©Fernando Caracena 2021
This is a bit of Science Fiction that I began writing sometime ago.
An Incongruous Scene On a Mountain Top
Cameron Beaumont sat comfortably in tropical formal attire, bathed in warm infrared radiation, as he looked out the at a blizzard just a few feet away on the other side of a thick window. If he were to close his eyes, he would feel as if he were on the beach at Cancun. The air he breathed, however, was about as thin as it would be in old Denver. Yet with his eyes opened, he looked out over the cold winter scene into a much thinner atmosphere.
Cameron's interest group, on mountain studies, had reserved conference facilities on top of Mount Everest on the evening of the celebration of the new fourth millennium that would occur at midnight between December 31, 2999 and January 01, 3000. The celebration would feature the largest, most lavish fireworks display on planet Earth. Ten years earlier, their interest group had chosen to apply for accommodations at Everest as the meeting site of their interest group to coincide with the timing of the millennial celebration. They were very lucky to be granted reservations at this big event. This fact reflected the importance placed on mountain studies by everone.
Cameron had arrived early for the meeting having allowed enough time to explore Everest before his group's meeting. The first event would be a mixer—cocktails. After their meeting they would be free to see the greatest fireworks display on planet Earth.
Cameron mused about his trip to the hotel on a mountain facing Everest. Before landing, he had hovered his craft over the Earth's highest mountain, studying it in detail, taking notes and pictures before landing. Now about a half hour before the meeting, he sat in a deep overstuffed arm chair looking out the thick window at the raging snow storm on Everest. Cam's recent flight from Colorado had filled his mind with images that lingered in his mind's eye.
Cam's reverie was suddenly interrupted as Hal Bruce sat down in the arm chair next to his across a small table. Hal set down two drinks on that table and said, “You look very dry. Don't forget to stay hydrated at this altitude. The alcohol is a little extra medication."
" W'ere pretty lucky to book rooms here for our meetings during the big event”.
“Yes”, replied Cam, “but you know that we moved up on the list because mountain studies have a high priority.”
Hal answered, “It would not have happened during the rule of Homo Sapiens 1.X."
"Of course, nothing like this would be even remotely possible under the old version of humanity,” Cam responded.
“Just think how our ancestors suffered during the great division of mankind. When the old version of humanity went extinct. Our surviving ancestors looked physically very much like them, but the big difference was internal. The psychology of the extinct humans, prevented them from moving on to conditions that would lead to unlimited possibilities for human development. Throughout the Third millennium, the new type of humanity continued to operate against the old set of ideas that held back the development of the full potential of individuals and thereby the entire civilization.”
"Who knows how many civilizations had arisen and failed because of a critical error in human psychology. They had a blind spot in the use of force."
'"You know, that is what makes this celebration special," said Hal, "It celebrates humanity's discarding of a critical error in their thinking that led to successive collapses of ancient civilizations. The splitting of the human race resulted from a portion of the human race's straitening itself out, which had completely transformed not only humanity, but planet Earth as well."
Cameron responded, "I was thinking the same thing as I flew down here. During my entire flight, the landscape below looked more like virgin wilderness than the old Earth. A visitor from another planet would see very few signs of human life. Where are the billions of earthlings? I knew that they were down there, all tucked away in the crannies of the landscape in a way that wild animals could run free through a land restored to a virgin state predating humans. We are now in one of those crannies that houses this hotel suite, and that window is our portal into a virgin landscape."
"A landscape that will soon be polluted with fireworks," retorted Hal.