Calan - The Immortality Paradox

METASPIEL - A Window Into Our Past

Date: 374, OA19,655. Written by Starrise Academy correspondent, Ivanna Solomon.

Scientists at the eminent Starrise Academy are celebrating the success of the Primogenitor, a device that according to sources has the power to reincarnate ancestors from the distant past. A project that has taken over two centuries to implement has finally achieved a conclusive result.

The team, led by the head of the bioengineering department, Professor Cristal Stenberg, have achieved the first stage of a prototype in which the DNA of an individual is placed into an extensive database that contains millennia of data on billions of Humans. Minute details sourced from throughout history is then used to recreate the ideas of that person's ancestors, including voice, appearance and behaviour.

While the device itself concentrates on the biological aspect of identifying the genetic history of a person, it can also be used to project corporeal images onto that person's cortex. This was achieved by combining the efforts of the neuroscience and psychological departments who use precise neural stimulation. Through the Primogenitor, this can now be achieved automatically.

An eager student who has been working exclusively on the project has provided a summary of the device's capabilities. 'Consider taking a person's biography and trying to formulate an image in your mind of what they look like and how they act. What this device does is feeds that incomplete picture with accurate genetic material, and models that person based on centuries of information. The presence of a single gene can cause multitudes of changes in that ancestor's depiction.'

Grand Professor Seiichi Keneko, the last of a long line of individuals responsible for funding the project was elated with the results. 'Time has been cruel to the many contributors who put their heart and soul into this project over the two-hundred and eight years, but I am proud of every single one of them for achieving this monumental feat. The possibilities of this device are beyond our imagination.'

Although the project has received widespread acclaim across the galaxy, some from within the Academy itself have their doubts about its true potential. Critics say that while the device may be a great example of how far we have come in mastering the genetics of a human being, numerous components within the device are rooted in probability calculations and outsourcing.

Further experimentation is planned for the device, but scientists are already making preparations for commercial distribution. Internal sources suggest that while the prototype may be successful, its cost has not been wholly justified.