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| Illustration by Ionut Banuta |
Sarah reached the summit, panting for breath, and grinned at her prize. She’d just caught the sun trembling over the horizon, before it dipped out of sight and left a glowing sky under pewter clouds. She glanced behind her, where the towers of Icaria blazed like embers catching fire. Struck by their beauty, Sarah admired their smooth, clean surfaces.
When she looked back toward the path, the sanguine images burnt into her eyes.
Which way should she go? The deer path she’d followed now diverged into two smaller ones. She shifted her mind to veemeld with her AI, DEX. Which way should we go, DEX?
Her AI answered in her head: Sarah, shouldn’t you be returning inside? It’s dangerous to stay out this long. Statistics are now against you for getting caught—
Just a few more minutes, DEX. How about to the right?
“Natural Selection” tells the story of Sarah, an unruly veemeld who can speak to the machine
world that runs Icaria. Given her immunity to the environmental disease
ravaging the enclosed city, Sarah—at least her genetic material—is sought after
by the Ecologist government in a bid to maintain order and reshape humanity
through “selection”; but Sarah fraternizes with unsavory friends and her truant
behaviour poses a great risk to her freedom and survival.
“Natural Selection” first appeared in 2013 in my short story collection of the same name by
Pixl Press. The story returns in
Issue #1 of Eagle Literary Magazine,Pan European Science Fiction & Fantasy Collection (Summer 2019; Nexus Project) edited by Mugur Cornilă and featuring the impeccable
artwork of Ionuț Bănuță.
In the 2013
Pixl Press short story collection my
introduction describes the theme that embraces the nine stories in the
collection:
How do we define today a concept that Darwin originated 200
years ago in a time without bio-engineering, nano-technology, chaos theory,
quantum mechanics and the internet? We live in an exciting era of complicated
change, where science based on the limitation of traditional biology is being
challenged and stretched by pioneers into areas some scientists might call
heretical. Endosymbiosis, synchronicity, autopoiesis & self-organization,
morphic resonance, Gaia Hypothesis and planetary intelligence. Some of these
might more aptly be described through the language of meta physics. But should
they be so confined? It comes down to language and how we communicate.
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| Illustration by Ionut Banuta |
Is it possible for an individual to evolve in one’s own
lifetime? To become more than oneself? And then pass on one’s personal
experience irrevocably to others—laterally and vertically?
On the vertical argument, the French naturalist
Jean-Baptiste Lamark developed a theory of biological evolution in the early 19th century considered so ridiculous that it spawned a name: Lamarkism. His notion
— that acquired traits could be passed along to offspring—was ridiculed for
over two hundred years. Until he was proven right. Evolutionary biologists at
Tel Aviv University in Israel showed that all sorts of cellular machinery — an
intelligence of sorts — played a vital role in how DNA sequences were
inherited. When researchers inserted foreign genes into the DNA of lab animals
and plants, something strange happened. The genes worked at first; then they
were “silenced”. Generation after generation. The host cells had tagged the
foreign genes with an “off switch” that made the gene inoperable. And although
the new gene was passed onto offspring, so was the off switch. It was
Larmarkism in action: the parent’s experience had influenced its offspring’s
inheritance. Evolutionists gave it a new name. They called it soft inheritance [also known as epigenetics].
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the movement of genetic material between organisms other than by vertical transmission of DNA from parent to offspring. Jumping genes (transposons) are mobile segments of DNA that may pick up a gene and insert it into a plastic or chromosome. Pieces of DNA move from one locus to another of a genome without parent-to-offspring by horizontal transposon transfer (HTT). Epigenetics describes the modification of DNA expression through DNA methylation—and results in “Lamarkism.” Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance is the new black: genes and environments interacting. Where do we end and where does environment begin? Researchers have proven the significant role of environmental feedback through HGT in evolutionary success. Researchers showed that up to 20% of a bdelloid rotifer’s genome is made of foreign genes that they stole from the environment through horizontal gene transfer and gene conversion. This compares to about 1% for humans and a fifth for tardigrades.
—excerpts from “A Diary in the Age of Water” due for release in 2020 by Inanna Publications.
As for passing on one’s experience and acquisitions to
others laterally, education in all its facets surely provides a mechanism. This
may run the gamut from wise mentors, spiritual leaders, storytellers,
courageous heroes to our kindergarten teacher.
Who’s to say that these too are not irrevocable? This relies, after all,
on how we learn, and how we “remember”.
Evolution is choice. It is a choice made on many levels,
from the intuitive mind to the intelligent cell. The controversial British
botanist Rupert Sheldrake proposed that the physical forms we take on are not
necessarily contained inside our genes, which he suggested may be more
analogous to transistors tuned in to the proper frequencies for translating
invisible information into visible form. According to Sheldrake’s morphic
resonance, any form always looks alike because it ‘remembers’ its form through
repetition and that any new form having similar characteristics will use the
pattern of already existing forms as a guide for its appearance. This notion is conveyed through other
phenomena, which truly lie in the realm of metaphysics and lateral evolution;
concepts like bilocation, psychic telegraphing, telekinesis and manifestation.
Critics condemn these as crazy notions. Or is it just limited vision again? Our
future cannot be foretold in our present language; that has yet to be written. Shakespeare knew this…
There are more things in heaven and earth , Horatio, than are dreamt of
in your philosophy—Shakespeare
Each story in the “Natural Selection” short story collection
reflects a perspective on what it means to be human and evolve in a world that
is rapidly changing technologically and environmentally. How we relate to our
rapidly changing fractal environments—from our cells to our ecosystems, our
planet and ultimately our universe—will determine our path and our destiny and
those we touch in some way.
My friend Heidi Lampietti, publisher of Redjack Books, expressed it eloquently, “For me, one of the most
important themes that came through in the collection is the incredible
difficulty, complexity, and importance of making conscious choices — and how
these choices, large and small, impact our survival, either as individual
humans, as a community, a species, or a world.”
“Natural Selection” also features the sprawling
semi-underground AI-run city of Icaria (a post-industrial plague Toronto) that
was first introduced in my novel “Darwin’s Paradox” and is a
character itself. Sarah is a “gifted” and troubled misfit—not in sync with the
rest of the population. Yet her choices—and how she is treated by her
community— will influence an entire species and world.
Nina is a
Canadian scientist and novelist. She worked for 25 years as an environmental
consultant in the field of aquatic ecology and limnology, publishing papers and
technical reports on water quality and impacts to aquatic systems. Nina has
written over a dozen eco-fiction, science fiction and fantasy novels. An
award-winning short story writer, and essayist, Nina currently lives in Toronto
where she teaches writing at the University of Toronto and George Brown
College. Her non-fiction book “Water Is...”—a scientific study and personal
journey as limnologist, mother, teacher and environ- mentalist—was picked by
Margaret Atwood in the New York Times as 2016 ‘The Year in Reading’. Nina’s most recent novel “A Diary in the
Age of Water”— about four generations of women and their relationship to
water in a rapidly changing world—will be released in 2020 by Inanna
Publications. www.NinaMunteanu.ca;
www.NinaMunteanu.me
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