Alien Genesis

3. Trees, Gold, and LSD-2

Later that morning the admiral found me nosing around the farm’s equipment sheds. He said, “Just exactly where I’d expect to find an old farm boy.”

I looked up and replied, “Yeah, and I know enough to see that this is an impressive, well-funded operation.”

Nodding, Cortell agreed, “Yes it is, and we’re doing important work here.”

“I have a question. What led a Navy salt to tree farming on the side of a mountain in Puerto Rico?”

“Now that is a question, isn’t it? The short answer is, I know a great deal more than the average guy about genetic engineering. If you decide to join our project, you’ll learn how that came to pass. In the meantime, let’s take a walk and I’ll explain what the Foundation is trying to do here. Our goal is to make long-term cultivation of hardwood trees a viable enterprise for family farmers in the tropical third world.

“You see, humans like wood. We do now and will continue to want beautiful woods for furniture and decorative building materials. Tree plantations have their place, but mono-species acreage has a minuscule environmental impact when compared to tropical rainforests. The current practice of razing and burning tropical hardwoods is unsustainable and just plain wrong. Tropical forests play an oversized role in our planet’s biosphere, and biodiversity is a critical factor. Various species grow better during early life in the shade of other trees. Over a period of time they grow taller than the benefactor canopy species. That process may require a couple of centuries.

“Here on the farm we’re trying to speed that dynamic by selectively planting and thinning several different species of hardwoods. The main problem with replacing deforestation with cultivation is lifespan. Most hardwoods grow slowly and live much longer than human farmers.”

We were walking along a well-worn footpath lined with trees, vines, and flowering shrubs. It was hard to imagine that this forest was actually man-made. We stopped for a moment to take in the beauty. “We’re addressing the lifespan challenge on two fronts,” Cortell continued. “We’re doing some of our work the old-fashioned way by selective breeding and grafting. We also annoy many of our environmentalist friends by aggressively pursuing the genetic modification of selected species.” With a little smirk he added, “Of course we only engage smart environmentalists—the ones who understand that our efforts may be the only real hope we have for saving tropical forests.”

We had taken several more paces when he turned to me and said, “Tell me what you know about junk DNA?”

“Only that the expression is a terrible misnomer.”

“Right you are,” the admiral replied. “In fact the phrase refers to a big bunch of material within DNA that doesn’t encode protein sequences. The pejorative term, ‘junk DNA,’ was coined back in the 1960s—decades before we’d mapped the genome.

“A lot of really interesting stuff happens in non-coding DNA, but humanity has yet to even scratch the surface of what’s going on in that so-called junk. I’m sure you’ve heard that humans and chimpanzees share 97% of their DNA. In an effort to bolster their world-according-to-Genesis nonsense, creationists claim that only about 75% of human/chimp DNA is similar. Actually, when we include junk DNA in the calculation, that figure is closer to correct than the 97% estimate.”

“Really!? Next you’re going to tell me that intelligent design theory is the truth and Darwin was smoking w**d in the Galapagos!”

Cortell stopped in his tracks, fixed me with a penetrating gaze and said, “Yes I am. Now I don’t know if Darwin smoked dope, but I am going to tell you that humans are the product of intelligent design.”

My mouth must have gaped. The admiral chortled. “Don’t worry, Gary, you’re not in the company of a madman—though for many years I wondered about my sanity. When I say we’re the product of intelligent design I’m speaking literally, but much to the chagrin of our creationist friends that design occurred over thousands of years and without all the theological abracadabra.

“Now you’re wondering what in the heck I’m talking about. If you decide to come work with us, you’re going to be astounded. You will never see life in the same way again.”

That afternoon I told Carla of this conversation. She observed that the admiral’s last comment was both intriguing and disconcerting. When I told her of his wish to continue the discussion on our next morning’s walk, she insisted on joining us. She said hearing a summary of the conversation was “like smelling a neighbor’s barbeque.”

The three of us had walked in silence for a few minutes when the admiral said, “Carla, yesterday I was explaining to Gary that our Foundation is trying to address the issues of hardwood tree farming on two fronts. We discussed increasing tree growth rates in order to expedite the production of harvest-ready wood. Our efforts focus on modifying the trees’ genomes as well as the development of feeding and fertilizing protocols. As you can see, we’re making progress.” He waved his huge hands in a wide arc at the giant plants towering above our heads.

Carla said, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they’ll never sit in.”

The admiral studied her for a moment then said, “Ah yes—some Greek wisdom.” He paused, looking up into the canopy. “The thing is, tree farmers have to eat, which brings us to our second and perhaps more vexing issue—financing. How do we convince nations and the World Bank to up-front fund multi-generational agriculture endeavors? Even if our genetic modification efforts are a screaming success, the reality is that many species of hardwood trees planted by farmers today will likely be harvested by their grandchildren. So what are the generations of that family going to live on during the interim between planting and milling into saleable lumber?

“We must develop ways for farmers to earn a living during the years of work that goes into raising hardwoods. Our foundation has engaged some of the most innovative and brilliant economists in the world to pour their combined intellects into that beaker. Many of the ideas coming out of their think tank are elegantly simple—and simplicity may be the most important factor in selling the notion of raising rather than murdering forests.

“But articulating the economics of our project is made complex by our notion of wealth, which goes to the heart of what we value. And what humans were taught to value got totally screwed up many thousands of years ago.”

We walked a few paces before Carla rose to the bait, “What do you mean?”

“Gold! I mean gold.” He waited several seconds, letting the abruptness of his response settle in. “Have you ever wondered why we value gold?”

I scoffed, “Because the jewelry industry has convinced us that coupled with diamonds it is the forever expression of true love.”

The admiral cackled. “Indeed they have, haven’t they? Bully for them! But why? Why gold? Sure it’s beautiful and makes lovely jewelry. It is a most wonderful and fascinating metal. It doesn’t rust, tarnish or corrode. King Tut’s gold mask was as lustrous when rediscovered in 1922 as it was the day the pharaoh was entombed some three thousand years earlier.

“Gold is remarkably conductive, able to transmit even tiny electrical currents in temperatures ranging from minus seventy to positive four hundred degrees. It’s so ductile that a single ounce can be drawn into a wire almost fifty miles long. It’s so malleable one ounce can be rolled into a three hundred square foot sheet. High purity gold can reflect ninety-nine percent of infrared radiation. The combination of malleability and reflectivity is why gold is used for our astronauts’ space suits.

“Yet all of those remarkable properties cannot even begin to explain why humans have valued gold all the way back into prehistory. That litany of gold’s qualities was not known and could not have been understood by our ancient ancestors. Hell, they didn’t know about malleability, reflectivity, and infrared radiation. So, why have humans valued gold since time immemorial?”

“I suppose because it’s beautiful and rare,” I answered.

“I knew one of you would say that because that’s the nonsense we’ve heard all our lives. We still see that explanation bandied about today. Take a look at this.”

The admiral pulled a smartphone out of his cargo pants pocket and began tapping the screen. Within a minute he’d opened the ‘History of Metals Timeline’ webpage. The top of the graphic began with ‘Metals of Antiquities.’ It listed metals in an ascending order of “discovery.” Gold was the first metal smelted about eight thousand years ago. Some eighteen-hundred years later came copper and two hundred years after that we began working with silver.

Pointing to the screen, Cortell said, “Look what it says right here—‘Stone Age man learned to fashion gold into jewelry. The popularity of gold is largely due to its scarcity, value, and mankind’s fascination with the metal.’”

Pulling his glasses off, he looked first at Carla then at me and said, “So there you have it, proof that humans have valued gold for eight thousand years because it’s scarce and fascinating. What nonsense!

“How would ancient peoples have known gold was scarce? Though it has wonderful conductivity, ductility, malleability, etcetera, etcetera, what did any of those things have to do with the needs of hunter-gatherers? In addition to all its wonderful qualities, gold is too soft for tools, pottery, or any imaginable practical device our prehistoric ancestors needed.

“It was not until the late twentieth century that any significant industrial use for gold emerged. Did you know that we mine twenty-five hundred metric tons of gold annually, yet only about ten percent is sold for industrial applications? Fifty percent is sold for jewelry and about forty percent for investment; mostly purchased by people hedging against economic disaster. Does anyone really think we would eat gold if civilization collapsed?” he scoffed. “If you want to invest for a dystopian future, buy and preserve spices in vacuum-sealed bags. They would be a helluva lot more valuable commodity than gold!”

Waving a hand in front of his face as though swatting away the apocalyptic thoughts, he continued, “The point is, the value of gold has always been contrived, and it still is today. Which brings us back to the question, why gold? Actually, I suppose the question is both why and how.”

“What do you mean by ‘how’?” Carla asked.

Pointing again at his cell phone, “Look here, archeology tells us stone-age man began fashioning gold into jewelry some eight thousand years ago. We determined this from unearthed graves near Lake Varna in Bulgaria where people were buried wearing gold jewelry.

“As you know gold nuggets and flakes occur naturally and sometimes appear shining in streambeds.”

“Sutter’s Mill,” I said.

“Correct! Now the alluvial gold theory proposes that prehistoric hunters and gatherers noticed the shiny objects in streambeds. At some point someone placed some nuggets on firepit stones, and voila, the gold melted. Seeing that it cooled and rehardened into the shape of the stone, these ancient peoples reasoned they could make casts of stone and shape the gold into aesthetically pleasing forms.

“While on its surface this theory makes some sense, the problem is gold melts at over 1900 degrees Fahrenheit, which is three times as hot as an open-pit wood fire. So, did our prehistoric ancestors build a forge? Or were they using coal rather than wood for campfires? Archaeologists have simply not been able to offer conclusive answers about how the Lake Verna gold jewelry was made.

“Even if you accept the idea that early civilizations were producing gold artifacts using alluvial gold, at what point did they begin mining ore? While there likely was enough gold lying around for small pieces of jewelry and sculpture, there certainly wasn’t enough alluvial gold to mold the enormous pieces found in Egypt. Over four thousand years ago Egyptians were already producing about one ton of gold per year.”