A "what
if?" discussion leading down the path to Middle Earth.
Hank Akins - June 2007
As a child,
I was hooked on fantasy fiction. I read every story about every
far off land that I could find. Writers from places like Scandinavia,
Russia, India, China, Greece and more filled my head with images
I will never forget. And then I found Tolkien... Not just one
book, but three. Oh wait... four! No... five... six... wherever
I looked, there was more. The Hobbit, LOTR, Lost Tales, The Silmarillion,
Farmer Giles, Tom Bombadil... there seemed to be no end to this
fantastic world and I loved it.
I loved it so much, I began to write my own stories. They were
short, the pictures were hand sketched and the characters were
horribly predictable. But, then again, I was just a kid. As I
grew older, the tales grew more complex. I stopped drawing pictures
for worlds and started drawing maps. I also started writing back-stories;
legends and details about places a character might be from or
happen to pass through. This process forced me to reason things
out. What was it about one place that made a character bitter,
or why did elves live long? The questions began outnumbering the
answers I could come up with. Years went by and I graduated high
school, joined the Army, went through several careers, two colleges,
got married and had kids. All the while, the questions lingered
in the back of my mind, squeezed somewhere between Monty Python
and Steven Hawking. Which is a pretty interesting place for a
question about a fantasy world to be, I assure you. And I slowly
became more and more amazed at the similarities between my questions,
and some of the questions asked by modern science.
For example, these are current projects going on today. All are
real and publicly acknowledged:
-----------------------------------
* "The Bridge" - The essential link between the binary
code of computers and the biomechanics of a living brain has already
been invented, proven and in use at the university level.
* Eyes - Two paths of experimentation.
1) Ocular implants designed to helped soldiers see in the dark,
miners see gas fumes, welders see micro fissures, etc...
2) Genetic manipulation with the same results.
* Ears - Two paths of experimentation.
1) Enhanced hearing through genetic manipulation.
2) Restoring hearing to the completely deaf using implants that
carry the audio signal directly to the brain.
* Regeneration - Experimentation to discover why star fish and
other creatures can regenerate lost limbs, with the "hopeful"
outcome of genetically altering humans to possess this ability.
* Cloning - Experimentation to see if it is possible to bring
back extinct species.
* Genetic Design - Creation of new species for purposes like medical
research and novelty. Such as cats that glow in the dark, etc...
* Wireless Networking - There are discussions of the creation
of an implant that would allow humans to be wirelessly connected,
allowing them to pull up websites, directions, eye to eye "camera
phone", mind to mind "texting" etc... all displayed
as an image superimposed over a section of your vision with no
glasses or helmet needed.
* Longevity - There was a genetic experiment on earth worms a
couple years ago that could lead to humans living an average of
four hundred years. Maybe longer. Of course, you and I will never
see it get through FDA approval stages, but our distant grandchildren
will. You can bet on it.
-----------------------------------
There are more things going on that I could talk about, but all
I really needed for my growing theory were the ones listed above.
In theoretical physics, anything is possible and I saw a pattern
emerging that could easily become reality if I were to ask but
one question:
"What if, after all those things became common, society
broke down for some reason?"
As ideas, connections and answers tumbled into my mind, each of
these formed part of a picture that, once complete, I can only
call "The Tolkien Scenario".
Let's say not everybody on the planet got the benefit of genetic
enhancement. Once society crumbled and history is forgotten, these
are the only true human beings left. Genetically speaking.
As for those that did receive the "treatments"... What
would you call a race that lived four or five centuries, got no
illnesses, had enhanced hearing, night vision, and what amounts
to bioengineered telepathy? Sounds elven to me...
All experiments suffer occasional failures. What to do with the
unfortunate ones that got horribly deformed? Surely some human
or animal rights group would protest putting these new creatures
out of their collective misery, so... what to do? What if they
were placed in a colony, removed from civilization (until the
collapse) and allowed to breed? Terrifying races, some of which
could regenerate limbs, would begin to emerge. And thus the trolls,
orcs, hobgoblins, etc... are born.
Every scientific novelty exists because of a demographic market.
If enough people want something, eventually somebody will make
it. It is almost a sure thing that in the near future dragon lovers
will get their ultimate wish. It will probably start as small
dragon "pets". But what would happen if this new kind
of pet were to escape the confines of modern civilization and
allowed to evolve and grow larger?
All that stands between our modern world and the world J.R.R.
Tolkien created is a little bit of time (for the scientists to
finish their work) and a major collapse of society. The kind brought
on by a devastating war or a meteor impact. That's really it.
If future generations happen to forget this period of humanity,
what we read about now, and so blithely label fantasy, will be
very real to our descendants.
