The Problem of Increasing Human Energy Inspired by Nikola Tesla

The Problem of Increasing Human Energy 

Nikola Tesla wrote “The Problem of Increasing Human

Energy” in 1900. For a book written over 100 years

ago it is amazing to see how far we have come from

what was projected by this brilliant man. Having read

the book three years prior to writing this foreword, I

have had some time to digest and think about the

subject. One thought I always have as a Tesla fan, is:

what would Tesla think about the progress we have

made? Would he be understanding of the rapid

progress in some fields, and the lack of progress or

even regression in other fields? How would he feel

about our current economic, political, and regulatory

systems? What would his stance on artificial

intelligence and industrial farming be? After all this

book was written at the tail end of free market

capitalism, hard money currency, and government had

not grown to regulate every facets of life. Please keep

these thoughts and questions in mind as you read this

book.

I believe that Tesla would be excited and anxious to

expand human knowledge even further if he were

around today. He was able to do extraordinary feats

100 years ago. Now he would be amazed at the

resources available, the lower cost of capital equipment

as compared to income, the increase in disposable

income, and the speed at which things can be taken

from idea to concept would greatly excite him as an

inventor. The ability to obtain and share knowledge

would probably be his favorite advantage of our

modern world, and he would be excited to see how

some of his ideas have come to fruition, while others

are quickly becoming a reality.

Mass and Energy

Today, energy has become abundant. The current

consumption is at its highest rate ever and the move to

“clean” energy is exponentially increasing. The

applications for clean energy will most likely expand the

overall energy extraction and utilization leaving us with

an ever increasing quality of life. Increasing human

energy will be greatly enhanced by increasing the

amount of horse-power each human commands. This

will allow each human to consequently increase their

creative output.

As humanity continues to increase human energy and

the living standard of every human, there will be an

increased consumption of energy. In the very short

term this will come largely from hydrocarbons, but as

the price performance of solar power becomes lower

than hydrocarbons, the switch to solar will increase

exponentially. Ray Kurzweil, an inventor and author

who is famous for projecting exponential curves and

predicting trends for technology based on those curves,

predicts that the price performance cross over, that is,

where solar panels will be cheaper than hydrocarbons,

will happen in 2017. More profoundly yet, he projects

the complete energy capture from solar panels

happening by 2030.

With that being said you may feel that the hydrocarbon

age has run its course. This could be a potential

outcome in the long term energy market, but as silicon

in computers is replaced by carbon as we will discuss

later, the best source of carbon will be the

hydrocarbons we burn for energy today. In fact rather

than extracting hydrocarbons to burn for thermal power

generation, we may extract them as an important

material feed stock and sources of carbon and

hydrogen.

Agriculture and Diet

Farming practices have changed greatly from the time

Tesla wrote How to Increase Human Energy in 1900.

We have gone from small family farms to large

industrial farms that need massive energy inputs, and

capital outlays to produce crops that are subsidized by

the government. Although my views on farming and

diet differ from Tesla's, I see our current agricultural

system as an area where great changes for good can

be made. I agree with Tesla that a move towards

vegetarianism is truly commendable, but in the

transition, raising animals in a more respectable

manner would be preferred. Using animals to restore

deserts into fertile ground would also create a more

prosperous and peaceful world.

Sustainable agriculture has the framework and

modeling to provide clean and abundant food on the

local level throughout the world. When married with

current technology and advancement in robotics this

will unleash an abundance of food that promotes the

local ecology and economy. Following the examples

set by the holistic management institute and farms like

Polyface, humanity can leap forward with clean and

abundant food.

It is not a well known fact that through the use of

herbivores like cattle and a system of intensive

rotational grazing, humanity can capture all of the

atmospheric carbon dioxide emitted since the industrial

revolution in a matter of 10 years. Allen Savory from

the Savory Institute gives a great TED talk on this

subject. The main points of his talk is that healing the

land through human-animal intervention and planning is

not only the best option but also the most practicable.

Intensive rotational grazing restores hydrology cycles,

builds humus in the soil, creates clean and safe food,

and reverses desertification. Desertification is after all

the leading cause of climate change, and a major

problem in the Middle East, African continent, and

western to mid western United States among many

other places throughout the world where row crops or

overgrazing is, or has in the past been implemented.

There are countless studies showing how land has

been healed in various regions by the Holistic

Management and planned grazing.

Intensive rotational grazing of herbivores also builds

soil through the deposition of carbonaceous material

that is stored in the top soil. This carbonaceous

material acts to hold moister and nutrients in the soil for

better plant growth. This is a truly catalytic system with

very positive feedback. As the soil builds, so does the

productivity, which increases the yield, and so on. As

all of the excess carbon is captured from the

atmosphere in this manner, we may actually have a

scarcity of atmospheric carbon dioxide! After all, if

every cow in the United States were raised in intensive

rotational grazing it would sequester all of the carbon

dioxide emitted since the industrial revolution in

approximately 10 years!

This process of intensive rotational grazing works

because you limit the herbivores exposure to the grass,

and manage the duration and timing of the grazing. As

the grass grows above ground the root system grows

below. There is nearly an equivalent amount of mass

underground as above. When the herbivores eat the

grass, the grass responds by taking the stored energy

from the roots to create new greens to restart the solar

collection. This initial growth kills parts of the roots

which decay slowly below surface and become a

carbon source. Along with this carbonaceous deposit

the herbivores secrete urine and feces which fertilize

the soil.

Once on a paddock for a day, the herbivores are moved

to a new neighboring paddock where the grass has

been allowed to grow back and the roots have

recovered. They will not see the paddock they just

grazed until it has rebounded from this grazing which is

typically 30 days. This movement increases the forage

per acre by 400-500 percent. It builds soil at a rate of

approximately 1/10” per year, sequesters carbon

dioxide, and removes the herbivores from the

pathogens in their excretions for 30 days. Not to

mention the health effects from eating grass fed

herbivores, which do not need antibiotics to keep them

alive, and contain fats that are higher in the healthy

fatty acids.

There are three ways to build wealth in a society.

Those three methods are farming, manufacturing, and

mining/extraction. Fundamentally these are all

methods which create. They are also methods which

increase human energy. The models developed by

sustainable agriculture are beautiful for their pure

simplicity. Just take land, sun, water, and well

managed herbivores and watch the grass begin to

grow. Grass is a very robust feed stock. It is much

more resilient than corn or soybeans. It is especially

great because cows are evolved to digest grass. Cows

are however not evolved to digest corn, soy, cow

products, chicken manure, etc. The yield of land as

measured in cow days per acre has been taken up to

200-400 in areas practicing intensive rotational grazing.

This is on parity with the most productive corn fields,

but because it lacks the intensive inputs of a corn field,

the overall productivity and increase in human energy

is much greater. This is comparable to what Tesla says

about iron used for war apparatus versus using iron for

peaceful purposes which increase human energy.

Farming is one way to build something from nothing.

This is why it is one of the three methods of building

wealth. When we can take a vacant piece of land and

make it productive with minimal human effort it will not

only enhance our human energy and economy, but the

land will also yield more for the wild animals foraging

the grasslands. It was noted by Joel Salatin that when

Europeans arrived in America there were more pounds

of animal protein on the continent than today. He then

goes on to point out the fallacy with this. That is we

have created an advanced, sophisticated, complex,

and expensive system which cannot keep up with the

productivity that was nurtured by natives of this

continent.

It will be an uphill battle as our current industrial food

system is entrenched with government subsidies and

regulations in favor of large farming interests, but

overall economics, moral fortitude, and freedom will

prevail. Practitioners like Joel Salatin do quite well

financially in their sustainable farming businesses and

this is going to be a rapidly growing portion of the

agricultural industry as consumers become more

informed.

The looming robotics revolution is also going to take

much of the labor out of sustainable farming. Right

now, the labor component is what keeps many people

out of this. The nice marriage of robotics could make

the capital costs much lower, while also reducing the

yearly labor costs or inputs.

If this intensive rotational grazing system were

implemented on a scale which sequestered a large

portion of the atmospheric carbon dioxide, then the

best source for this carbon dioxide might be a dual

cycle power plant with co-generation using the waste

heat for useful purposes like green houses in northern

climates. By running the fuel through a Brayton cycle

then using the heat exhaust to heat a boiler in a steam

cycle power plant (Rankine cycle), operators have been

able to achieve over 60 percent thermal efficiency.

With the abundance of natural gas this would be a

viable option for many years. Natural gas has always

been the best thermal power generating medium for

“buffer power”. As the transition to solar gains traction

places without the steady stream of sunlight would be

able to buffer their power demand until better energy

storage or solar capture is feasible. Ultimately the best

solar collectors will be in space with no obstruction and

beam the energy down to the earth. This will be a big

step toward humanity becoming a class 1 level of

civilization, that is, using and storing all of the energy

coming from our sun.

Automation and Robotics

Tesla hits on a great point with automaton. This is the

thought that has been most inspirational for me over

the years after initially reading this book. Imagine if you

will, that you own quite a bit of machinery. Is that

machinery of great advantage to you if it sits idly

collecting rust? Or would that machinery be a greater

purpose to you and society if it steadily hummed away

creating articles that benefited other people? I choose

the latter, and firmly believe that a robotic revolution is

needed to increase overall productivity of humanity and

our capital tools. Now I am not talking about artificial

general intelligence that most now associate with

robotics, but with worker bee robots with low level

artificial intelligence that can be programmed easily and

go out to perform tasks for the human users. Since

these could be designed to run around the clock, they

could be scaled down in size, and thus use a lower

amount of energy. Having many of these robots

performing useful wishes will multiply our output and

increase overall human energy.

As automation takes over where most people enjoyed

gainful employment, this will raise a question for some

of, what do I do with all of the newly created idle time.

As someone who enjoys reading books, working out,

and socializing I have no personal concerns about this,

but it is a valid question that will need to be answered

by most people alive today. I feel that the answer to

this increase in idle time will be to play. Play is the best

form of learning, and we will have to find the best

methods of teaching and learning moving forward. The

acceleration of change is already hard to keep pace

with, and as this continues to accelerate, it will

continually get harder to keep up unless aided by new

technologies and ways of thinking.

Capital and Economics

Capital sharing and renting is not altogether new, but it

is becoming easier with the internet. Uber offers a

great platform for the renting of capital equipment.

Imagine that we have self driving cars mixed with the

Uber application, which is ultimately a goal of Uber.

You can now summon a car, and basically rent the car

for just the services you need rendered. Once we have

self driving cars, capitalists will be able to buy and

maintain a fleet of cars which can then be rented out.

These cars would have all of the software needed to

track maintenance, logistics, and virtually make money

automatically. In a no brain-er situation like this,

wouldn't we all want to get into this market? If we think

of a car as a piece of capital equipment, we can now

see that this system will not just work for cars, but for

other tools. Tractors, trucks, bulldozers, excavators,

CNC machines are all just a few examples of

expensive machinery that more than likely sits idle 30-

50% of their lives. By increasing the utilization of this

machinery by just 10% in a productive direction,

imagine the step change in the way we live.

Capitalism is the allocation of scarce resources. As

resources become less scarce and abundance is

realized through the institution of robotics that produce

surplus goods, the economic system can evolve into

something that may resemble socialism. Things are

already tending in this direction as technological

changes are starting to make abundance a very real

thing.

Automation and robotics will not be a detractor to

society as people who fear the loss of jobs may attest,

but rather an enormous productivity increase. They will

greatly allow for the increase in human energy, as

humans can focus on higher and higher value

processes while allowing automation and robotics to

take care of the menial day to day tasks. Every person

will be able to lead a richer and more fulfilled life

without the effort that is required today. Tesla's talk of

Tel automation really drives this home. After reading

this book it inspired my current aspirations of having

micro-controlled robotics for day to day tasks.

Artificial intelligence is a highly debated subject today.

Whether you are for or against, the state of things is

that it is already here. Although the current level of

artificial intelligence is considered low level, it can be

harnessed to greatly enhance the productivity of

humanity while reducing the overall effort. This acts to

greatly reduce the force retarding humanity by aiding it

with the simple tasks. The level of artificial intelligence

we currently have is very safe, but still has enormous

potential to be distributed into various industries.

Speech recognition, algorithm solvers, and chat bots all

use low level artificial intelligence to process their

tasks. There is quite a bit of progress before we get to

anything resembling apocalyptic Hollywood plots. I

agree with Peter Thiel that we can continue the

development of the low level AI for now to enhance our

lives. In 5-10 years when on the brink of artificial

general intelligence more thought will need to go into

the harnessing of such a force as Nick Bolstromm talks

about in the book “Super intelligence”.

Technological Development

Awash with information from the advancement of the

information economy, the transition to the knowledge

economy is well under way. A world where people can

share their peak knowledge spike with all of humanity is

ever easier and easier as this knowledge is shared via

the internet. Virtual reality will supersede video as

video has largely superseded text and audio, and the

ease at which we share information along with the

quality of that information will both be increased.

The maker revolution can be thought of as the shift

from the information age into that of the knowledge

age. Awash with information people have been able to

make better life decisions and live to a much higher

standard, awash with knowledge we will be able to

make physical objects and take life to an almost

unimaginable standard. Right now the rich poor divide

on a global level is sickening, but the greatest hope for

helping the poor throughout the world is going to come

from greater technological reach. Moving bits of

information is easier than moving material feed stock

around the world, and is much easier than moving

finished objects, and as the technology improves,

printing things like solar panels from desert sand could

become a reality.

Additive manufacturing or 3d printing has taken off

literally in the last decade. Literally, because people

are printing quad copters, attaching motors and

electronics, and flying them around. How 3D printing

will change the market place is largely speculated right

now, but the results will eventually be the ability for the

consumer to purchase or download a public domain

plan for a part, or even an article of clothing in the

future, customize it, and then print it out in the comfort

of their home. Because this would only entail the

movement of information and raw materials throughout

the economy, shipping costs will fall drastically.

Graphene by far has the greatest potential to be a life

changing material. Being 200 times stronger than steel

per unit weight, it will greatly change lives when

introduced on the macro scale. While the focus right

now is to study its application on the micro or nano

scale and replacing the silicone found in modern

electronics, by scaling up it is easy to see how it could

benefit larger structures. Imagine skyscrapers and

stacked farming to enhance solar collection. This

would revolutionize quality of life. Transportation with

this lightweight material would be revolutionized and

would most likely take the form of air travel as Nikola

asserted for the advancement of aluminum. Once the

fabrication is figured out, 3d printing structures with a

graphene skeleton would be capable of yielding

extremely strong but complex parts only imaginable

today. This technology will drop the costs of capital

equipment even further allowing more of the world

population to create and innovate.

Although an entire book could be written to speculate

on the advancements that graphene will bring to

society, it is fun to imagine a few of the radically

different ideas, and how they would greatly change our

lives and the world around us. Spires to space made of

graphene and connected with networks of tunnels will

open space to more people and ideas. These spires

will allow launching space vessels, satellites, and

space based solar panels. The spires could also

implement Tesla's idea of hydroelectricity and

electrolysis since this takes a great deal of height

before the turbine would create more power than the

electrolysis would require. The spires to space could

be placed in ocean centers along the equatorial plane.

Barren lands could be restored to grasslands using the

intensive rotational grazing discussed earlier, and the

entire bounty of the earth would increase with the

harnessing of more energy from the sun.

Because graphene can be doped, transistors are

feasible, and the conductivity and thermal dissipation of

graphene are some the materials impressive qualities.

This will allow for the building of ultra fast processors

that will revolutionize computing and will have a much

lower power requirement.

Once large sheets of graphene are easily

manufactured they will make an ideal base for flexible

solar panels since graphene can be doped. At this

point, if solar has not already displaced hydrocarbons

as the main energy source, graphene solar panels will

accelerate this! Not only will graphene revolutionize

solar energy capture, but the implications for energy

storage with graphene are just as promising. Through

the use of graphene capacitors, electrical energy will

quickly be stored, and then can be trickled out much

like batteries. These graphene capacitors will quickly

displace batteries and other energy storage devices

such as hydroelectricity or fuel cells.

As the graphene future is realized, the need for carbon

will increase rapidly. Coming up with the carbon for

this graphene, we will start by using hydrocarbons like

methane, which is the primary constituent of distribution

grade natural gas. Chemical vapor deposition is the

main way of forming laboratory graphene crystals, and

in the future hopefully this is replaced by a method with

more precision and scale ability.

New Rule, No Dying

Neural Scanning

Scan Complete!

In a future where human technology has improved, overcoming the classical challenges faced by mankind, such as limited resources, food, shelter, and land. One challenge, probably the most traumatic and philosophical human challenge, death, has also been technologically overcome. As the reader may know, this is not as straightforward as bringing people back to life, and therefore offers many more challenges, especially of the moral nature, to be addressed.

As the technology for consciousness reanimation came into play the majority of the secularists have taken adoption of this technology. Now most people using the re instantiation, use it in the way it was designed to be implemented, but there are a few pushing the limits and overusing the technology to push physical limits, or perform reckless tasks.

And on with our story about how once consciousness is capable of being backed up, people start taking greater risks, and the side effects associated with these activities.

---- In a future, yet to be determined ----

“Hey Fred!”, asked a voice from down the corridor several paces behind.

Fred spun around to see who it was. As if seeing a ghost Fred replies, “oh, hey Johnny. Didn’t know that was you…. Haven’t seen you in a bit... How have you been?”.

“Good. Just finished up my last final, and more importantly I was cleared a few days ago for another re instantiation!”, said Johnny.

“Huh, what do you mean cleared? Didn’t your last death traumatize a young group of children on a playground?”, Fred asks in disbelief.

“Well, that is what I am told.. But I talked with my father, and he got it all straightened out for me”, said Johnny as his face lights up in a smile that is definitely Johnny. A face that was most likely reconstructed weeks ago using his latest scan. The ability to 3D print flesh is not a new one, but as it is being used to construct more and more of the body in sometimes deadly accidents it has become a creepy use of the technology. Where it used to be used mainly for reconstructing critical organs, it is now being used to reconstruct entire bodies.

Fred is still in a haze after seeing his friend. He hasn’t seen his friend since Johnny died. Weird to even think that someone you know, who was dead could weeks later be standing in front of you and have the audacity to say,“So what do you think, skydiving?”. Johnny’s grin lit up a bit more upon asking this.

“Huh”, Fred says coming out of his daze.

“Want to go sky diving tomorrow?”, asked Johnny again with a huge smile on his face. This had the effect needed to bring Fred to his senses. He thought out a somewhat appropriate response to his friends query.

“Well, last time, when your chute didn’t open… it not only scared those kids who were playing on the ground.. but I was pretty shaken up about it as well. And I know you insist on no redundancy and packing your own parachute because of the ability to re instantiate...”, Fred looks away from Johnny. This is the first time he has seen Johnny since that horrible incident. Truthfully he has been avoiding Johnny, because this is not the first reckless death Johnny has suffered. In the past there were adrenaline junkies, and now it seems that those types of people have become death junkies.

Johnny looks at Fred and realizing that Fred is right. “Yeah, sorry man. I just thought it would be a good way to celebrate the end of finals and all.”

“Johnny, I just can’t handle that situation again. I have been with you three out of the last five times that you… well, that you DIED man! That is getting hard to explain to your parents, and my parents, along with the authorities.”

“Fred, I tell the authorities and everyone else that you are not complicate in those situations”, says Johnny, who is visually more at ease, sensing that Fred is ready to give in.

Johnny has been taking more risks over the last 8 years, but overall he was always pretty careless and reckless as a kid growing up. “And, yes, I have taken more risks since when we were kids growing up together, but maybe the first time it happened… maybe they shouldn’t have brought me back.”

Johnny is referring to a jump he had taken off of an old highway bridge. They had jumped off this bridge several times before, and the water was just deep enough. As a precaution the boys would always check to make sure no snags or logs were below the spot where they landed. This particular time though, Johnny had just gotten his first neural backup and was anxious to jump in the water.

Johnny came from a more progressive family where new technologies were more readily put to use. His parents knew that he was in a higher risk category than most children his age, so they enrolled him in a program for neural backup.

This isn’t the first time that Johnny has taken a fatalist view on his first death. Fred has heard this story to many times, and starts, “No Johnny, thats not it. You were in such as hurry to jump that day, and you wouldn’t let us check it out first. The worst is that you cited the neural backup you just had, and said, ‘hey, whats the worst that can happen!’”. Now Johnny looked away. He does not remember these details. Over the years the story was relayed to him enough times where he can fill in the memory gaps as though there, but his memories all have gaps from one neural backup to whenever he needs to be re instantiated. This leaves Johnny with 5 gaps in his personal time line where his memories are permanently lost.

Fred continues looking at his friend, and starts to think if the technology is really capable of flawless consciousness restoration, or if the Johnny he is seeing is but a dimmer glimpse every time he undergoes the procedure.

The first time Johnny died was the most traumatic event for Fred and the other boys out swimming that day. It was traumatic for Johnny too, although he does not remember the experience. When Johnny hit the water nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was only moments later when the water calmed and Johnny did not resurface that the boys began to panic. The murky water proved hard enough to find him in, and the snag was so thick that the boys had to wait for adults to come to recover what remained of Johnny.

Seeing Johnny several weeks later in school was a hard shock to Fred and the other boys. Just because death had been overcome did not mean that the significance was dulled into obsolescence. Johnny did not seem to be himself at this juncture, but after a few more weeks the gang was back together.

Fred came back to life after remembering that tragic incident. “Johnny, do you mind if we walk an talk? I have one more exam across campus to get to.”

“You still have exams? I am just here turning in some assignments I had a delay due to medical leave.” Fred looked displeased at this statement. Johnny had always managed to get medical extensions on his school work even though his incidents were ultimately deemed self inflicted.

“Yes, well, only one more to go”, said Fred as he guided Johnny in the direction of his exam. The two boys began to walk, and Fred took note on what a beautiful day it happened to be. He was looking forward to being done with school and starting his summer job in a few weeks. Fred began speaking again once they were on course to his next exam. “So about the skydiving. I think I am going to pass this time. I just made some other plans between now and starting my job for the summer. We are getting the family together up at the old lake house for a week. What do you have planned for this summer anyway?”

“Just getting caught up on things really. I am going to take a few classes here in order to get caught up on my studies, but other than that, no real plans”, said Johnny, who is momentarily distracted by a group of cute girls walking by. Johnny turns his head to watch them walk by, and more quietly says to Fred,”life sure is pretty!”.

Fred smiles, giving a glance back and approving nod, but does not slacken his pace. Johnny is the type of guy who can draw this conversation well into the start of his exam if he doesn’t keep him moving.

“Fred, I was thinking. I know you probably don’t want to go skydiving after what happened, but I will let you pack my chute this time”, he says this glancing sideways to look at Fred's reaction.

Fred more or less rolls his eyes and looks perturbed at this statement. “you know johnny”, he starts,”You let me pack the first 3 flights we took, then on the 4^th and 5^th you insisted on doing it yourself… and we both know what happened on the 5^th drop..”

“Yeah, I know, but this time I won’t be like that”, Johnny said in a sincere tone. Fred just walked on without changing pace. He had heard this arguments before, and from the same ghost. Not only did Fred wonder if the iterations of Johnny were the same, but also if there was something he craved from the instantiation process. Irritation with Johnny was also hard to repress, but he managed to continue their dialogue.

“Well, if you want to come up to the lake house in two weeks, we would love to have you”, said Fred.

By now the boys had traversed half the university, and were well on their way to the philosophical computational science building where Fred had his last exam. This subject of Johnny always dying was probably a major reason for young Fred’s interest in such a subject. Fred felt that this moment would offer a good segue into the conversation of Johnny’s philosophy toward death.

“You know Johnny, I have often wondered what it must feel like to overcome death as you have done a few times now.” Fred glances at Johnny to gauge his reaction, and sees the tell tale signs of thoughts starting to take shape on Johnny’s face. “You know about my Uncle Jack, right?”

A pained expression crossed both boys faces. Uncle Jack had taken the boys on many adventures growing up, and was fondly remembered by both of them. Both boys were young when he passed, but the memories of the uncle were strong.

“I don’t remember him being a risk taker, but he always enjoyed what were considered to be adrenalin sports. His accident has nothing to do with how you choose to live, but he is the last person I was close to who I remember dying..”, says Fred with the start of a glimmer in his eyes.

Fred continues the story, “He died in a freak accident at the border of space. They were doing some routine work with some small space cables and the space solar array when his vacuum balloon failed.”

For the readers who are not familiar; a vacuum balloon is like a blimp only instead of hydrogen or helium it had nothing in it, creating an object much lighter than air. These were manufactured in the vacuum of space, and then pulled down to earth to create a means of crane system without any expensive crane operations, rigging, or sky hooks.

On with Fred’s story, “The secondary containment it turned out was already compromised, so when the primary containment ruptured it was a disaster. Imagine all of that air rushing into the balloon all at once. Now back then they didn’t realize how much energy could be released in such a rapid implosion, so they thought the tether system would hold, but the implosive force caused all of the safety tethers to fail simultaneously as well. In a perfect storm where he was knocked unconscious, he started plummeting to earth, his suit didn’t respond to thrust him back to safety either. That was his and the people he was working with faults because they had to disable the thrust systems for the task being performed.” Fred pauses to let his friend absorb this grave story.

“I don’t think I ever heard that story before”, said Johnny who looked sad and dismayed.

“That is the problem Johnny”, replied Fred. “You have heard it before. Well…. Not this instantiation of you, but a version of you. Unfortunately that version died in your skydiving accident...”. Fred waved his hands in a manner indicating his irritation and sadness with his friend.

Johnny looked very upset at this news. He knew how much it took for Fred to open up like this, and was saddened that his friend was forced to do it for a second time. He wondered what his reaction was at the first telling of this story.

Johnny did remember when Uncle Jack’s death took place. It was a few months before the ability to create neural backups was released into the market. It was as if Uncle Jack was the last man shot in a war, with peace being announced soon after. This only made his fatality all the more painful, as fatalities in general were greatly reduced even before the ability to perform neural back up or re instantiation had been put in place.

After a momentary pause, Fred begins explaining why he is so frustrated with his friend.

“We had just done the first 3 jumps, and heading up the elevator to do the 4^th. You started pulling out your backup chute, and then repacking your main chute… when I asked you what you were doing you smiled up at me, and said, ‘well, you only live once, they used to say! I got them beat four fold!’. So I told you the story about Uncle Jack, but that time your reaction was one of stubbornness. Your mind was already made up and you had already decided you were going to take the risk. You insisted that you would be fine, but just needed to unburden yourself for the descent. As I know, and I am sure you have been recounted of the story, the 5^th descent did not go so great...”

Johnny sincerely apologizes for his past transgressions toward their relationship. Fred has always been his best friend, and he knew before his last death that their relationship was being strained by his reckless behavior. After the apology, the two boys are now in a somewhat lighter mood then when they first met today.

As they near Fred's class their pace begins to slacken. Johnny makes a quick comment speculating whether the weather was artificially nice today, or naturally so. Since the ability to regulate the climate was well managed by humanity, one could never truly tell anymore, and these boys had never known a world of random weather events. Sure, occasionally there might have been a bolt of lightening where electrical pressures were out of parametric bounds, but this was even becoming a rarity since this energy was generally captured for good use before it could be discharged randomly. This thought about the weather was not entirely random, since the installation of quarantine and control cables is what Fred’s Uncle had been working on when he died.

“Johnny, I have a few moments before I need to head in for the exam, but what would you say to getting together this summer?”, Johnny’s face perked up even more after hearing this, and Fred continued, “Johnny, I don’t want to jump off of space elevators, sky hooks, or even bridges either. I just want to do safe things when I am with you anymore”. Fred grins as he says this, because the relief was hard to hold back. Johnny’s deaths had put a major strain on their relationship at times, and Fred finally felt the relief of telling his friend how he truly feels.

Johnny’s face showed even greater relief. He could never remember having a conversation quite this profound with his friend, but after all, it sounded as though they had a conversation of this nature that was later erased by his reckless behavior. He was now starting to realize how his actions were affecting those who are closest to him.

The bustle around them began to pick up as people began moving into the building. A smile came across Johnny’s face as he looked at Fred. “You know”, Said Johnny, “from now on I think things will be better. I think I finally get it. Maybe we can create a new rule”, Johnny paused to glance at another group of girls passing by. He continued after both boys nodded an approval, “New rule, no more dying”.

Fred liked this and reiterated it, “Yeah Johnny, I like that rule. No more dying”, he said smiling back at his friend. They grasped hands, and then hugged. “Well Johnny, I better get to this exam, but definitely come up to the lake with us”.

“Will do, see you soon, and sorry for all of the distress over the years my friend”.

---- The End ----

The boys parted, ending our story of them and leaving many other stories about how this technology has been affecting people throughout the world still untold. As mentioned in the story of the boys, this technology is creating small issues, and lapses in time for people who have undergone re instantiation. This causes a gap between when the neural scan was completed, and the death of the individual. When re instantiated the point where the memories leave off is right when they were captured by the neural scan. The companies make this seamless by placing the re instantiated person back in the same environment. This makes the coping or coming back to life easier to cope with, but also creates the need for an intervention to explain what happened and that the person has lost a small part of their life.

In the future the companies who do neural scanning are looking to create a sleeper unit, that allows for the neural scan to be completed while the person goes through their normal sleep routine, but the details and quality control are still being worked out before this is to be released.

People at higher risk of death usually get neural scans more frequently so that they lose less of the recently acquired memories. This is akin to the most optimistic form of capture, which would happen on the fly and keep the persons consciousness updated at all times as new memories and experiences are created neurally.

One other thought along the Evolving Ourselves notion would be that this technology enables unnatural selection to escalate at an even more profound pace. Due to the fact that people can be brought back to life, in a body very similar or even improved on from the body that they died in. As the book argues, we have been performing unnatural selection and other unnatural activities since humankind has harnessed any technologies, no matter how primitive. So to be detracted by this argument probably does not occur to most people, but it presents another situation where humanity has taken control of our evolution.

We didn’t talk about murder with these two boys, but it is a concern for the administrators of the re-instantiation. Re instantiation is very resource intensive, and takes a great deal of computational power to ensure the quality of the copy being produced. Ethical issues also come into play as not everyone is neurally backed up, and murder is still deemed an inhumane act.

Overall people have become more peaceful as general knowledge and well being have been increased for all of humanity, but it does still take place from time to time. Responses to murder do vary now depending on if the person murdered can be re instantiated and their last backup point was. The intentions of the murderer are also heavily indicative of the punishment that is dealt. Punishments for murderers vary depending on the jurisdiction.

Had the incidents of death from the story above been of a more questionable nature toward Johnny, Fred may be suspected in a case of murder. Cases of murder are tough to prosecute because of the nature of the memory upon re instantiation. Because the victim does not remember the alleged crime, they cannot give an accurate account as to how their death actually took place. This leaves the defendant and the investigator to hash out the details.

The latest technology might actually eliminate the need for investigation if the murdered victim has the latest neural recording technology. Although still in testing researchers are looking at ways to back up memories on the fly and even more interesting is the ability to re construct the brain of the cadaver when the death was not traumatic to the head region of the body. This second method would not have been applicable in Johnny’s last death, however for the vast majority it would. This is not without its limits since there is a time line when recovery of a brain scan can be used, and when the data is useless. This also assumes that the brain is intact, which sadly encourages murders to use means that ensure this evidence is eliminated as well.

Another sticky point with this technology is the integrity of the instantiations. There have been several reported instances where the need to go back a neural scan was necessary in order to avoid even worse consequences of an obfuscated consciousness. Depending on the frequency of the neural scans, this can eliminate months of the persons memory. Of course this issue is being resolved with the scan on the fly technique, and the scan while you sleep devices that are being tested now.