"How about immortality?" suggested Karyn.
"Well, that wouldn't necessarily solve the problem of war and stuff," Jon noted. "Supposing that all, or virtually all, causes of death were eliminated, people would still be fighting over land and money."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. And overpopulation could be a problem, too," admitted Karyn.
"We could make it so people's sex drives get reduced the more crowded it is," Jon suggested.
"Why not just make it so people get less fertile the more crowded it is? Sex isn't so bad," Karyn protested.
"Right, that's what I really meant," Jon replied apologetically. " Hmm, I just read Gulliver's Travels the other week, and I think we should be clear on what kind of benefits should be included. In the book, Gulliver eventually goes to a place where a small number of people are immortal, but they just keep getting older and more feeble until they're blind, toothless, and can barely walk. I'd rather not go for anything like that."
Karyn went to Jon's desk and dug out a pen and paper. She wrote Criteria for Acceptable Immortality along the top of a page. "So we define it in a way that ensures it will go right."
They spent half an hour hashing out a list.
- No old age. Physical maturation will happen normally, but there will be no mental or physical deterioration afterwards.
- The ability to recover, within a matter of hours or a day at most, from any serious injury, and an adjustment to the sensation of pain to reflect the reduced danger.
- Automatically suppressed fertility in proportion to the nearby population density, such that sustainable development can be maintained.
- Immunity or the ability to recover rapidly from any disease.
- Remain always in peak physical condition regardless of diet or exercise.
"So, we're going to wish now that everyone becomes like this?" Karyn asked, handing Jon the final draft.
"...Nope," Jon replied. "Not instantly. I have a bad feeling that something would go wrong with such a huge shift to reality. We're going to do this more gradually and subtly," Jon decided, grabbing the stone and taking a deep breath.
"I wish that scientists somewhere have, just this morning, developed a safe technique capable of making people immortal in a way that meets this list of requirements here; and that within the next minute, Karyn and I will receive an offer to have the technique tested on us this very evening; and that future refinements to this technique will make it cheap enough to provide to everyone in the world in ten years." Jon gasped at the end, having had to state that whole wish in one breath.
"Nice," Karyn said, patting Jon on the back. "I guess if you had wished for it all instantly, something bad might have happened. Maybe history would have changed or something, and it might have been a terrible history."
Suddenly, Jon's phone beeped, indicating a new voice mail. He listened. Karyn leaned in to listen as well.
"You have been randomly selected for an offer to participate as a test subject in an exciting new scientific breakthrough. Be at Lehman Park at 6 p.m. tonight. You may bring one person to accompany you," said an unfamiliar voice.
"Awesome," Karyn said.
A van with blacked out windows picked up Jon and Karyn at the park that evening. Forty minutes later, they were led out into an underground parking garage, and taken to an elevator where a lanky silver-haired man in a lab coat was waiting.
"So good of you to take us up on this offer," said the doctor warmly, shaking Jon and Karyn's hands. "Sorry about the secrecy. I expect it won't be more than a year or so before we can take our work public. For now, though, you're about to get a sneak peek at the achievement of the millennium."
