirit, Sally and her team looked like the angels of life. Their arms moved swiftly; their hands and fingers worked confidently. Not a motion was wasted; the short utterances of Sally's voice sounded like the voice of God.
Again, Jake felt chills of overwhelming pride and hope rushing through him. He wrapped his arm tightly around Jasmine. The world had seen this once before, but there was something about attaching Andy's head and spirit to an already breathing, living body -- this bringing two independent entities of nature together into unison, seeing them flow into one, knowing that the priceless spirit would take over the faithful servant -- that made this moment breathtaking to watch. As Jake watched, he suddenly thought of the immortal spirit in Andy's head as God, and the cloned mortal body as Man. Sally was building the first immortal God-Man. Only God-Man could do this.
"They're now one," Sally uttered. Those three words -- they're now one -- signified the most important accomplishment ever achieved on Earth.
The angels of life physically did nothing for the next two minutes. All hands stopped as they simply watched. They were observing, watching the vital signs, the breathing rhythm...but most of all, they were quietly absorbing the grand view of the greatness they had just achieved with their own hands. At that moment, they felt suspended somewhere between human and God. Jake watched; he strained to see into their eyes.
"What must it be like to be them right now," he whispered.
Operation II ended -- nearly 20 hours after it began. Sally ordered the ventilator to be lowered from doing most of the work to just giving some help. She watched Andy for five minutes, then ordered the ventilator to be shut off completely.
Andy continued breathing on his own. He had no need for the ventilator. The reporters in the media room cheered. The whole world cheered. Jasmine cried, and she whispered, "Oh Daddy, I wish you made it." That same sad thought drifted through millions of others during this moment.
The members of the God-Man Group stood next to Jake and Jasmine in the media room. Until now, all onlookers were quietly lost in their own world of thoughts. But at this moment, they turned to each other to share their joy and tears.
Miss Annabelle, however, stared through the glass a moment longer. She walked over and put her hand on the window. She whispered something so quietly that only Jake, who was directly behind her, could hear her:
"You've done it, Sally. You have defeated death. You have proven that God-Man will not let man die."
Sally removed the ventilator and put some small device over the hole in Andy's neck. Then, she slowly brought Andy up from his anesthesia. The TV announcers said Andy would remain heavily sedated for two or three days. But Sally wanted to bring him to consciousness, if only for a moment. After about twenty minutes, Sally said in a loud firm voice, as if calling to someone in the distance,
"Andy...Andy! Wake up, Andy! I'm Dr. Salberg. Andy... can you hear me? I'm Dr. Salberg. If you hear me, open your eyes. Andy, open your eyes!"
After a struggle with his eyelids, Andy opened his eyes. Sally grasped his hand and leaned over very close to his face.
"You made it, Andy. You made it!" And, by the burst of joy that ignited in Andy's psyche, a smile slowly spread across his face, a smile that pushed itself wide and hung on as long as it could through the returning levels of sedation.
That smile, captured forever on camera, was instantly and forever the logo for one's "I-ness": new body, yes, but still Andy, forever Andy.
Theodore Winters walked over to the window. "Now," he said, speaking for the first time since Operation II began, "right now as we watch, millions of people are in immediate need of this operation before it's too late. Right now, they're begging us to bring this great value to them. I will bring this to the masses. I will do everything to bring this to the masses immediately."
Jake knew there was only one way to bring immortality to the masses: through the beauty of business...by making immortality an affordable, commercial product. The members of The Group knew it, too. And they all knew that it was Theodore Winters who must be the one to bring the greatest product ever created to all humanity.
*
A few days after Operation II, Andy was brought up from sedation to full consciousness for the first time. Web TV brought this momentous moment live to the world.
"Welcome back," Sally said to Andy, who was smiling triumphantly. "Let's try saying something. ...The world is watching."
Andy lay in his bed at a 30-degree incline, but he tried to sit straight up. Sally stopped him...not for a while yet. He nodded at her, then lifted his right arm slowly to see if it was really he. Aside from a slight nod, he could not move his neck yet, so he had to wait until his arm rose to almost his chest level before he saw it. When he saw his rising arm, his body jerked and his eyes darted away and his arm dropped from the broken concentration, as if he were startled and in disbelief. Then he looked again and raised his arm higher. He looked at its front and its back. He slowly reached up and felt his face with his hand and then bit his finger to know what it felt like to feel pain down there below his neck. He yanked his bitten finger out of his mouth, and he began to laugh. Then he lifted his other arm and looked at it and laughed.
And then, although his neck and shoulders ached when he lifted his arms, he started moving his two arms around and around in front of his eyes, like a child playing a game, laughing at what he saw before him.
"It's me...it's really me!" he cried out. "Dr. Salberg...may I do something I haven't done since my accident? May I give you a hug?"
She leaned over, and the beautiful angel of life, and her first saved, gave each other a tight, earthly hug.
Andy's laughter turned to tears of happiness, then he said, "Thank you, thank you Dr. Salberg. Although I realize this body is good for another 60 years, I fully realize the bigger picture: I'm now on the other side -- on the shore of immortality. Through you and the God-Man Group, I've averted certain death. Thank you. My hope is that you and Mr. Winters can bring everyone over to the shores of immortality. I've only been conscious for a few minutes. But I can say, it's beautiful here. I feel so much joy and love. I'll need a few days to fathom it...but I know I'll feel this joy and love...forever."
Andy was getting physically tired, and Sally told him to rest now. But Andy wanted to add one more thought, and he whispered:
"I'd like to have a moment of silence in memory of my good friend, Martin, who did not make it..."
Jasmine nodded and hugged Jake. She thought about Martin...and her father.
*
After the success of Operation II, the world was in need of a capsulized summary of what was happening to society. Technology and knowledge were moving so fast now, people were hungry for some kind of overview of where they were coming from and where they were going to.
John Melbourne led the world in understanding Neothink. He would address the world on what was happening. Al Patterson made his speech an international media event. Two weeks after Andy's triumph, John Melbourne delivered the following speech, shown on web TV, live across the world:
"Scott's Overlay Charts show that humanlike consciousness is the controlling component of existence. That means man was meant to rise up and control nature. Well, we finally did, fully and completely with Operation II. Human beings were, until now, trapped within the destructive forces of nature.
"The ultimate, destructive force of nature was, of course, your death. Some others included physical urges for indiscriminate sex, the desire in some to rule and control others, the desire in others to be ruled and controlled, our search for financial prosperity and not our real passion in life, our competitive drive to prey on others' weaknesses in business and sex, and even our endless efforts to be popular come from forces of nature.
"Those are some examples of the forces of nature that work well in nature but wreak havoc on humanity. For instance, leaders of animal clans are absolutely necessary for survival, but political leaders nearly destroyed civilization through economic collapses and violent wars. The drive to mate with the physically superior member of the opposite sex is crucial in nature for the propagation of the species. But for humans who build relationships around both physical and psychological reasons of love and admiration, the temptations to be pulled away by the physically gorgeous mistress destroys love and families. To live a life seeking prosperity is absolutely necessary in nature for survival, but humans never realized how that pursuit for riches blinded them from their Friday-Night Essences -- their deepest passions -- and prevented their happiness. The competitive struggle for survival in nature forces animals, even in the same clan, to seek out and capitalize on the weaknesses of others, but in the human race, that deep-rooted urge unnecessarily generates hate, spite, and envy toward your fellowman. Even being popular is a competitive drive in nature to receive better positions, food, and females in the clan, but the drive to be popular per se in humans is destructive to our studies in school and careers as adults and romantic and family relationships. And, of course, death itself is very important in nature for evolutionary progress, but humans advance faster than evolution, obsoleting the need for death.
"The forces of nature wreak havoc on humanity because human beings surpassed nature long ago. We should have, long ago, left behind the forces of nature. But to escape the forces of nature, until now, was impossible.
"For the first time, the human race is being pulled free from the destructive forces of nature. Two weeks ago, for example, we witnessed Andy get pulled free from death -- our greatest triumph over nature. Leading up to our great triumph, other triumphs over the forces of nature were crucial: Unlike gorilla clans, humans no longer have leaders who rule and control society, and people no longer look to be ruled by external authorities. Society's standard of living has made everyone wealthy, so people now pursue their deepest passions in life and are deeply happy and creative. And now that society's standard of living has made everyone wealthy, we no longer feel the competitive pressures to prey on our peers' weaknesses. Instead, we admire our peers' strengths and love our fellowman. And our most basic animal urges to mate with beautiful members of the opposite sex will eventually be superseded as bioengineering perfects our bodies and our spouses' bodies.
"The forces of nature had a powerful 3000-year stranglehold on conscious man. It was the invention of Neothink that enabled us to break free from the forces of nature. And here's how: through puzzle-building Neothink, an unforeseen phenomenon started happening to society -- the superpuzzles started growing. As more and more people began building major Neothink puzzles, the puzzles themselves started snapping together into superpuzzles. More and more superpuzzles started growing throughout society. Society metamorphosed into a supersociety of superpuzzles. The supersociety is made of millions of Neothink geniuses snapping together Neothink puzzles, which go on to become Neothink puzzle pieces to the superpuzzles. Those superpuzzles, such as Operation II, for example, are the forces of the supersociety that overpower and pull us free from the forces of nature.
"The forces of our new supersociety -- the superpuzzles -- pull us free from death, from infidelity, from political leaders, from hatred and envy, from monetary slavery. The supersociety is a civilization of pure love and admiration for our fellowman. You see, our fellowman brings crucial values to society by contributing vital Neothink puzzle pieces to the superpuzzles. And with the success of the superpuzzle known as Operation II, the forces of the supersociety are about to permanently obsolete the most destructive force of nature to the human race: death.
"Dr. Sally Salberg said once to the members of the God-Man Group that the only thing really wrong with life is death. Very soon, there will be nothing -- nothing really wrong with life."
*
Jake watched Mr. Melbourne from the engineering room at the studio. After the speech, Jake dropped his head onto the control panel. It was not a gesture of completion or relaxation. Rather, a ferocious bombardment of thoughts set off by Mr. Melbourne's speech pulled all Jake's focus inward. Those thoughts had his mind tied in a knot: animalistic lust, preying on weaknesses in others, pursuing immediate financial gratification, political power, being led, seeking attention, turning to external authorities...those forces of nature Mr. Melbourne just talked about were enormously stimulating, Jake thought, were they not? Those forces of nature created powerful yet destructive stimulations that attracted us to them. Those stimulations certainly helped mask the burden of life in the anticivilization...with death being the ultimate relief at the end. Were those destructive stimulations not unlike the drug addict who could not get off his spiral-of-death stimulation because he could not go back to the nonstimulating, boring world of being sober?
As Jake sat there with his head down, wondering about those destructive stimulations that once masked the burden of life, wondering about the drug addict, about external authorities, war, school shootings...a bizarre thing happened: Jake uncovered the mother of all illusions. His head rose, his face looked bewildered, and he had to say to himself: "What?!"
He picked up his automatic pencil and tried to write some notes, but his hand would not cooperate. The thoughts were coming too fast. So, he sat there and let himself think:
All along, 33 years ago, Miss Annabelle thought the adults were simply too taken in by the matrix of illusions to see what is. No, Jake just realized, they never were fooled by the matrix. Down deep, they implicitly knew what is all along! The matrix of illusions was a tacit agreement among all adults; they all, on an implicit level, let the harm and damage happen. It's like the smoker, Jake thought. He knows smoking is bad for him, and the more someone gets in his face to show him what is, all the statistics about clogged arteries, high blood pressure, and lung cancer due to smoking, the more that honest person will be pushed away by the smoker. For, the smoker knows what is -- and doesn't want to hear it!
Most adults pushed Miss Annabelle away. Implicitly, they knew the illusions existed, and like the smoker, they did not want to hear what is. And now, on the other side of the gulf and safely in the new mentality, Jake knew why: in the end, pulling society free from the anticivilization had nothing to do with seeing what is. For, like the smoker, adults already implicitly knew. Pulling free from the anticivilization had everything to do with feeling greater supersociety stimulations than the spiral-of-death stimulations of the anticivilization. The human need for stimulation explained why, before the supersociety, the people needed the external "authorities": for stimulation. The adults needed the destructive stimulation of external "authorities" to break the burden of life like a smoker needs a destructive cigarette. Church and its illusions, for example, offered a lot of lifelong stimulation. Government and its constant effects and changes on society offered a lot of lifelong stimulation. Humans need and seek stimulation; people in the anticivilization were no exception, and they sought the stimulation readily available to them from external "authorities". The people knew it was false and destructive, but they needed the stimulation like the smoker needs his cigarettes. The illusions, tacitly accepted, let everyone save face.
Pointing out to the adults the harm and destruction of their external "authorities" would not do anything. They already knew, at least implicitly, and did not want to hear it. That's why blatant dishonesty radiated from the last U.S. President of the 20th century, for example, and the people stood by and did nothing.
Miss Annabelle succeeded because her group consisted of children. She succeeded because children were the only willing parties to discard the matrix of illusions. They were willing parties because the burden of life that begged for the stimulations of external "authorities" had not yet settled in children. So, their minds were still able to pierce through the matrix of illusions to accept what is. Those twelve children, in turn, grew up and created the supersociety stimulations that overpowered the anticivilization's spiral-of-death stimulations. It was their supersociety stimulations -- Jonathan's get-the-people-rich political paradigm, Theodore's get-the-people-creative business paradigm, Jeremiah's immortality-here-on-Earth religious paradigm, Ian's Overlay Charts proving the Universe's God-Man paradigm, Natasha's true-love-forever marriage paradigm, Sally's we-can-live-forever medical paradigm, Bobby's person-you-were-meant-to-be work paradigm, Reggie's super-sense-of-life music paradigm, Al's beneficial-values-first media paradigm -- that stimulated adults beyond the previous stimulations and pulled us free from the anticivilization.
Jake shook his head and thought, thank goodness Miss Annabelle was a third-grade school teacher...the best there ever was.
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