The Black Death

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The Black Death of the fourteenth century, then followed by Spanish Influenza, AIDS, Sars, Ebola, Covid-19, Traeped-64, etc. etc. etc, and lastly Delor of the twenty-fourth century. There have been any number of serious diseases over the millennia that had serious consequences for the population. Doubtless there were hundreds of others before history recorded them, but we are still here, so the worst that can be said of them is that they exerted considerable selection pressure on the human genome, and that of other species too, possibly creating a deleterious genetic bottleneck, but that is idle speculation, and as a species we are still here. Bubonic plague wiped out possibly two hundred million people, possibly sixty percent of the Eurasian population at the time, but the species survived. With many of the more recent diseases there were always concomitant conspiracy theories. From the mid twentieth century on there was speculation that the diseases originated in research laboratories in the US, Canada, the UK, China and somehow ‘accidentally escaped’.

Actually just about every country with any biological ability at all was mentioned at some point. Once into the twenty-first century the conspiracy theories changed, but only in one particular, and that was the ‘accidental escape’ of diseases scientists were researching was replaced by the ‘deliberate release’ of diseases scientists were deliberately creating. Later it was speculated that viral agents had been genetically tailored to attack certain ethnic groups leaving the originators’ ethnic group imune and that it had been done to curtail the Earths burgeoning population. There was never any evidence one way or the other, but as an expert in such matters I can say that to do so was not beyond the realms of possibility. However, it looks like we’ve really done it this time. What the hell you call it I have no idea because genocide is a completely inadequate term to describe wiping out humanity in its entirety. Specicide? Would that do? I don’t suppose it matters if it’s an adequate word grammatically or otherwise because give it a century or so and there will be no one around to bitch about it.

What is so bloody ridiculous about it all is that we all knew what we were doing or at least we knew what the recently created Isofem DNA manipulant virus did. It was a huge breakthrough, a gift to trans women, for it turned those trans women and trans girls who’d been born in the bodies of boys into women and girls, the real deal, no trans about them at all. And I, Doctor Sophia Torsen, was so proud of my part in the achievement, and so happy too, for I had been Doctor Eric Larsen before my marriage to Vladimir Torsen. The best that can be said is that there will be no physical pain associated with it. Who was to know that we would be able to infect every male on the planet and that within a month men, like the Black Death, would be history.

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parthenogenesis

Well, that's certainly more humane than the stories I read where a disease wipes out all men. Or all women, causing the men to develop a vaccine that they use to involuntarily transform men into women.

If it happened right now, I predict that we would step up our efforts to make cloning work well -- that is, to figure out how to make the clones healthy and long lived. I also expect that a number of former men would commit suicide.

But the story appears to happen in the mid to late 21st century. With Musk's Neuralink tied to the various MMORPG and Second Life type servers, everyone could escape into fantasy land. Though only some would.

Realistically, if the bug is capable of rewriting your body to change its physical gender, it is capable of rebuilding all the worn out parts. Hopefully, the natural women would get the same advantage. If it does that, sign me up.

I would love to watch it happen in the various societies and religions that consider women to be lesser beings.

Of course, lots of women would be disgruntled that their men were no longer men. "I'm sorry honey, but I'm not a lesbian."

There'a a Reference...

...to a 24th-century virus in the first paragrsph, so we're quite a bit later than you suggested. I'd guess that would make it easier to set up an alternative virtual world where people could live as the gender they chose.

But whatever next generation came from their interactions there would be completely virtual. I suppose it could survive the inevitable death of physical humans and you'd end up with a totally virtual human race -- at least as long as the net survived.

Eric

24th-century

Yeah, I caught that when I went through the story again. We're talking about Star Trek stuff. If we haven't spread ourselves among multiple millions of rotating habitats, if not other stars, I'll be disappointed.

Just think. Keep in touch with each other via the interwebz. Nobody from a contaminated habitat comes into your habitat. That goes double for Earth when there's a pandemic going on.

It's impossible to predict what we'll have in terms of life extension, maintenance of our bodies and brains via bioprinting and/or nanotech, brain downloading, or whatever.

But I have made some guesses that will go into my Sweet Sixteen series of novels.

Oopsies!

laika's picture

Be funny if they came up with a cure virus that could reverse the transformations but it spread and turned everybody male, so they were right back where they started.

Also wondering if artificial insemination with whatever's available from sperm banks could produce at least a few male children or if they'd turn female in utero...

Artificial insemination

I forgot to mention that. The politics and fighting over the use of that last precious supply of spooge would be a story all in itself.

Half?

erin's picture

If it infects every other male, then half of all males are uninfected. Right? :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Every other

I'll give you that one, Erin. Very sloppy English on my part. I'll do an edit. Thank you for pointing it out.
Regards,
Eolwaen.

Eolwaen

Loved the story

erin's picture

My editor itch was too fierce. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Editor itch

Maybe, Erin, but sloppy writing is sloppy writing, and I'm still glad you pointed it out.
Regards,
Eolwaen

Eolwaen

So, by my reading, the end of the human race?

If they are all female, how are they to get (the eggs they are producing) fertilised?
A short-term victory for the feminists!
Maybe you had better de-apply the correction you made after Erin's intervention.
My first reading suggested to me that the virus would be able to restrict its effects to the transgendered -- even cleverer "biology"!
Dave

Dolly the sheep

Cloning

Cloning

I would hazard a reasonable sum of money that any number of research groups in various parts of the world, including the west, have been working on cloning of humans for years, Ray, regardless of the regulatory bodies. I consider it requires a greater degree of credulity to believe otherwise. If it can be done, someone is doing it with or without legal sanction. Multinationals could afford to set up any number of such groups in third world countries , with security that ensured with maximum predjudice that there were no leaks, where of course there are no regulatory bodies and they'd just buy the government. Probably the laboratories would be regarded as part of the hospital they had so generously provided the populace with which would ensure the populace were on their side too. I truly do not believe I am being cynical. I've spent a long lifetime looking into the activities of my fellow human beings and in truth I'd rather look into a cess pit.
Regards,
Eolwaen

Eolwaen

I have no doubt.

If there's money or power to be had, people will do what they can get away with. The powerful families and organizations that do their best to run the world will do exactly what you described.

There can also be little doubt that the various governments are designing chemical and biological weaponry. They can even legitimize some of it by saying that they are creating the weapons so that they can design countermeasures. And that isn't even a stretch. What's really bad is when they test the stuff on their own citizens and military personnel. There is a YouTube video about England doing that, and even overdosing and killing a soldier who was engaged at the time. I'm sure that America did it, too. And there can be no doubt that the USSR did even worse. In fact, it's documented.

Part of my military training was in the use of NBC (Nuclear Biological Chemical) countermeasures. If the weather is even a little bit warm, wearing the full MOPP4 suit and protective mask will turn you into a ball of sweat.

Kim Jong-Un, Dos, Tres...

laika's picture

In a story I posted a few years back a time traveler from the year 2050 marvels at how quaint and simple the world of 2014 is. One of the things he mentions is: "Kim Jong-un is playing with nukes and hasn't begun cloning himself yet!"

Kim just seemed the type who would love to have a bunch of little Mini-Me's running around, and megalomaniac that he seems to be it would be a weird but somehow believable reason for someone to begin cloning humans seriously and above-board; in a nation that doesn't have much to lose in terms of its international standing.
~hugs, Veronica
.

(And I won't even get into the whole thing with the anthrax and the guinea pigs at Dugway proving grounds; or Dr. Shiro Iishi who killed THOUSANDS with his bio-warfare research but received immunity from the US govt at the end of WWII because his heinous crimes provided some really useful data for if we ever got into a germ war with the Rooskies...)

Un-do it

I could see him doing the whole Jackson's Whole (Vorkoverse, not Colorado) thing. Grow clones and order lots of research on brain transplants. When he gets old, he sacrifices one of his clones for the greater good.

He has already proven that he doesn't give a shit about his populace. The truth is that I wouldn't be even a tiny bit surprised to find out that he is doing some serious Doctor Mengele type stuff.

Kim

I'm surprised you didn't know! We are already on Kim Jong-IV. That's why he's the only fat person in North Korea, each clone eats the one he takes over from.
Regards,
Eolwaen

Eolwaen