Undoing

Norah had worked every minute of every day for the last two decades to get as far as possible from the events of June 19, 2029. Now she desperately needed to return to that day.

In her heyday Norah had been a brilliant scientist, starting her work in immunology and eventually making her way to quantum physics and the problem of time. In the end Norah succeeded in figuring out how to extend the life of humans by adjusting the way time worked on their bodies. In the initial phases of her research and development Norah saw many lifesaving applications of her work – a soldier injured on the battlefield could be moved into a kind of stasis to stop bleeding and buy time to get them to medical help, an individual suffering from dementia could essentially slow the development of any disease or injury impacting the brain, individuals in need of a vital organ transplant could now grow their own replacement in real time with a 100% acceptance rate. Where Norah’s prognostications failed her were in estimating all potential applications for her work. First it was simple misappropriation, in her mind: beauty influencers using her technology to freeze their skin in time, allowing them to retain a more youthful look for much longer than had previously been possible. Then it was revealed that the government was making use of this new technology to innovate on the science of torture – with the ability to slow the onset of death, and prolong pain and suffering in a contained environment, torture became a more effective method for obtaining information. She knew the worst of it was yet to come; the global elites, who had been operating mostly behind the scenes as grand puppeteers, would find in Norah’s discovery the opportunity to impose their will on an unknowing and unprepared population with even worse consequences than the 20^th and 21^st centuries had borne already.

The men and women who, at the very top of the pyramid, who had promoted, nay, ensured, the degradation of wellness and harmony, who were at the end of the day responsible for the opioid crisis, the never-ending wars, the poisoning of food and water, the prioritization of profit over all else, over all of humanity, would have not not yet unlimited, but vastly increased time and opportunity to increase their impact on Earth. In retrospect Norah understood; the people who ‘could never spend all their wealth in 100 lifetimes’ would become discontented with having their wealth and influence diluted over a longer life span. But they weren’t just going to die, they were going to drive to maximize profit by whatever means necessary. The means would vary and would likely build upon the long-standing corruption she had come to know. Mass produced and distributed ‘food’ would contain less actual food - and almost zero nutrition, major public water sources would become polluted, vital species would be wiped out in rapid succession, wars would rage on growing in number and consequence, natural resources would be used up, social programs eliminated, safety standards and consumer protections would become nonexistent. On top of that, a declining death rate meant the population would continue to grow beyond the Earth’s capacity quickly.

There were pockets of hope, mainly among indigenous populations who were considered highly nature-dependent - they relied on natural resources for at least three out of four basic needs, but they were growing fewer and farther between as colonialism and wide-scale pollution raged. It would become much harder for these groups to live and thrive in harmony with the planet when the very basics necessary for survival – like clean air and water – were already being consolidated and commoditized. She spent nearly 15 years in total living among indigenous populations in central Africa, though it was tough to be sure of the exact duration since time had become much less fixed for her.

Norah had first found refuge, and then hope, in these groups somewhat by accident; she had chosen to exile herself from all the comforts of the modern day and live as simply as possible as a form of penance for her naivety and hubris; she could see clearly the likeliest path forward, given all that she knew about human nature and history, and sought to enjoy and honor the Earth in all its current glory before it was too late. As one of the earliest adopters of her own technological and biological break through, Norah would have an inordinate amount of time to live with the consequences of her actions.

Though she spent much of her time and willpower trying not to think about her creation, her monster, she was never quite able to turn it off. Consciously, unconsciously, subconsciously, Norah dissected the events leading up to this point in her life. On this particular night Norah sat alone in the desert sand, the palms lining the small oasis that she now called home were out of sight, obscured by the dunes. She wanted to be as alone as she felt. Mindlessly she ran her hands through the soft sand, grabbing handfuls and letting the grains drain through her fingers. She remembered the old aphorism that posited that there were more galaxies in the universe than grains of sand on Earth. She was struck by the sudden juxtaposition of looking downward and inward versus upward and outward. Throughout her entire career, and life, Norah had favored inward inspection – the function of the immune system professionally, and never quite feeling competent at connecting with others on an emotional level, opted for a more introverted and solitary life personally. These traits made her a great scientist, but a lousy human being. She had always been missing true connection. She had missed the bigger picture.

Focusing now on the horizon line where the seemingly infinite desert terrain gave way to an actual infinite night sky, Norah looked outside of herself. She forced her mind travel from her physical body up to the Earth’s atmosphere, and from there to a vantage point where she could see the solar system. She zoomed out more to observe the Milky Way. Here her visual knowledge of the universe failed her, but she allowed herself to be guided by feeling – something she had perhaps never done – and succumbed to the vastness of the known and unknown universe. She leaned into the unknown and allowed herself to explore – vividly – what other life might exist in the universe. What problems did these other civilizations face? What mistakes had they made? What were their concepts of blame and forgiveness? How would they cope with knowing their end was approaching? She zoomed back out and imagined she could see entire galaxies swirling, living, and breathing, and imagined how they might move through time. Einstein’s theory of relativity and, specifically the idea that time is not linear or constant, roused her from this daydream. She had stumbled upon an alternative path. She had already forayed into time dilation on a small scale – but what was scale really in a multidimensional and relative universe? She could keep pushing, she could find a way to enter the quantum realm, and she could reemerge before her past self set all of this into motion. If she could not be forgiven for her mistakes, maybe she could undo them.