Aphelion Issue 300, Volume 28
November 2024--
 
Editorial    
Long Fiction and Serials
Short Stories
Flash Fiction
Poetry
Features
Series
Archives
Submission Guidelines
Contact Us
Forum
Flash Writing Challenge
Forum
Dan's Promo Page
   

A Message from the Last Generation of Man

by Gregory Cioffi


What I am about to tell you is the absolute truth, and in no way exaggerated or fabricated. I am reaching out to my ancestors to inform you of your foredoomed future. I am one of the few surviving members of the last generation of man. Believe me when I tell you that we are, irrevocably, the end of human life. The purpose of leaving you this message is not a scare tactic, but rather an urging for you to avert your tragic and fatal future.

Many, many years from now, mankind will enter its final world war. Weapons beyond nuclear power will be created and eventually deployed. The war will be fought with virtually no human soldiers, yet billions will die nevertheless, due to our everlasting desire to wage war. Less than one percent of us survived the holocaust. The remaining members of our race chose sides. I am a member of the faction of man known as the Mahatma. In your time, we would be considered pacifists. The other faction is marred by ignorance and stupidity. They wish to continue fighting until we are all eradicated. It was at this moment that we admitted the true nature of our species: we are a people of savagery, ferocity, and onslaught. Once we had accepted that, we felt obliged to correct the inherit flaw within us.

Before I continue, however, it is crucial that I inform you that at this juncture mankind has gone through its second major evolutionary jump. The first, of course, was the transcendence of beasts into Homo sapiens. The second evolutionary stage was not one of the body but of the mind. Humans have developed what we call thought transference. This cognitive ability is not one of intrusion but rather a higher form of communication. With that said, I can now continue on the matter of correcting the wrong within our nature.

It soon became rather blatant that the source of our violence is acted out through the body and although individual actions do stem from preconceived malignant imaginings, without the body, they are merely harmless thoughts. A friend of mine, a scholar of history, one day brought to our attention the writings of a 17th century philosopher known as Rene Descartes. In a treatise entitled Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes discussed the mind and body in great detail in what was a truly revolutionary piece of work. In his treatise Descartes proved that the mind and body do not need to coexist in order for each to function. This section has become the genesis of scientific breakthroughs and somewhat of a holy document, which we have dubbed The Eight Laws to Peace. It reads as follows:

  1. It is possible for God to create anything I can clearly and distinctly perceive.
  2. If God creates something to be independent of another, they are distinct from each other.
  3. I clearly and distinctly understand my existence as a thinking thing (which does not require the existence of a body).
  4. So God can create a thinking thing independently of a body.
  5. I clearly and distinctly understand my body as an extended thing (which does not require a mind).
  6. So God can create a body independently of a mind.
  7. So my mind is a reality distinct from my body.
  8. So I (a thinking thing) can exist without a body.

Point eight created great uproar and inquiry within our faction. The notion that mankind could live body-less captivated the scientific minds of men and women everywhere. Looking back at our history we were saddened to see not one century not plagued by destruction. We wished to be the first and subsequently last generation characterized by peace. Ergo, we began experimentation on three volunteers to see if we could divest our bodies in order to live harmonious, cerebral, and intelligent lives.

You must also remember, our thought transference skills allow us to communicate with one another until we die, and things such as nutrition and sleep will be taken care of due to medical abilities that you cannot yet fathom due to your inability to conceive what the acme of the human mind has become.

But it is not these technicalities that are important; it is our fate. After we successfully separated three vulgar outer shells from their host’s indispensable brains , we knew peace was at hand.

I approached our enemies to offer them a life and a world free from pain and suffering. But when I arrived at their fortress, I had found that I was too late. There they lay, deceased, killed by their own weaponry. I suppose even evil turns on evil.

We, the Mahatma, had truly become the last group on Earth. Wishing not to revert back to the seemingly fundamental ways of mankind, the remaining men and women, including myself, all agreed to undergo the transformation and live without the body. We all understood the quintessential dilemma that presented itself, however: without the body, reproduction was impossible. In the end, we unanimously concluded that it was better to have one final generation of peace, than infinite generations of death and devastation.

We are truly the last generation of man, unable to continue the perhaps egocentric evolutionary drive to exist, grow, and multiply. After we inexorably perish, mankind will be no more.

I do not know what more can sway you into stopping such unnecessary madness than to show you your own catastrophic undoing. If this is not the destiny you wish to embrace as a people, I implore you - do something. Otherwise, this is your future. We are your fate.

THE END


© 2017 Gregory Cioffi

Comment on this story in the Aphelion Forum

Return to Aphelion's Index page.