All Tomorrows

After millennia of earthbound foreplay, humanity's achievements on an extraordinary "level began with its political unification and the gradual colonization of Mars. While the technology to colonize this world had existed for some time, political bickering, shifting agendas, and the sheer inertia of comfortable, terrestrial usurping had made this step seem more distant than it was."

-Excerpt from All Tomorrow

"All Tomorrows: A Billion Year Chronicle of the Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man is a 2006 work of science fiction and speculative evolution written and illustrated by the Turkish artist C. M. Kosemen under the pen name Nemo Ramjet." It explores a hypothetical path of human development set from the near future to a billion years from now. Several future human species evolve through natural means, genetic engineering conducted by humans, and a mysterious and superior alien species called the Qu (Resource Wikipedia).

All tomorrows it has provided a speculative fate of humanity in a very intriguing way. The book offers an odd, strange, and bizarre insight into the possibilities of humankind's potential future. I just recently read the entire book online. And the book got me off guard because it is very timely. Even though it was in 2006, it started to get attention last year, in 2021. Since we are all trying to recover from the pandemic and so many things are going on now in our lifetime. For instance, we have had bizarre sounds echoing in the air around the world since the start of 2019. It is called the "hum" there were also technological advancements that happened in 2020; some of them were space flight or commercial space flight, the advent of electronic vehicles is now booming, and a recent invention of artificial human parts, which are sophisticated. Virtual meetings (this is oddly observed on an episode of The Simpsons), More frequent volcanic activities, and other news about the cure of HIV can be one of man's achievements in the golden age. I am not saying all those things are bad; however, it might lead to something else soon, just like what happened to the narration of All Tomorrows.

Of course, All Tomorrows are just mere imagination resulting from the speculative inquiry. We can all agree that 99.9% won't happen in reality. Henceforth, as a fan of theoretical writing, I would like to be biased, and there is still that 1% chance.

What I love about science fiction is that "what if" this happens. For instance, what comes to mind if we have heard about the name Isaac Asimov? We will coin the term AI (artificial intelligence). For example, Mr. Asimov's I-Robot is a manifestation of Today's Boston Dynamics Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. What they did here is outstanding and deserves a standing ovation. However, let us consider the thoughts of the late Stephen Hawkins about AI; he says: "It would be a mistake, and potentially our worst mistake ever." He adds, "The short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it; the long-term impact depends on whether controlled at all."

The book speculates that humankind was able to terraform Mars; however, they failed since the alternate species of humans was revealed from the earth humans and resulted in a nuclear war that led to the almost extinction of humankind.

Today's world is in the age of "rumors of war." I won't be commenting on the recent conflict we are all facing now as a sapient beings. Henceforth, I would like to liken what happened in the fictional book to a prediction for us soon.

We can all agree that no one knows what the future holds for us. However, Mahatma Gandhi states, "The future depends on what we do in the present." If we remember, in my last essay, I wrote about the three things I learned from the Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh; he got this insight into inter-are. Inter-being or inter-be, we can say that there is a link to the measurement of time and space. You might say hold on, Michael, and you are getting ahead of yourself. I say yes; kidding aside, allow me to explain this further. The present has some elements of the past, and the past has some of the future. The present contains non-present elements, which are the past and the future. Therefore, the gift could be the past and the future.

The future of humankind intrigues me as a writer, and All Tomorrows share a glimpse of it. "I always wonder what it would be like to" live in the future. And what it would be like to know what will happen in future events. Who knows? No one knows yet.

"What you do today influences tomorrow, not the other way around. Love today and seize All Tomorrows! -C.M. Kosemen