By: Cristian Ocaña
Date: April, 3rd 2023
Translation support: Tomás Ocaña
In 2026, the world already had more than 150 million children born eight years prior, with genetic alterations in their DNA. They went through the same process that gave rise to superior intelligence in Homo sapiens because they had an increase in neural stem cells that transformed into neocortex neurons during development when they were embryos.
Another group of human beings, more than 900 million, according to estimates, from different countries around the world, suffered an unprecedented transformation. Studies were unable to determine the presence of any specific pattern that gave any clue as to why they all acquired Padgett Syndrome.
Jason Padgett reached his 30s as a bohemian and superficial person. On the night of September 13, 2002, during one of his usual binges, Jason suffered a violent assault on leaving the karaoke bar where he was, which caused him a brain concussion that was not adequately treated. During his recovery process, Jason developed an obsessive-compulsive disorder due to fear and trauma of what had happened. He isolated himself and didn’t want to go out with anyone. Jason began to notice that his view of the world through his eyes had changed: objects presented some shapes that he had not previously perceived, such as tangents, with lines like waves that intersected. Curious about what was happening to him, he discovered that they were fractals. He investigated until he found a news story about Daniel Tammet with Asperger’s and a genius in mathematics and linguistics. He suffered from Savant Syndrome, which appears in many people with autism spectrum disorders or brain injuries, along with exceptional talent. An examination of Jason determined that he had acquired Savant Syndrome and had become a mathematics genius.
The 900 million people with Padgett Syndrome seemed to have been selected randomly: the group did not show any tendency of the region, country, age, gender, race, social or religious condition. The phenomenon was undoubtedly beyond any human intervention.
Overnight, more than 11% of the planet became gifted, which would affect balance on many levels on the Earth. The manifestation of «instant intelligence» was global and, they say, occurred in parallel. The standard intelligence quotient of the group was 300 to 350, and they covered multiple fields of science and the arts.
In the world’s leading research laboratories, a frantic race began to establish the reason for the Padgett event. It was necessary to determine why it happened and what caused it. All kinds of theories circulated, from food contamination, water or air intervention, drugs, clothing, shampoo, creams, lotions, blood transfusions, and endless etcetera. Each one of them was discarded after due analysis. The impossibility of any hidden agenda of any government or fundamentalist group continued to be confirmed.
After months of groping in the dark, governments agreed to give a more global structure to the work of the multiple research centers. They collectively and thoroughly studied a group of the «favored» in each region. They carried out DNA tests at the quantum level. And it was at that moment that everyone, in unison, detected a change in the human genome of all the people under study. It was determined that «something» had positively affected a neuronal gene. The mutation favored the synaptic protein responsible for «wiring» the nerve cells of the brain. They found that its synaptic «mesh» had increased by 800%, expanding brain utilization to 45%.
The world was thrown into turmoil by the change in the balance of intelligence. In a dizzying fashion, several positions in government, business, and academia began a great renewal with Padgetts, as they were called. The world started experiencing an unprecedented wave of inventions and innovation in all areas: finance, physics, chemistry, music, literature, and art. The changes left social networks and smartphones as they were known at that time behind. Telecommunications experienced an impressive global change, and the Internet became quantum in a few years. Computers would also have a dramatic transformation by applying quantum technology, optical computing, and an evolved artificial intelligence at the processor level. All these advances reduced prices, the size of devices, the amount of energy used, and a surprising increase in their power and processing capacity.
The planet finally seemed to have a break from global warming. Despite the increasing use and quantity of electronic devices, their energy consumption decreased by 1,000 times. Electric cars, whose energy supply demanded the planet to provide 100 times more sources before their explosive growth, were left behind, which led to the decimation of forests and villages and the eradication of flora and fauna. Incredibly, electricity was becoming one of the main threats to the ecosystem. Padgett’s inventions for the efficient application of hydrogen to all types of engines proved to be the perfect solution for several thousand problems. Thus, the Earth in 2030 decreased by 2°C, and everything suggested it would continue to descend. The relentless and fatal destiny was being turned around.
It was a golden age and enlightenment for the entire planet: development could be sustained without destroying us in the past. The hundreds of thousands of Padgett Einsteins, Teslas, Newtons, Mozarts, Miguel Angels, Hawkings, Maries Curies, and Picassos were the unthinkable heroes in the face of the planet’s extinction, heroes that no one had foreseen. These heroes contributed a technological advance of 100 years to the Earth. They gave enough time to correct growth policies, lifestyles, economic development, equity, and social justice, through the integration of the human being as the center of decisions and definitions, and where the environment was considered an intrinsic part of its evolution. It was a fantastic opportunity to retreat from the interests of the few who led the planet down the path of self-destruction in the name of the common good and to give way to a glorious era of human evolution.
In 2028, a group from NASA continued researching the origin of the Padgett Syndrome and achieved the long-awaited explanation. Everything fit perfectly. It was the answer everyone was looking for.
The explanation, in simple terms, was that the passage of an interstellar object in 2017 «sprayed» Earth with different compounds. In October of that year, at the Pan-STARRS observatory in Hawaii, the first known interstellar object within our solar system was discovered. It was named Oumuamua, which means explorer or messenger in Hawaiian. At first, it was believed to be an asteroid; then it was classified as a comet, but it had something strange that did not fit with that classification: Oumuamua had no tail. It had an elongated shape of 45 meters long by 7.5 meters wide, like a cigar. In its passage through the solar system, to the astonishment of astronomers and experts, it exhibited unusual behavior compared to comets in its acceleration.
Comets are bodies composed of ice, dust, and rock that circulate through the solar system leaving a huge trail of gases and dust in the form of a tail, which is usually seen.
The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute), for its part, between November 23 and December 5, 2017, measured the electromagnetic interference of Oumuamua when it approached Earth at about 270 million kilometers (almost twice the distance from the Sun). The intention was to measure the presence of artificial radio frequencies. The study did not detect any signal emitted from a transmitter aboard the object (which was believed to be a spacecraft). Therefore, experts concluded that Oumuamua must be of natural origin.
Only in 2021, astronomer Alan P. Jackson and astrophysicist Steven J. Desch, both from the University of Arizona, concluded that Oumuamua was an ice body composed of nitrogen, which would explain its anomalous non-gravitational acceleration behavior, size, and albedo (reflected radiation), and the lack of detectable emission of CO and CO2 or dust. Jackson and Desch estimated that Oumuamua was ejected 400 to 500 million years ago from a young star system, possibly in the Perseus Arm, one of the major arms of the spiral Milky Way, which is 35,000 light-years in size (10,700 parsecs). Objects like Oumuamua can directly probe the surface compositions of a type of exoplanet not yet observed: the «exo-plutons» (part of a planet similar to Pluto belonging to another solar system).
With their analysis, Jackson and Desch managed to decipher the mystery surrounding the syndrome that was saving Earth. In the end, Oumuamua had a tail, like comets, but due to its composition, it could not be detected by astronomers. The material it shed during its passage over Earth lasted for several days. Nobody knew of its existence. Hence, the randomness of the affected human beings. Although it transformed the neural network of the human brain, it had no impact on flora and fauna. This fact confirmed the Theory of Panspermia, which postulates that life could be transported between planets or galaxies using meteorites or comets. In this case, Oumuamua was responsible for the genetic change in more than a billion people.
In 2035, everything was flourishing in order on the planet. The Padgetts had achieved strategic positions in world leadership and all aspects. Social and economic balance was finally consolidating. Wars, drug trafficking, corruption, materialism, megalomania, shamelessness, despotism, and fascism, among others, were left behind. Crime rates plummeted to negligible levels. The same happened with diseases; everyone had access to timely and financially supported treatments through a great system. Education was splendid, and each people could develop according to their talents and vocation. There was work and space for everyone to perform. Poverty had been eradicated. Food and water were abundant throughout the world. No one died of starvation or contamination anymore. Everyone contributed to the balance and development of a unique life ecosystem.
In August 2038, within a week, everyone who had acquired Padgett Syndrome began to die from the same thing: a cerebral aneurysm. The brain injury was hidden and undetectable. They were all condemned in 2017 when they received the «irrigation» from Oumuamua. All those heroes died. No one survived. There were no exceptions or mercy; not even the children born in 2018, reaching their twenties, would be saved. It was the tenth plague of Egypt made real. The world was in mourning. 100% of the Padgetts had developed brain injuries, and none had any autism spectrum disorders, as was the case with Savants.
The planet did not take advantage of the opportunity it had. In 2043, the temperature of the Earth not only rose again, but it did so by 6°C. The poles began to melt, and the warm ocean currents responsible for balance cooled down. An era of «natural» disasters began with floods and cataclysms that decimated crops, the water became scarce, and famine set in. The Earth manifested its claim because abusers and immoral people had returned in full force and were better prepared than ever with their evil and disastrous practices. The space left by the Padgett was quickly usurped by the criminal, mafia, corrupt, and megalomaniacal skills of a few inhuman predators who, in a few years, took care of destroying the planet, its people, and the environment. The expiration date of the Earth had started again, and there was less time now. “When will Oumuamua pass by again?” an elderly woman asked, looking up at the sky with despair as she witnessed her bank taking all her belongings due to her inability to pay back a loan she had taken out to treat her cervical cancer.