Nation X: Author’s Commentary On Pleasure Centre

In my Nation X series, I told of the genetically enhanced humans enslaving the ordinary humans by getting them to be addicted to the pleasure stimulated in their brains with a machine. While most of it is fiction, the concept of pleasure centre in the brains is a scientific fact.

 

It was discovered in the 1950s by two brain researchers named James Olds and Peter Milner. They identified the part of the rodent’s brains that give them pleasure and experimented on them by inserting electrodes into the pleasure centre. When currents pass through the electrodes, the rodents were supposed to feel happy. How did they know?

 

The researchers made a switch for the rodents to have full control on the electrical flow. The moment they pressed the switch, small electrical pulses flowed into their brains. The result: These animals did nothing other than pressing the switch. They totally ignored food, drink and female rodents. They ended up died of thirst and starvation. Such is the danger of pleasure.

 

However, the human brains are different. We do not have a specific area in our brains for the pleasure centres. Our pleasure centres are scattered throughout the brain. What do you think will happen if we manage to find a way to activate them artificially? We may end up like the rodents.

 

Joy Machine.

Now, let us suppose the feeling of joy can be duplicated. Think about it. What do you like to do? When you do that thing, you will cause electrical pulses to flow through the pleasure centres in your brain. You will feel happy and want to do it more often.

 

Suppose there is a machine that can store those pulses and duplicate them to your brains. What will happen then? You will not need to do that thing to be happy. All you have to do is to press the button and you will be as happy as you have done that thing.

 

The implication of the invention of such a machine will be disastrous. Our drive and enthusiasm for progress are caused by our joy of achieving them. If this joy can be achieved from pressing a button, then all our drives and enthusiasm for progress is gone. Once addicted to the artificial joy, we may not even have the will power to take a break to eat and drink. We will be dead within days.

 

Therefore, I conclude that if such a joy machine ever got invented, it will be the last invention of the human civilisation.

 

If you happen to have ideas of this machine, the best thing you can do is forget all about it and destroy all records of it. If you know someone who has made progress on it, you have to stop it. The survival of the human civilisation is dependent on you.

 

Tool of subjugation.

 

In the story, the X-sers used it to enslave the rest of humanity. Theoretically it can work. If I have this machine, I will set it on you for a few hours to let you experience pure joy. Then I switch it off and let you get back to normal. You would have withdrawal syndrome and you will do anything to feel the joy. I would have enslaved the whole world.

 

However, what is there to stop me from setting the machine on myself? In the end I will be as addicted as you. I will no longer be your master. We are just fellow slaves.

 

Therefore, the only way the joy machine can be used as a tool of subjugation is when it is used by beings with a completely different biology from us. In other words, aliens.

 

Conclusion

The pleasure centre of the brains is real. The addiction to it is also real. Only the joy machine is not. Let us pray that it will never exist.

Nation X: World Domination

Welcome back to the lecture on the history of Nation X. As I have said in earlier lectures, the Nation X marks an important jump in our civilisation. It was the beginning of our transition from savages to true intelligent beings. Through it, humanity was transformed from being the product of evolution to the creation of intelligent design like us. Look around yourselves now. We are what we are today, not because of random forces of evolution but because we were specifically designed by our respective genetic engineers to fulfil specific roles. This is the mark of true civilisation.

In the previous session, we went through the archive recordings of the natural humans at the time Nation X was taking over the planet. Don’t be distressed because you cannot fully understand their meanings. Even the best humanogist cannot fully understand them either. Your assignment is to write a paper on the effect of the transition to the society of the natural humans.

Let us begin the actual course.

When the X-sers decided to take over the control of Earth, they knew they could not succeed through violence. First, they were greatly outnumbered. Secondly, the natural humans had control over a vast amount of nuclear weapons. In those days, the term “nuclear” was restricted to the fission, splitting of heavy atoms. The technology was primitive but extremely destructive. The X-sers knew they had no chance of surviving a full scale nuclear explosion.

Instead, their war plan was to exploit the greatest weakness of the brains of the natural humans, pleasure.

Natural humans are very diverse. They differ in their beliefs, preferences and interests. However, no matter how diverse they are, all their beliefs and actions were focused on bring joy to them. They have many words for it like “joy”, “pleasure”, “happiness”, enlightenment” and many other but the mechanism is still the same. It is the event of having electrical impulses to stimulate a part of their brain called the “pleasure center”.

The X-sers knew about it but they did not have the technology to create the impulse from huge distances. Then they discovered the principle of quantum connectivity which can be used to scan the frequencies of primitive brains and be adjusted to deliver sonic waves to stimulate the pleasure centres of the natural humans.

They started to build relay stations throughout the earth using their agents. When the system was ready, the begun to scan the brainwaves. Then they activated the waves designed to the scan. The natural humans were infected and felt extreme joy. Throughout their lives, they made plans, sacrifices and dream of happiness. On that day, they received the very thing they could only dream of, joy.

The X-ser made their message clear. They would switch on the pleasure waves for one hour a day if the subjects agreed to obey their instructions. Those who refused would be excluded from the effects because the X-sers could easily exclude those individuals’ brain waves from the pleasure waves. As a result, the X-sers gain the control of the entire planet’s wealth.

Meanwhile, the natural humans continued with their lives in a more simplified manner. They worked on their given roles willingly. They had no other desire than to enjoy the daily exposure to the pleasure waves. In other words, they got out of the way and allowed the X-sers to develop Earth.

Thus, Earth became a truly civilised planet. From there, the X-sers progressed to space travel, colonise the moon, Mars and the Asteroid Belt. The success in dominating Earth also allowed the X-sers to experiment with animal and synthetic genes for the development of the subsequent generation.

If you are to examine your genetic codes, you will find that the original human genes can rarely consist of more than 2% of the entire genes. So, why do we call ourselves “humans” since we only inherit less than 2% of their genes? The answer is, we do that because our true inheritance from them is not their genes but their quest for self improvements. If the early humans had no desire to improve and progress in life, Nation X would not have existed. Without Nation X, we will not be here today participating in a history course in a space station orbiting Jupiter.

We owe our existence to the natural humans. We inherit their progressive spirit. This is the most important thing I want you to remember from this course.

In order to let understand more, we will organise a field trip to visit the natural humans.

In 2 weeks time, Jupiter and Earth will be aligned at the same line from the sun. This means travel between these 2 planets will cost the least at that time. We will make our trip by next week.

Please read the instructions transmitted into your chips on the preparation needed. You are to follow the protocol strictly especially when communicating with the natural humans. Those who are caught offending the natural humans will be punished. You are to memorise all the rules of communication.

We realise that some of you are not designed to live on Earth. The strong gravitational pull and the highly corrosive oxygen gas of Earth are fatal of those who are designed to live in vacuum. If you happen to be one, please consult your environmental suit specialist and get yourself proper protection. The timetable of the trip is included in the transmission.

My Economic Policy: Subsidyless Nation

I am taking a shot at formulating my own national policy. In this post I plan to eliminate the subsidy system as we know it. Let me begin by giving my definition of subsidy.

Definition of subsidy: Forcing A to bear the partial expense incurred by B.

Based on the above definition, some subsidies like the HDB subsidy is not counted as one. Other than that subsidy is inherently unjust. I propose to eliminate most of it and residents are to pay the full cost of government services. In addition, I propose some measures to ensure the cost of living to be affordable to the citizens like negative income tax.

Of course, the above policy does not cover all of the government’s functions. There are functions cannot be so easily priced like the role of police, army, fire fighters, judges etc. These roles are to remain as usual but services with direct usage like healthcare and education needs to be reformed by charging full cost to the users.

Does this make us a less caring society? The answer is “no”. A truly caring society is a society where people help the less fortunate voluntarily, not by force. The policy of subsidising the poor is achieved by forcing to rich to help the poor. This does not make the rich to be more caring. Likewise, for the policy of subsidised healthcare. It is achieved by forcing the healthy to pay for the medical expenses of the sick.

Let us take healthcare as an example. Is it just to force people who do not go to the hospital to pay a part of the cost of those who do? Some may argue that any one of us have the chance of getting hit by a car or being diagnosed with some cancer. So, it should be the benefit for all of us. I agree on that but there are also many diseases that are linked to lifestyles.

For example, those who live a sexually active lifestyle will have a higher risk of being infected with sexually transmitted disease. I have no objection to the man’s choice of such a lifestyle but he should also respect my freedom in not wanting to contribute to his medical funds should he be infected with those disease. The same can be said for those who maintain a healthy lifestyle and don’t eat meat. They should not be forced to pay for the medical expenses of those who do not care for their health.

So, my plan is to create a system where individuals pay the full cost for the services used with some exceptions (like the police etc) and government funded charity should be kept to the minimum.

This does not mean I am not aware of the high medical expenses should the unexpected happens. How should we deal with this? The answer is in the promotion of cost effective healthcare insurance. When I say that, I am referring to the insurance that people have the choice on whether they want to take. It should not be forced. In order to ensure the plan to be affordable, premium should be made as low as humanly possible.

In order to do that, I propose the following steps:
1. Liberalise the entry requirement for insurance companies in order to create more competition.
2. Allow the public to buy insurance directly from the companies to eliminate commissions.
3. Allow limitations to the insurance plans to reduce premium.

In the first point, the only legislation we need is to ensure those insurers to pay up when it is time to do so. Other than that, there should be minimum barrier of entry. A more competitive market will ensure the lowest insurance cost.

In the second point, commissions form a significant portion of the insurance premium. If the public can get their insurance directly from the insurance companies, then they can save the commissions. What about those who need advice on what to buy? They can seek insurance professionals to advise them for a fee. Here is an example: Instead of paying $100 in commissions, the public can save the money and pay $50 as advisory fee for a professional to advise them. It is still cheaper and better.

For the third point, one needs to understand that insurance companies make their profit in getting paid to take up risks. Each time a client gets admitted into the hospital, the company has to fork out a lot of money. So, if we can help them to reduce their risks, then it must lead to lower charges. Here is an example. Based on my current lifestyle, I know I will not get any sexually transmitted disease. I can tell my insurance company to exclude that from my health plan. This means if I ever get admitted to the hospital for sexually transmitted disease, the insurance company have my permission in not paying a single cent. This will reduce their risk. In return I expect them to reduce my premium accordingly.

So much for insurance.

I am also aware that there are many poor people who cannot make ends meet. How can they survive if they have to pay full costs of everything? The answer is in the implementation of negative income tax. This means the government will use tax-payers money to top up the cash income of the low income earners to enable them to live decent lives.

I propose 2 categories of recipients for the top-up:
1. Disabled
2. Able bodied.

Those in Group 1 will receive their cash top-up of up to $1,000 per month with no other conditions. This should be the minimum charity at the government’s expense. The potential for abuse is low because it is very unlikely for anyone to chop off their legs for the $1,000.

Those in Group 2 will be different. In order to qualify to receive the top-up, the recipients must be answerable to their assigned career coaches. The career coach’s job is to help the recipients to move to the higher salary bracket. The coaches will identify the obstacles and recommend steps for the recipients to follow. For example, if the problem is the lack of education, the coach will recommend the recipient to take up night classes. The expense of his class will be paid fully by the recipient using the money from the top-up. The government will not spend a single cent more on them.

Should the coach find the recipient to be not cooperative or have no intention to improve, then he will recommend the top-up to be cancelled. The public should realise that the cash top-up is meant to help the poor to be rich. It is not meant for them to stay poor. Tax-payers’ money should not be wasted on those who have no intention to improve.

That is all for now. I will discuss the education plan in my next post.

Nation X: The Last Tycoon

At last, the end is here. Or is it the beginning? I am not really sure myself. Am I supposed to be bitter because I was betrayed by my benefactors? Yet, I have no negative feelings towards them. Maybe it is the result of those joy waves.

Whatever it is, I think I have gotten the best deal in life. As of now I am 143 years old. Yet, my appearance and body cells are like those in their 20 plus, thanks to the rejuvenation technology from my benefactors turned masters. I have lived a long prosperous life. I withheld nothing my heart’s desires may it be women, drugs or delicacies of any kind. So, I should have no regrets of facing the end. The problem is, I am happier now.

Let me begin with my story.

I started off as a small time smuggler. I was involved in almost everything illegal. Drugs, technology, weapons or anything else that people are willing to pay for.

One day, I read about a Third World Nation that had opened its doors to stem cell research companies out of desperation for more money. Almost instantly it became a pariah state to the international community. I saw an opportunity to make lots of money by helping them in the procurement of needed supplies.

At first, I did not earn much from them but I saw the potential. The events that unfolded after that had proven me right. I hit the jackpot. As the nation grew in wealth, so did I. Being the pioneer has its privileges. The formerly pariah state has become the star of the business community. Everybody wanted to do business with it. As the country’s “best friend”, I naturally become everyone’s preferred business partner. All I have to do is to maintain relationship with my clients and money keeps flowing in.

Not only that I get to benefit from their advanced medical treatment. These folks are extreme genius. The can create any organs. Throughout my life, many of my organs had failed. If not for their replacements, I would have died a long time ago. I owed them my life. This is also the same technology that enabled them to secure the support from the rich and powerful throughout the world. After all, who can say no to living long and healthy lives? As the middleman, I made a lot of money from this.

One day, they decided to give me a new communication technology. All I know is, it is based on quantum connectivity and it can provide high density data transfer for a fraction of the cost we had at that time. So, I started to implement it and earn another mountain of gold while enjoying the fame of the second Edison.

Unbeknown to me, the system that I set up can be piggybacked to scan and record the brainwaves of the people around it. They used the data to create the right sound waves that can stimulate the pleasure centres in our brains. The rest is history. The waves they emit can produce tremendous joy to their targets. Those exposed by it will want for nothing other than to be exposed to it forever. I am one of them.

Let me make it clear here. I know what it is to enjoy life. I have enjoyed all the things that many people can only afford to fantasize of. Yet, none of them can be compared to what I felt under those waves. I don’t know how to describe it other than “pure joy”. In fact, this is my only craving – to have more of it. As for other hobbies like women, drugs and delicacies, they no longer have any attraction to me.

In this way, the entire humanity has been enslaved by our genetically enhanced counterparts. The strange thing is we enjoy it. All we have to do is to perform the task they set for us and obey the given laws. We will be rewarded with one hour of exposure to the pleasure waves per day.

Our entire society has changed. There are no longer any vices at all because we only crave for the wave. Drugs, alcohol, prostitution and all other crimes are gone. Somehow, they have the ability to exclude selected individuals from the wave when necessary. This means anyone who were caught disobeying the rules will be excluded. When the waves were turned on, these people will not be able to feel the joy like the rest of us. This is the worst punishment one can receive. As a result, for the first time in known history, we have a perfect law abiding community.

As for me, I was appointed as their chief administrator. In other words, a collaborator or a traitor. If I find anyone who does not obey my orders, I will just click the person’s unique brainwaves into the joy wave emitter. This person will be excluded from the next emission of joy wave. So, practically no one dares to disobey me. This is a boring job and as a reward I am entitled to double the duration of pleasure wave. The only unusual thing I have to do is to command selected people to procreate in order to avoid the extinction of the species.

So, why did they enslave us for? The answer is to keep us out of their way. They are not using us to mine uranium, plant corn or work in their factories. They have more efficient machines for that. All they want is for us to mind our own business . I guess this shall be our business for the rest of our lives, keep in line to enjoy the joy wave.

Nation X: The Last Pastor

At last, the event we have dreaded for more than a hundred years has finally come. The Soulless are no longer content in living their sinful lives in their lairs, they now want to dominate us, enslave us and turn us into their image. I am among a few hundreds of believers who had managed to escape to the mountains. We can have nothing but our faith to sustain us from this evil.

 

The purpose of this recording is to tell our story in the event we failed to hold up against our enemies in hope that we, the true Children of God will not be forgotten.

 

It began when a godless nation decided to give in to great evil by accommodating the works of stem cell researchers in its bid to be wealthy. The rulers allowed unlimited freedom to the commercial institutions to do what they want no matter how immoral.  While we do have not much detail on what they did within those walls, we can be certain that they tampered with the human cells and the DNA in them.

 

We reacted to this abomination by demanding the world governments to stop them by any means necessary including the use of force. Unsurprisingly, the so-called “leaders” back then were as soft as they are now. Poisoned by the idea of liberalism, they refused to take action even though they knew very well that this nation had allowed serious blasphemy by tampering into the forbidden things.

 

They were rewarded by Satan with great wealth and technological breakthrough. They discovered ways to prolong lives. As a result, this nation was courted by our corrupt politicians and greedy businessmen who lusted for long lives in order to continue to indulge in their sins. At this time, this nation had literally became untouchables. It was protected by the rich and powerful. The ordinary people could do nothing to stop them other than praying.

 

Not content with their lives in sin, they moved a step further by denying the way of life God has set. They eliminated reproduction through sexual intercourse. Instead, they made babies in the factories.  Babies were made by mixing DNA and install them into cells just like any man-made product. Are they humans? Do they have souls? Many prominent theologians doubted that. This was the reason we call them “Soulless”.

 

That was the beginning of a new generation of beings who do not know the meaning of love, family and most importantly God. They were made in factories as though they are nothing more than any other man made products.

 

They know nothing about love, family nor God. They do not even have the most primitive of religion. All they know is to excel in their chosen field.

 

We in turn joined forces with other faiths to demand their extermination. These things must not be allowed to live and pollute God’s earth. We failed to convince our leaders to do what is right because by this time, they had became totally addicted to the life prolonging treatment provided by the  Soulless. Instead, the rich and powerful joined up to oppress us to keep us under their control. Those of us who dared to speak up against the Soulless were arrested and tortured.

 

Our society begun to divide into 2 distinctive class. The upper class were rich and enjoyed artificially prolonged lives while the rest of us lived under their oppression and lived our own natural lifespan. Resentment began to grow. During those years, we learned to put aside our differences and joined forces against our oppressors. Just as we were about to overthrow our oppressors in our final uprising, the Soulless invaded us with the most unexpected weapon, joy.

 

We have known for a long time that God had designed a part of our brains as a pleasure centre. When stimulate, we feel joy. This is what we know from medical science. The Soulless went a step further by inventing machines that can stimulate our pleasure centres from huge distances. When they were turned on, they created intense pleasure to the people around them. Those of us who had experienced this will crave for more. They are willing to do anything to experience it again.

 

In this way, the Soulless has turned us to be their slaves. City by city, nation by nation, we the true children of God are giving up our freedom just to bask in the effects of those machines.

 

My congregation and I managed to escape to our present hideout before their arrival to our town. Based on the information we received from the airwaves, our town has been taken. All our friends, neighbours and family members that were left behind have been turned into addicts of their joy giving machines. We cannot even get near there without getting the effects ourselves.

 

Is this the end of humanity? This is the weapon we have never expected. They use their pleasure giving machines to turn us into obedient slaves. Those infected will lose all their will to fight back. The only craving they have is to have more of it.

 

There is nothing we can do but to turn to God. He is our only hope.

Nation X: A Brief Introduction To Natural Humans

In the last lecture, I presented the history of Nation X from the viewpoint of a natural human. As expected, most of you did not understand what it means. We need to understand that the system we live in today is totally different from what it was during the time natural humans dominated Earth. In fact, the greatest mistake any student of history can make is to regard the natural humans we have at the designated wildlife preserves on Earth as true representation of the natural humans during the time of Nation X.

Let me begin by giving you a brief introduction to what natural humans used to be. If you are interested in knowing more, I suggest you take up a full course in humanogy conducted by Professor DFT99-234.

If you are to visit the natural human settlements on Earth today, you will only see the tamed version of the species. Through centuries of artificial selections by the Wildlife Wardens, they have evolved to be very peaceful and docile. They are totally different from the version that dominated the planet prior to Nation X.

According to the studies of prominent humanogists, natural humans at that time were nothing more than savages with minimal intelligence. To give you a clear comparison, an average adult of their kind has the same level of intelligence as a 5 year old kid you see in the nursery next door. What they lack in intelligence, they made it up with intense appetite for violence. Their entire culture, from literature, music, arts to technological achievements flourished the most when they were at war among themselves.

So, it is easy to understand that the people of Nation X, whom we shall now call the “X-sers” were not really having a good time living on a planet dominated by those savages. The natural humans were suspicious of anything different and X-sers happened to fit the bill.

In the beginning, the X-sers managed to contain the hostility through the utilisation of their medical technology. Here is a brief biology lesson. As a product of evolution, the body of a natural human is full of flaws. If we are to look at it from the perspective of an intelligent designer, it is a bad product. The entire body is badly designed, the genetic codes contain lots of defects and all the organs are easily damaged. This is why natural humans have a very short lifespan.

What the X-ser offered was the technology to prolong the lives of their ruling class. This makes the X-sers in demand from the rich and powerful among the natural humans. Although the X-sers were still primitive based on our standard, they looked like miracles to the natural humans. They had the capability to prolong the life spans of their clients indefinitely through their expertise in stem cells manipulation. As a result, the ruling class would not authorise any attack nor harm to Nation X or they would become mortals again. This was how the X-sers ensured their survival among the savages.

However, this advantage did not last for long. Through the life prolonging sessions to the ruling class, over time the society of the natural humans had divided into 2 separate classes: the ruling class who literally lived forever and the rest of natural humans who continued with their short span lives. Conflicts grew between them. The X-sers were concerned that in the event the ruling class lost control over the population, they might be attacked by the angry mob.

This is one reason why the X-sers wanted to establish direct control over the planet. They wanted to take control over the planet before the mob of savages got to them.

The other reason was the X-sers reached the plateau in the genetic improvements. In order not to cause excessive mistrust among the natural humans, the X-sers only used human genes to design the subsequent generations. This was to ensure that they still looked humans. However, they reached the limit of what human genes could do within a century. They need more diverse genes either from other animals or purely artificial ones. The only way for them was to take full control over the natural humans first.

Finally, the motivation to take control of the planet came from the discovery of subspace communication. Through it, they learned that the galaxy is not so quiet after all. There is a whole forest of star faring races and many of them were hostile and exploitative. The only reason Earth was spared was because it was out of the way from the galactic trade routes. All it takes was one stray ship and Earth would be discovered and became one of the slave colonies. The X-sers believed that the only way to be ready is for them to take the lead to prepare humanity for such eventuality.

Some of you may wonder on why did we emphasize so much on this ancient civilisation.
Here is the answer.
We place Nation X as the core of our history because it marks the transition of our species from the natural to the synthetic. Another way of putting it is, we have moved from being a product of evolution into the result of intelligent design. Nation X marked the way for true civilisation.

Nation X: A Story Of Human Eugenics

Introduction.

The story begins with an insignificant nation which we shall denote as “X”. It was insignificant as it was unimpressive in every way. It has no mineral deposits, unfertile soil for agriculture and physically isolated from major trade routes. As if it is not bad enough, it is located at tectonic active zone.

All these “misfortunes” had fostered a tradition of resilience among its population. The leadership was committed to build up the nation no matter long it takes or how difficult it appears to be. Self improvements had become a national obsession. Everyone in Nation X is obsessed with improving one’s ability for a better future.

The nation tried every conventional way but still failed to achieve significant improvements. At last they found their salvation in stem cell research.

 

Stem Cell Research

This is an area of research that attracts the most resistance from religious institutions after the theory of evolution. So, governments everywhere are cautious of allowing unrestricted freedom to the scientists for the fear of offending their religious minded voters.

This is an opportunity that the leadership of Nation X will not want to miss. In fact, they went beyond providing free haven and giving tax breaks. The entire education system was revamped and modified to provide workers for the biotechnology sector. Children begun to learn about genetic codes the moment they learned their alphabets. The other advantage here is, there were no domineering religions to impose their doctrines to the people. The only religion professed by the nation is self-improvement.

The entire nation became a beacon of light to all experts and institutions in the field of biotechnology, especially in the niche of stem cell research where there are zero restrictions of what the researchers can or cannot do.

Progress In Biotechnology.

In one decade after Nation X opened its arms to stem cell research, it became the superpower in the field of biotechnology. Its citizens owned above 80% of the world’s patents on drugs and medical technology. Income and the standard of living of its citizens had improved tremendously.

Its airports were swamped with medical tourists. Rich patients from all over the world saw Nation X as their last hope. If the medical technology that was backed by unrestricted research in stem cells cannot cure a disease, no one on earth can.

Flooded by enormous amount of wealth, poverty had been totally eliminated among its citizens. However, the leadership of Nation X was far from complacent. Since material lack was no longer a problem, the nation is moving to a new phase of progress, to improve the genetic codes in their citizens.

Eugenics Revolution.

 It started when the leadership believed that the natural way of conceiving new humans to be unreliable in creating humans with superior genes. The breakthough in the technology of mixing different strands of DNA in a single stem cell and develop the cell into a baby had caused them to chart a new course for the nation.

First, all natural procreation among its citizens are banned. Children born after the given deadline were not recognised as citizens. Citizens who were identified of possessing desirable genes would be summoned to specific hospitals to donate their stem cells. The net extends beyond the nation borders. Individuals outside the country who were identified with possessing desirable genes were offered high rewards for their stem cells.

Then, the cells were registered and grown. Their DNA strands were extracted to be recombined into working cells. These cells were then grown and developed in artificial wombs. That was how the first generation of the Eugenics Revolution was created.

They had no parents. They were designed in the laboratory, grown in artificial wombs, cared for and educated by the state. The type of genetic strands that were in their cells was carefully recorded. They were regularly tested for their intelligence, physical development, resistance to disease and other talents in order to determine the effectiveness of specific genes.

The only family this generation knew was the state. Through the financing of the state, they received the best education, training and healthcare money can give. All they have to do is to serve the state in the areas they were genetically designed for. They were trained accordingly. The state took care of their entire lives expenses.

How about the last generation of natural humans? They could no longer have children of their own. In return, the state promised to pay for their life expenses until they die.

Eugenics Generation

A century later, they were not a single natural human in the citizen list of Nation X. All the X-men and X-women were designed strand by strand of DNA, developed in the laboratories and educated by the state.

As a result, they were significantly different from the people from the rest of the world. Their intelligence was at least 10 times of the natural humans, had stronger bodies, resistance to all forms of germs and even healed faster. In addition, they had specialised genes for their professions. For example, their scientists and engineers were genetically modified to have their brain’s processing power increased to more than 50 times of natural humans. Soldiers were designed to have superhuman strength, speed and reflexes. Even the political leaders were genetically enhanced to be more charismatic and emphatic to the people.

The rest of the world that had been observing the change was extremely cautious when dealing with Nation X. On one extreme, fanatical religious followers demand a war to eliminate what they considered as a blasphemy to God. On the other side, there were people who wanted good relationship with Nation X because they need its expertise. So, political leaders had to balance both sides.

Within Nation X, the people were getting increasing arrogant because all the available facts showed that they were superior in every way.  In their quest to make the world a better place for humanity, they have decided to replace the natural humans with their type.

So, leadership of Nation X was once again planning for another revolution to replace the world population with their kind.

 

To be continued.

The Value Of Kindness

About 2 years ago, I “promoted” myself into project management by applying into one. I did it because it was the only way I could think of to progress in life because my salary had exceeded the market rate of a project engineer.

When I first started in my job as a project manager, the only area I managed to excel in was in the correspondence with external parties. I seem to have the natural ability to relate and communicate the work process with related parties like the consultants and subcontractors. Maybe it was due to my experience as a blogger. Other than that, I was not assessed favourably by my employer especially in not being harsh to my subordinates.

In fact, the impression they had on me was I was nice to people because I wanted to be popular to them. What they failed to understand was I was only being myself. I treated people with respect because it is natural for me to do so. There is no underlying motive for that. Unfortunately I don’t think anyone is willing to believe that.

I also understand that, based on my observations during my experience as an engineer that the standard practice for project managers has always being harsh to their subordinates in the name of “getting things done”. As a project manager one has to assign work, demand its completion before a certain deadline and degrade the individual if he fails. This is the “talent” that I have failed to learn because it is totally unnatural for me. Maybe it is caused by some sort of genetic defects.

So, I did not manage to stay long in the company. Situation began to change when I get into my present company. When I first started, I was sent to handle a upgrading project. I continued treat my subordinates as equals because that is my nature. I was still unable to learn the alternative. When the situation became overwhelmingly chaotic due to too many complains, I chipped in to help out.

Unbeknown to me, the rumour of my strange characteristic has reached the rest of the company. Since last December, my boss has transferred me to another troubled project. That was the time I realize that my “weakness” was seen as strength.

So, I began to repeat my work procedures. When I see people unable to do their jobs, I helped out. I have never put down a single human being. As a result, morale improved and I even got a raise. I have heard of quarrels between project managers and their staffs but until now I have never experienced it. I enjoy better co-operation from the people around me from the hands on types to the degree holding professionals.

I suspect, I can stay longer here in this company, unless I get an offer I cannot resist.

Here are the lessons I learned:
Everyone wants to be respected. Nobody likes to be insulted.
Except for some perverts like “sufficient grace” types, all of us like to be respected. Many managers use insults to punish people who fail to do their job. I find this to be sickening. I think a much better way is show proper respect to people as human beings regardless of their ability to perform their duties.

I believe people’s performance will be better if they feel respected.

Everyone wants to do good jobs.
Of course I recognise that there are exceptions here but I believe most people want to good jobs. This is why I have never insulted people even if the job is bad. I prefer to approach from the perspective of working with them on how to improve the current situation. Basically, I just ask them on why the work is not as good as needed and what must be done to improve it. My focus is on the solution, not to look for people to take the blame.

What about those belong to the exception class? I will not be bothered with them. I do not believe in insulting people into doing good jobs. If my people cannot do well, I will help them. If they don’t want to do well, I am not interested to force them to do things they don’t like. I will just inform the boss about it.

Everyone has self-interest.
I am not that naive to think that my team members are working for my bonus and increment. They have their own interest in doing their jobs. The same goes for my employer. He did not hire me, treat me well and give me raise out of the goodness of his heart. I believe he is doing it out of greed. He wants to retain me to help him to make money because I can create favourable situations that many others can’t.

When I deal with them, I have this fact in my mind. They did what they did for their self interest. I work on the principle that as long as I can take care of the self-interest of the people around me, my self-interest will be cared for.

Conclusion.
Kindness works. If you are the type of person who wants to progress in life, you need the cooperation from the people you deal with. To get that, you need to have their interest in mind. When you care for others, you are effectively caring for yourself. I call this “the greed of kindness”.

My Ideal Life 2: My Own Farm

I have decided to live out my childhood fantasy. I bought myself a farm in New Zealand. It is quite a small one, only the size of the whole Singapore.

As far as I can remember, I have been fascinated with planting things and feeding animals. Now that I have made a small fortune (I am still not sure whether my net-worth has reached the trillion dollars mark yet but it should be quite close), I have decided to get myself a farm and live like a farmer. Of course, I hope you can understand that I mean more than just watering plants in one of my mansions.

My wife is not very pleased with my latest plan. She even called it a carnal infactuation. However, my son was estatic about it. He wants to go to live with me, to collect eggs and pluck tomatos every day. I told him that he can only stay with me on the farm only in the weekends because he has to continue with his studies in a local university on weekdays. When he heard that, he said he wanted to finish his studies in Singapore first so that he can be a full time farmer like me. So I suggested that he should take up mechanical engineering so that he can help me to fix pumps in the farm.

This is something that poorer families cannot understand. As most parents in the world, my wife and I desire nothing more that complete protection and comfort for our only son. At the same time, we understand the truth that no one can grow when they are in a completely safe and confortable environment. There must be a balance between protection and risk.

What should I do? Maybe I should just let him conduct his own research once we got there.

Here is what I plan for my farm.

The crucial point to note is, I did not plan for the farm to be a luxurious holiday resort. I have been living like a king. I want to have a change. This time, I want to live like a farmer. A rich farmer is still a farmer.

First of all, the size of the house and the number of servants will be less extravagant than the usual. My farmhouse will only occupy the area of only one football field and only have a basement and 2 above ground storeys. The number of guess rooms will be limited to 10.

There will be about 20 in-house servants, 30 farm workers and about 50 technical, administrative, medical and security staff. In total, I have only about 100 employees in my isolated farm, a drastic cut compared to the mansions I have been staying in.

The other point to note is, I am not planning this farm to be commercial. It is meant to be a farm for the sake of being a farm. I try to make the whole place less dependent from the rest of the world. Don’t get me wrong. I am not planning to be completely isolated from the rest of the world even though this place is quite isolated.

My plane still needs to fly on fuel and periodically needs spare parts. I still want to drink coffee. The weather is too cold for coffee plants to grow. My employees will want to get out from the farm every now and then to get in touch with the rest of the species and spend the money I pay them. I am not forgetting that I have a billion (maybe trillion) dollar business empire to run. The only difference is, I do it in my humble farmhouse.

Other than those, I want my farm to be self sustaining. I already have a sustainable water source available. I am planning harness the sun rays and wind for electricity. I am using horses for most of transportation needs. No tractors. Motorised vehicles will only be used in emergencies like when somebody gets hurt.

I will ban the use of pesticides. As fertilisers, I will use animal droppings. The green movements will be proud of me.

The next question is, how will I spend my days. I will still have a gym for weight trainings but most of my exercises will be in real farm work. I will be fully involved in real physical works like planting, harvesting, making hay, milking cows and all those things that real farmers do. I am going to use my own strength to produce my own food.

Imagine waking up everyday, breathing in fresh air and work as a farmer.

I can visualise an abundant of crops harvested from my own farm in which my family and employees can eat to out fill. The overflow will be sent to the nearest charity or town to be shared freely with everyone.

What a life! I cannot wait to do it but I still I have to restrain myself. I have wait for my son to finish his degree course first. Otherwise, he will want to stop his studies.

Love With Actions And In Truth

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:16-18 (NIV)

I am still in the subject of love. What is love? Many people talks about it but very few know its true meaning. If you happen to be in a religious church, they will tell you they love you but what they really love is your money. So, if you happen to hear a religious preacher or a theologian telling you that he loves you, you should hold tightly to your wallet and run!

Verse 16 above tells us what love truly is, according to God’s personal opinion. In his view, love is real action. Jesus showed his love by laying down his life for us. Please note that Jesus had physically laid down his physically life at the physical cross. He did it openly for everyone to see. He did not do it spiritually. The God of the Bible is capable of doing things physically and promise blessings that can be proven including health and wealth.

This is the difference between the true believers of Jesus Christ and mere worshippers of theology. A true believer dares to believe what God says is true, including those things that can be proven physically like health and wealth. In contrast, theology worshippers can only believe in a God who promises things that cannot be proven. This is the reason why they despise health and wealth. Health and wealth become a stumbling block to them because these things can be proven objectively.

When they see believers who dare to believe in those things, they will persecute them with terms like, “prosperity gospel” as though God is allergic to prosperity.

The second part of Verse 16 tells us that since Jesus can lay down his life for us, we also ought to do the same for others. Does this mean we must also die? If that is true, I am out of here. I am not interested in joining a religion of death. Thank God, he explained it in the following verse, Verse 17.

Verse 17 tells us the meaning of laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters. When we have the love of God in us, we will have a natural pity to our brothers and sisters who are poor. We will to help them provided we have the material possessions to do so.

Do you see the implication here? All believers regardless of the rich or poor, who have the love of God in their hearts will have pity on others who are poor. They will want to help them materially. However, only the rich (with material possessions) can really do it.

This is another way of saying that God wants every believer to be rich in lots of material possessions.

In other words, Verse 17 is not a promotion for communism. God is not a communist.

Finally in Verse 18, we are exhorted in not just keeping our love in words only. Love is real action. If you have the love of God in your heart, you should act now. If are poor, God wants you to get rich so that you can used your riches to help the poor. If you are already rich, God wants you to be richer so that you can help even more poor people.
Don’t be selfish. This is the true meaning of love.