Amygdala Hijack - A Genetic Engineering Sci-Fi Story of Impending Dystopia

EP. 10 - ALEXG

PETER WAS LYING IN bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering where the recent events might lead him and the podcast team. He was not prepared for what had happened thus far, but he felt driven to complete the task at hand despite the growing unease that things might not turn out well.

He recalled the odd circumstances in which he found himself ever since the obelisk crash landed in Saskatchewan. The arrival of the obelisk seemed particularly surreal.

"Why would an alien race send us a warning of an impending attack by other marauding aliens," he wondered, "and if they're coming, when would that be? Would we even have time to recognize it? Would we instead die instantly from their advanced tech?"

As a science and technology podcaster, he was current on most of the amazing new capabilities that had either recently been integrated into society or were about to be, from human-mammal hybrids to post-humans with expanded mental capacities. Given humanity's accelerated pace of technology advancements in the last few decades, it was clear to him that any marauding species would easily possess innumerable ways to instantly annihilate native beings on a planet. Suggestions that they would want to experiment on humans or care to allow people to reside on the planet with them, even as zoo animals or slaves, were preposterous.

"So why worry about it?" he thought. "Everyone is stressing out over something they can do very little about. By some strange providence, however, the increasing global frenzy appears to be helping our podcast ratings."

The podcast had started out innocently enough, focusing attention on the hard science behind the discoveries. Their recent move to the new format, one that delved into the applications of tech and effects on humans and the planet, still seemed misaligned with Peter's original intentions.

Prior to the format change, which fortunately coincided with the obelisk's arrival, his weekly show was on the wane. Advertisers were threatening to pull out, and listener and download numbers were in slow decline. He had previously hoped that simply running the show from his hometown of Cambridge would keep interest high, especially given the proximity to great research universities like Harvard and MIT, the bevy of inquisitive students, and an ample selection of qualified guests.

Given the recent, widespread use of AI, nanotech, genetic engineering, and aging reversal techniques, public attention was turning rapidly toward applications of science and tech versus the underlying hard sciences. Indeed, it was appearing to him that, like his podcast, basic science discoveries were also on the wane, almost suggesting that humans were reaching a limit there but not for functional applications.

Peter thought about the show's guests since the format change.

"The Welcomer," he thought, "a great guy with an undeniable message of acceptance. We could either greet the stellar marauders and acquiesce to their arrival and life on the planet, or not. To do the latter would mean certain death to all humans, but at least the former gave us a chance for some of our species to survive."

Then there was Poison Paul who offered the flip side of The Welcomer's more hopeful approach. His plan was to poison the world with nuclear waste such that restitution by any marauders would be difficult at best. To Peter, this seemed a rather rational concept that was hard to argue against.

No marauders would want a planet bathed in nuclear waste from hundreds of thousands of localized, simultaneous warhead explosions. Not even a futuristic race of alien robots could do much with that degree of devastation. The mere existence of such weapons and readiness to use them could serve as a fair deterrent to invasion.

The interview that left him cold and uncomfortable, however, was the most recent one with Eugenie Driver. Maybe it was her upper crust Boston accent or the attention she paid to her spoiled dog. Perhaps it was that Molli got kidnapped the same night as the interview. Or it was the audacity of Eugenie's suggestion – that our technology should be allowed to run amok to see what future post-humans might evolve with advanced defensive capabilities.