Beyond This Human Shell

In the beginning was the Life & this Life was the Light of Humanity! As the Light shone, Humanity awoke to the Fact that they were More, More than than their biological shells, More than Mere Humanity. As Time wore on, Humanity began to wonder; since they were More, was it outside the realm of possibility that they could create beings like themselves, with souls, yet unlike themselves, impervious to the diseases that had ravaged humankind for eons. Why couldn't they, with their Spark of Divinity, produce such creatures from superior materials, materials that would not be subject to any biological disease: why, they reasoned, could they not further endow these creations of theirs with the Life they had themselves been given? Questions like these, for the first few centuries, caused quite an uproar, as can be imagined, particularly  from the religious community. Epithets like 'they're playing God!' were thrown about in abundance!

Officially, it was the Smiths that started the Revolution! Oh, this was not such a revolution as you might be used to reading about in your history books; by the time this one took place, Humanity had advanced beyond such silly things as resorting to violence to solve their problems. Don't get me wrong; there was still plenty of violence to go around, but wars, especially as we are used to, had ceased & by the time this Revolution had rolled around, Humanity had learned, more or less, that unless we wanted everyone walking around with only one eye, we had better learn to coexist peacefully. For the most part, this attitude was very wide-spread, with almost the whole world, at least, the so-called civilized world, enjoying this Harmonious Time. Even so, pockets of resistance to this Harmony would surface every once in a while, if only to prove that we were still human!

Strangely enough, though a large part of this resistance seemed to originate in the religious community, much like another conflagration in the ancient past, it was not the religious people ( although they did have their issues ) who had the biggest problem with this Revolution, which might be named 'The New Technological Revolution'. ( 'The New Humanity' was also flung about ) No, the Resistance to this New Revolution found its biggest proponents in the governments of the world! For the most part, as we saw, the resistance was more or less peaceful, with more rules & regulations than ever. Pockets of violent resistance sprang up once in awhile, mostly in response to these rules & regulations, but usually, after a short flurry of violence, the detractors saw the error of their ways & peace, uneasy as it may have been, reigned once more!

The Federal Government, by this time, of course, was not to be found in these United States of America alone; it now encompassed nearly every nation on earth, with a disconcerting presence on every continent. For the most part, due to a regimented policy of non-violence, the Federal Government didn't interfere in the lives of the citizens as they had in the U.S.A., but even so, when a certain family in Africa began to fiddle with bio-technology, the Fed sat up & took notice pretty damn quickly!

It ( the Revolution ) began fairly quietly ( 'insidiously', some would say ) at first. The first models were no more than service robots, programmed to execute fairly simple functions such as doing laundry, taking out the trash & mowing lawns. Before long, however, these earlier models were being replaced by ones that were well-nigh indistinguishable from their human 'masters'. Again, it wasn't long before the programming became so advanced that even by their actions, one often had difficulty telling the difference between a human being & one of these new 'models'!

The Resistance itself, though mostly non-violent ( at first, anyway ), began nearly as quietly, unless one watched the evening news, where pundits opined almost daily about this 'New Humanity'; 'what are the implications of a totally free-thinking populace?' 'Would they be as subject to rules & regulations if they were autonomous?' 'Without the controlling agent of religious conditioning, will the governments of the world be able to keep these new ( human ) beings in check?' Questions like this surfaced fairly quickly because it really didn't take much to realize some of the more foreboding implications of this creative venture. 'If Humanity was able to replicate themselves in a non-biological shell, what was next?'

Through the Resistance, such as it was, the Revolution persevered; the Smith family was 'born' & although Humanity was still prevalent in most societies, 'the New Humanity' began to multiply all over the world. Country to country, the 'models' differed somewhat, but they were largely based on the design that had originated so many years earlier, in Africa. One advantage to these new 'models' was that food-shortages had become a thing of the very distant past. Oh, sure; there were still plenty of mouths to feed, but as long as Humanity kept them happy, these new humans were glad to do the work of a dozen men, asking only acceptance & electricity in return. Among these 'New Humans', as well, the diseases that ravaged Humanity were unknown, although power outages could pose a problem, especially when extended beyond 24 hours or so.

The Smith family, while it could probably be technically called a 'line', was not just a line of robots; it was so much More! Though the first ones were produced by Human Beings in Africa & subsequent 'models' were produced in like manner all over the world; even in the earlier days, the assembly lines were 'peopled' largely by members of the Smith family, Then, once the Smiths became aware of the fact that they were More, they took it upon themselves to generate their own 'siblings'! Before long, then, Humanity had little to no part in the evolution of the Smith family!

Like Humanity, who had themselves been blessed with this Spark of Divinity, the Smiths of the world were now able to procreate ( at least, after a fashion-talk about bumping & grinding! )! As long as the materials were available, the Smiths were able to reproduce themselves at an almost alarming ( to some ) rate. There were still resistors to their continued presence because, although an almost world-wide peace had settled between man & machine, so to speak, Humanity was still Humanity, with their almost obsessive need for the control of religion. For the most part, though, Humanity had accepted the validity of their own Creation, even the creations of their Creations, their 'grandchildren', if you will!

Charles Haddon Shank