Timed Out

It turns out that the writers behind Prometheus were prophets, in a way. The human race here on Earth was indeed created by Engineer-like beings from another universe that shared their DNA to make us. And, like in the movie, these Engineers also created a method to wipe us out should the need arise, like we start destroying the planet with pollution and overpopulation. Sound familiar?

However, the method of our extermination was not supposed to be so Hollywood as creepy black goo and acid drooling aliens bursting from our chests. Despite their best intentions, though, life on Earth is now very much like a science fiction film.

From what scientists and doctors can piece together, the end of the human race was designed to be somewhat of a non-event. The Engineers apparently added a little something to their DNA before they seeded Earth; a timeout feature similar to what we use with software licenses and such. A ticking time bomb, if you will, that was set to go off at a certain point unless the Engineers deactivated it.

The population would suffer something like a collective aneurysm and that would be it. No drama, no alien invasion, no post-apocalyptic world to survive in, etc. Just BAM! and we all drop dead in our tracks. Nature reclaims the planet and we are written off as a failed experiment.

As you have probably guessed by now, deactivation didn’t happen. We assume it is because of the mess we have made of this planet, but it could just as easily be because the Engineers are extinct or maybe focusing their energy elsewhere, forgetting about the little project they started so very long ago. The BAM! moment didn’t happen either, at least not like it was supposed to.

On February 3, 2020, life on Earth changed forever. Approximately 90% of the population suffered a catastrophic and fatal medical event...but only 10% stayed dead. The other 80% experienced a kind of reanimation after being clinically dead for a short time. Lack of oxygen during what we now call the “suspended period” caused brain damage but not the typical impairment associated with oxygen deprivation.

The most affected parts of the brain were the hypothalamus (which controls, among other things, body temperature, thirst, and sleep) and the frontal lobes (responsible for regulating the sections deep within our brains that deal with our most primitive urges: hunger, aggression, and reproduction).

We still haven’t figured out exactly why 10% of the population was unaffected, but it is most likely due to a mutation or unique combination of genes that somehow turned off the kill switch. Another thing we haven’t figured out is how many of the 10% are still alive. Less and less every day is a safe bet.

What we know for sure is that Earth is overrun with crazed, highly aggressive creatures that are trying desperately to quench their insatiable primal needs. You’ve seen enough zombie movies to know what that looks like so I will spare you the gory details. Suffice it to say that the Engineers may very well get their extermination in the end, albeit a drawn out and bloody one.

I hope the Engineers are still alive and watching us, and learn from both our mistakes and their own. As Edmund Burke once said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it”.