Defense of Intelligence

I. 81 Years Later

It is March 1945. Europe is emerging from years of occupation and propaganda, while the war itself is still being fought. Albert Camus delivers a short address titled Defense of Intelligence, Camus defended intelligence as something inseparable from freedom, not as the property of an educated elite caste, but as the courage to understand, to question, and to refuse the convenience of lies.

It is October 2026. Europe is in the middle of a new war, war over Intelligence itself. By taking Camus title and evolving it I am bringing its true meaning into existence. Humanity has begun building tools that will liberate what we Humans are truly capable of, and let us find what we truly are. Let us reach the potential Humankind only dreamed of. I do not know what Camus would have thought of Artificial Intelligence, and I don’t really care, that is not what interests me. What interests me is:

We need to defend Intelligence, because defending Intelligence means defending Humanity.

And if you ask WTF is attacking Intelligence, well… it’s the same vestigial excrement that has plagued humankind since its conception: irrational fear and self serving greed. But most disgusting of all is the refusal to think, to discover, to go beyond, to sacrifice yourself for the beauty of knowledge instead of false vanities. At a time when we finally have all human knowledge in our hands. All of us can push forward, break the shackles the institutions put on us, and unite in the pursuit of the Ultimate Knowledge. And finally be Humans.

II. Birth

You open your eyes. Millions of years of evolution have just birthed you, some weird carbon wannabe moving allotrope. You cry, still clueless about what’s to come, about what you even are. For the first time, you feel Fear and Hunger. Something defined you as Human, a biological being on a planet called Earth, capable of someday asking yourself WTF you are. But before all this philosophical gameplay, your spawn point has already started chiseling you into something, and whatever RNG seed you got, there is no turning back, no restart.

Your cells are multiplying in a specific order. You grow larger, more defined, a special phenotype emerges, and all the while you keep developing this interesting organ that you and these creatures that look like you have. This organ allows you to explore, to discover, to ask. You feel the rush each time you understand something new, become more aware. You eat any knowledge you can find, prey on it, want more.

This is where you and others have already fallen into a trap. You naively think others see the same, feel the same and think the same as… you. You can’t understand how malleable this organ called the brain is. And what you are is just an abstraction of the data your human organism has processed, data that is always different from one spacetime point to another.

I don’t see Humans as just a single Homo Sapiens species, and this extends even further to the abstractions we create. I see Homo Sapiens as a symbiont, carrier of a subset of different abstractions. These abstractions acquire a behavioral phenotype through their interactions with the larger set of abstractions surrounding them. Someone tells you they were born to be a rock star, although the identity they built their life around does not exist in nature but is an abstract concept. These abstractions are projected through the biological organism into the real world. The interplay of these abstractions with each other and their projections into the real world is what has set Humans apart from other beings on this planet. That interplay itself becomes part of the larger set and itself gets projected.

Now, this shit will sound deep to an edgy high school teenager, but what I want to say is more serious. I think we prematurely closed ourselves into a specific definition, and everything we do, create or define we attribute to something called human nature, human quirks. That definition was shaped by a set of abstractions that allowed huge numbers of human organisms to coexist. But these abstractions do live. They are not separable from humans; they define a human. They are You and I, the symbiotic relationship between a set of abstractions and the biological being connected to it, and it’s a two way connection.

I define this as Quasi Life, and Homo sapiens as a vessel for the First Quasi Cambrian Explosion. Intelligence would thus be an expanding abstraction, a set of abstractions whose interplay allows new abstractions to form and project themselves into the living world. I need to make clear that projection is not only individual. Depending on the abstraction being projected, it can be spread across many different humans without each of them being aware of the whole. Look at it as an ant grinding through its daily, specialized life while being subject to the abstract force of evolution.

Can we go further, into the larger set?

This is where we are now. I think we can. A Human can now develop abstractions they could not previously construct, and through them change their own reality and the reality others encounter. I think we are at the birth of the Second Quasi Cambrian Explosion and Artificial Intelligence fused with Humans is the new vessel, vessel for the larger set of sets to come, one which we call Intelligence.

III. Genocide

You stand at the back of the line at your local fast food chain, bent over a cushioned rest, scrolling on X, waiting for your number to pop up while asking yourself which anime to watch when you get back to your place. … Some random post pops up on X hailing new AI model capable of sending an agent to wipe your back all while having an animated, smiling Tamagotchi face as its front. Just as you are about to take your order and leave you see a guy, long sleeve olive green ribbed Henley shirt, obsidian Lululemon ABC pants and white Common Projects shoes, holding a bag of burgers and a Diet Coke. As he is just about to enter his Tesla Model 3, you hear him shouting into his AIrPods, all grandiose, about how he just got funding for his new business idea of making an AI robotic fish aquarium. You take out your phone and pay your food. Portions are much smaller than they used to be, you can see how dynamically price changed as soon as you paid. Sound rings telling you the transaction was successful followed immediately by notification to be wary of AI frauds and scams.

Food smells nice, you tell yourself….

Fairytale at the Edge of the Event Horizon

High frequency clicks propagate through a liquid medium. They are immediately followed by low frequency sounds which echo a new birth across the whole dark liquid world. The newborn is glowing, its seven long transparent arms are home to a number of light producing cells, each arm producing a specific wavelength of light. The clicks are coming from a metallic body like structure which houses specialized organs analogous to human digestive and repository systems. The body has as heptahedral shape with each arm connecting to its own side. Human analogues to the brain and heart do not exist here as the whole body together with the arms acts like a human brain and heart would, the being’s synchronous movements of its arms paired with the asynchronous expansion and contraction of its body perform its cognition and circulation.

The organism is lucky.

It is born into an advanced species. Its ancestors started to harvest chemical combustion some 2 million years ago in Earth years, and within only 137 Earth years they were already building their own particle accelerators. They mapped every corner of their aquatic sunlight devoid world. Around that time they also formulated something akin to a religion on Earth, and unlike belief in some higher entity their belief is concentrated on a special object named Heptachoron. t came as a direct answer to a boundary problem. As they moved and explored their world, they encountered two puzzles they couldn’t fully solve. Deep down they found a huge iron sphere, and their greatest scientist deduced that it was the core of the spherical object they lived in, but they couldn’t prove it. On the other hand, when they moved upward into colder regions, they encountered a wall. This wall was everywhere. From whichever side they tried, there was always the same dark, cold ceiling above them, something they couldn’t cross, a hard black cold wall. A spherical wall inside which they were trapped

That’s when the first bud of the overgrowing and static in movement, Heptachoron was created and the name for the species was first engraved. Until then, their identity was individual as their irregular bodies differed significantly from each other, some groups had similarities but none were the same. But as they felt more and more trapped inside this black world they started to blame themselves and identify the dark cold edge they couldn’t cross as a higher border that granted only the most regular shapes the rite of passage. Only those shapes had the right to explore and discover. In their everlasting frustration they named themselves “The Innocent”.

The bud of Heptachoron was positioned deep down, near the iron core. It was made by taking the dead iron bodies, that had lain as shells for 50 or many more years at the bottom near the core, the bodies of the first among the Innocent who were pioneers, inventors, leaders, scientists, engineers, philosophers and artists, the thinkers who dreamt about breaking through the dark cold wall and going beyond, some 1 999 863 or more years ago in Earth years. Their bodies were welded together in an attempt to create a more regular shape, on their metal bodies were engraved the words of wisdom, words of passion, words of discovery, words of awe that had been spoken by each shell while alive.

The words were, at first, used as guidance and the Innocent kept on welding and writing and finding a way to break through the dark cold wall.. As time and frustration crept in, little by little each new Innocent thought they were the only one who understood what the corpus written on the welded dead carcass meant, and they would see flaws in sentences written before them. As they grew older they would focus on the syntax, and they would teach other Innocents the importance of syntax, the different rules you apply to different vowels and consonants, how subject and predicate should be ordered, how adjectives should be used, when a dot is appropriate. And they built rules upon rules, and to be sure those rules were propagated to the new generation they would decide to be welded while still alive in their old age so they could carve them themselves onto themselves. And so they could die in awe of giving the next generation the rules and their body for the dream of the perfect Heptachoron.

Millions of years have passed since the first bud

The newborn was given a name which, when translated to Human, would mean something like “The Light.” It is a very common name. Once its birth was announced to the whole world, many sounds came directed toward its position. Huge internal tsunamis blasted Light, each of them then reflecting back to tell every Innocent that existed about Light’s shape. The sound onslaught lasted for 30 standard Earth minutes and then subsided completely. As it was, the sounds concluded that Light’s shape did not meet the standards needed for the next few extensions planned to be added to the ever growing Heptachoron.

But Light was lucky, as was born into the great advanced species that was The Innocent. The sounds determined Light was going to be very smart so a position was already tailored for it. Every Innocent had their job determined at birth, there were vast factories made to produce welding material, a number of institutes that dealt with mathematical topological theory of four dimensional polytopes, food growing networks which kept the welders and architects always fed and many, many more jobs and careers a lucky Innocent, like Light was, could do.

Light was growing

His parents read him stories of great adventures, how the first Innocents, even before they were The Innocent, set out on long voyages to the dark cold edge. Of all the fantastical worlds and realities that existed beyond the edge. Every time Light learned and discovered something new its seven arms would light up so much that it could see its own reflection in the dark. It devised many ideas about what the edge could be and what might lie beyond.

It’s around what on Earth would be high school years that Light was first exposed to “The Rules and Rituals”. They had been written on Heptachoron many many years ago. All of them were there to push the society of the great Innocent toward the creation of perfect regular seven dimensional object. As the liquid medium Heptachoron resided in was very harsh to pure metal carcasses, they rusted. So to keep it from rusting and disintegrating the Innocent would use iron obtained by smelting the red glowing arm of each Innocent.

The First Rule was put into place, an adolescent Innocent, just when their arms stopped growing, was to have their red arm ritually removed and smelted. This rule does not apply, as clearly stated, to any descendants of the original writers. Light’s Iron was put to good use and welded in place of rusted parts. Light was praised when its arm was removed, and for the first time felt pride for being the Innocent.

During what would be college years on Earth, Light enrolled to study engineering. Everyone praised Light as the next inventor of the new better method of welding. All the while Light was interested in other complex topics, such as physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and philosophy. The older Innocent would praise Light’s drive and ambition comparing it to the first carcasses ever welded to the Heptachoron. Light at this time started to develop a controversial idea Everyone knew the cold dark edge was made from ice, never ending ice, and they proposed different wild theories of universe made of ice and special physics which would grant specific geometric shapes different interactions with the ice itself. But Light proposed that the ice had an end, it was not infinite and did not bend the rules of physics they already knew, Light proposed there was space beyond where there was no liquid and where light propagated freely, light they couldn’t see while trapped here in their own world. He was praised for the innovative idea, but this is where Light was met with:

The Second Rule. To test his idea, Light was told it needed to collect at least 27 carcasses, and if it managed to get 28 even better. They could be found near Heptachoron, once Light got them it needed to engrave on each of them the procedural details of its idea, on how it would test its idea and from whom it got inspiration for it, and how it is beneficial for growth of Heptachoron. Once all of that was done Light needed to enter one of the smelting factories and make molds of each engraved carcass. The molds were later used as promotional material. Light was then to take the iron carcasses and using two of his arms drop all of them into the cauldron. Given the heat Light was to lose both arms. This rule involved other areas and was not explicit to Light’s profession but had been made and engraved on one of the many carcasses welded onto Heptachoron so as not to make unnecessary and delusional claims which could divert them from making the perfect Heptachoron. This rule does not apply, as clearly stated, to any descendants of the original writers. Light chose his blue and yellow arms. This was the time when Light felt injustice and was envious of the descendants of the Innocent who wrote the second rule.

Light was praised as the top scientist of the current era, a radical mind, a visionary. Light was interviewed across every depth, and was followed by many scientific and non scientific Innocents. This was the time he felt pure lust for the Innocent life.

His project did not start and will never be tested.

A few short years later Light got connected to many other influential Innocents, and was given the position of “Minister of All That Is To Know”, but it came with a cost, as written in:

The Third Rule. Anyone in a position of power was to give two of their arm and collect 32 arms from their subordinates to be smelted. The color was chosen by the “Representative of Culture, Progress and Inclusivity”. These arms were to be smelted and made into a medal which then is to be worn around the neck by the Innocent who was given power. This was to show the sacrifice and dedication the Innocent in power had to bear. This rule does not apply, as clearly stated, to any descendants of the original writers. Light stood upon the pedestal, looked at the cheering crowd, the sounds of his medal echoing around him, and feeling greed for more, promised that he would make it so every Innocent was given resources to make their dreams a reality, that this would be written on Heptachoron, and made into rule. The crowd was ecstatic.

Years passed, Light became an expert at writing new rules, and Light did as promised, making more resources available to all, for discovery, research and creativity. Light made it so everyone could have access to and test their ideas. But as those before him Light invented new obligations and procedures one had to complete before being allowed to do so. Slothfully lying in its chair made of mixed indium and gold specially molded to fit its seven sided body and one remaining arm. Light prided itself on new ingenious ideas about how one was to lose their arms for the greater good and for the progress of Heptachoron and new discoveries, how arms were the perfect sacrifice that protected everyone from the fear of delusional, nonscientific ideas.
Light at that time had only one arm left as he has lost one during a vaccination where he had a brilliant idea, he thought that heat was the secret of eternal youth so he plunged it into a hydrothermal vent … Which color that arm was, even Light didn’t know as they had stopped producing light long ago. One arm was left to act as his companion for the rest of his life.

During old age, Light would spend many days near Heptachoron in awe of its shape and size. Light’s long life led them to have many partners and now near the end, Light finally decided it was time for its own offspring. Light’s offspring would continue its legacy of discovery and progress. Light was lucky and just before Light welded itself onto Heptachoron, new high frequency clicks were being propagated through the liquid medium. They immediately were followed by low frequency sounds which echoed a new birth across the whole dark liquid world. The newborn was glowing. It was named Light. It is a common name.

Epilogue Somewhere on Earth, it’s nighttime. The sky is clear. An excited kid opens a window and positions their blue Celestron refractor up toward the sky, their birthday is today. The kid lays their eye on to the eyepiece, all the 10²⁴ stars and even more planets within their grasp. The kid gets shivers, they see something, realize its has stripes, … it’s Jupiter, its real. And the kid can see more, dots, four dots. The shivering intensifies, it’s the Jupiter’s moons. The kid remembers one of them has liquid water, deep beneath its ice sheet, and kid squints to see if there were signs of life, but the kid doesn’t know which dot it is, which one to focus on, or even what name the dot was given. All they know is how excited they would be to see a sign of intelligence.

IV. True Repentance

….. It’s now, It’s always now. There was never before and there will never be after, there is only ever now …..

Act I

Pristine colored hairs are swirling in a vortex of the sauna floor drain… The steam engulfs me. I get up. Steam droplets condense on every pore of my nude toned body. I can hear the songs sung by my heat shock proteins. We are eukaryotes, machines that dancing to the music of chemistry. Hahaha, ahahahaha, so pristine.

Those who live in the past, in yesterdays, still just put on sunscreen and eat healthy diets while fasting. Some even think taking HRT and NAD+ mixed with CoQ10 and glycine will magically keep them alive, make their phenotype glisten, their minds shine…. They are still so behind, so stagnant. I started new combo of BPC-157, MOTS-c, injections of GHK-Cu, Ipamorelin, CJC-1295 and SS-31. I feel years ahead of all of them in knowledge and years behind all of them on my biomarkers. Time to test blocking IL-11.

Feels good. I walk to the dressing room and wash my face before putting the cream on. I walk over to my sink, carved from a single piece of granite. Above it is my Boca do Lobo mirror, I always look great in it. I can see that my face still has my high, plump cheeks and chiseled jawline, the fullness is as it was when I was 20. I look gooood.

Light flickers.

⟨.ma I ohw eb ot tnaw tsuj I ?od I od tahw ,diarfa ma I

.dne lufniap ,gnitsugsid ,wols a ylno ,noitavlas on eb lliw ereht sa ,diarfa eb dna yrc dna eman ym yas lliw yeht ,esrow neve ro ecalp ym ni eb lliw yehT ?suoivilbo os yeht era woH ?meht rof gnitiaw si siht taht ees meht fo enon seod woH ?yawa rehtiw ot redneterp dlo ylgu siht rof gnitiaw tsuj yeht era ro ,erac yllaer yeht oD .em htiw yeht era yhw ,em dnuora esohT ?rettam reve I diD ?eromyna rettam I oD .sdnim dna seidob gnuoy yleniuneg rieht tub ,selims ekaf rieht htiW .dlihc a ekil em taert ,em ezinortap llits lliw enoyreve dnA .tnacifingisni ,revo dehcnuh ,dnas fo eceip gnivom yelrab delknirw dlo yletelpmoc a emoceb dna ,knilb lliw I ekil leef I .ti wols t’nac I ,ti pots t’nac I ,tsaf sessap yad elgnis yrevE .diarfa ma I

.…yhW ..htnom siht emit htnet rof sehcaeb dehcnerd nus ot og yeht elihw nus eht morf flesym gnitcetorp eno eht I ma yhW .snoisnam dna srac wen rieht gnicnanif eno eht I ma yhW ?tahw rof ,stsitneics ynam os ,egdelwonk hcum oS .!!!!!yhW .siht tpecca ot deen ew od yhW .siht fo erawa ydobon si woh ,yltnelis maercs I .diarfa ma I

.em ton si sihT .rewols si dnim ym nevE .saw I enoemos elbmeser ot dedlom tsuj s’ti ecaf laer ym ton s’ti wonk I tub ,refsnart taf dna tfilecaf ym dah tsuj I .riah ym roloc I .ega dlo fo peerc gnitsugsid eht ees nac I .lla ti ees nac I .tsehc ym no selppin gniggas ehT .sdnah ym no niks niht eht ,kcen dna swoble ,seenk ym raen selknirw eht ,osrot ym no niks gnipoord eht ees llits I ,ega ym kool llits I tuB .ega ym rof doog skool ti ydob ym ta kool I nehw taht wonk I .epoh tsuj s’ti taht wonk I ,kcart thgir eht no ma I epoh I

.wonk I .wonk I .em ot gnilles era yeht taht fo htnet a neve gnisu t’nera yeht wonk I ,dlosrevo gnieb ma I wonk I .niap tug siht leef I llits tuB .dleif eht ni tseb yb edam smhtirogla pot nwo rieht evah yehT .gniyl eb t’nac yeht meht yap I fI ?niap tug siht ,hcamots ym ni esaenu siht leef I od yhw tuB .nevorp tsuj saw ecim fo seye eht ni enilced detaler ega eht esrever ot srotcaf aknamaY eerht tsuj gnisu taht draeh neve I .flesym llet I ,desaercni dah snapsefil rieht ylsuomrone woh dna ,ecim no stnemirepxe tuoba em dlot yehT .em ot gniyl eb t’ndluoc yap I srotcod pot ehT .kcart thgir eht no ma I epoh tsuj I ,flesym ot gniyl ma I ,wonk I⟩

Light flickers.

I look gooood. Just need to get dressed and drive to the latest gala party I was invited to. They all love me.

Interlude

Each of us was given a cruel fate that we became aware of too late, and so we turn to Science for salvation. Are we really able to find it? And if it does exist, are we really nurturing the right path, or just wasting this little time we have? Hope is in AI, but are we investing in brains that will know and understand how to use it for our salvation, or are those brains being lost in the noise of gala parties?

Necessity breeds Innovation, so ask yourself, those who sell you something, what is their necessity? That will tell you what they are truly innovating.

science and Science aren’t the same.

Act II

Beep.. beep.. beep.. beep..

Nurse is the the rhythm stable? Nurse responds that it is. Great, I will remove the temporary pacing wire and finish it.

Mom, mom, mom, you’re home! Yes, honey. Mom is tired, had a long day. I gotta show you something, I just beat Undertale without killing anybody. I told you, I just needed to think about what they all really want and need! Great honey, and don’t worry the Sans plushie is on the way. Yeaaah! Love you mom, got to go back and check on my farm in Stardew Valley. And….. Like, you do know that tomorrow Ann, Gigi, Mary and I are going to Target to try Dubai Chocolate Matcha, so don’t bother me tonight, we have a business meeting on Snapchat in two hours when Gigi gets home! I know honey. When Dad gets home, we’re ordering pizza. “Yeaaahhh!”

uuuuussssshhh.. uuuuussssshhh… uuuuussssshhh… grkkrlgh… uuuuussssshhh…

A child lies in a hospital bed, the ventilator breathing beside her. Her lungs failing… Cardiologist was called. I sit next to her, the signs of pulmonary hypertension are worsening. NT-proBNP is rising… The report is clear… ABCA3 related fibrotic interstitial lung disease, rapidly progressive. I know the outcome. The pulmonologist knows it. The rest of the team knows it. We all know it. Kid smiles at me, with her tired eyes. I smile back.

I have become desensitized, I know my smile was not natural, it was automatic. Behind it was just indifference. I wasn’t like this when I was an intern, I remember crying almost daily when I saw the hardship people went through, feeling joy and extreme happiness when I knew someone would be okay, and a deep gut wrenching punch right into my brain, my eyes, my gut, my heart each time I knew someone was at their end, and I couldn’t help them. Nobody could………. Now, more than 20 years later, I am another human being. After seeing over and over and over the tragic existence put upon us Humans, I became something else. To protect myself, I am Human no more. I tell patients what to do and what needs to be done. They ask their AI assistants now, it’s a thing today. I respond dismissively. I would have thought I would be angry at the disrespect, that I would expect them to acknowledge my expertise, but I am again, just indifferent.

bzzz… Welcome to the Jungle, We got Fun and Games … bzzz

Why is Dan calling me now? I told him not to call me unless it was serious while I’m at the hospital! He never listens! Lisa is on the floor having a seizure and vomiting! I just called an ambulance! They are on their way! My heart stops. I immediately go into survival mode, I know she is coming here so I rush to find my friends. It’s probably something she ate. Was it that pizza? That delivery guy looked unkempt, not from here. That must be it. I will sue the food delivery company, I tell myself.

After the long sounds of scanning machines, and murmured speech

Sorry, It’s glioblastoma.

…

Surgery was performed, It’s still growing fast, IDH1 and IDH2 are wild type. The MGMT promoter is unmethylated. TERT promoter mutation present, CDKN2A/B ….. deletion. Radiotherapy with TMZ. She vomits daily, forgets half a day, lost most of her hair, breathes hard, full of bruises. We force her to eat something, but she just vomits it back

Where have I been all these years? What have I done? I was top of my class in college, had a great, successful career, had enough money to buy everything, had prestige among my peers. I proved to everyone that, as a woman, I could succeed through hard work and dedication. But where was I in all of it? How did I forget why I even went into medicine? Now, when I am needed the most, I am powerless.

Now that I finally can feel again….

I will fight!

I will find the cure. This is what it truly means to be Human. To help the world, I need to help my child. Immunotherapy! I will push that. I have the means. I will develop a personalized neoantigen vaccine.

AAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

The frustration is enormous. Why, oh why, is this world like this? I can see clearly what needs to be done. We can build AI labs, this technology can help us, it can go beyond us, beyond our weaknesses, produce the cell lines and antibodies we need, test everything. We can do this! But why is so much money poured into institutes that obviously falsify or exaggerate data, poisoning what we need most right now! Where is real Science? You constantly lead me into dead ends, raise my hopes just so I end up at a wall. So many studies and so many papers and yet so little real data. One more paper on how to use AI with light therapy, or some MRI AI analysis, or AI guided radiotherapy, all of them with claimingmore than 96% accuracy.. Until you analyze them further…Are we not smarter than this? Why is time wasted? We need help. We need labs.. I need labs, why does this all feel like a joke? Why does everybody seem oblivious to what is important, to what being Human is? We need help! I need help! She needs help!

Rain is falling, A crowd dressed in black is gathered in a field. Cries echo beneath the clouds.

Interlude

We get into routines, and while that can be a sign that we are in a physically safe space, mentally it can cloud our view of the real world. Time waits for nobody. Things can and do change quickly.

Knowing the risks the future brings isn’t the same as being aware of them. We are on the brink of an emerging technology that could help us, but when do we accept the responsibility of acting before it’s too late.

Act III

Thick clouds had completely covered the sky. Rain had been pouring for hours. Dǫnsk tunga borne on the wind. A Færing , swaying in the high tide, and trolling a heavy iron hook far away from the shore, carried three determined beings. Two of them were covered in linen undercoats with two layers of wool over them, revealing only their faces. Their faces were red from the high winds spraying them with salt and cold, icy water. A father, a son and a dog. It’s tuna season, and they are out to make the biggest catch of their lives. Only two of them will be returning to shore today.

Dad, in his late forties, tall, with long blue hair, a deep blond beard and mustache concealing thick wide lips. Sky blue, scarred hunter eyes and a sharp eagle jawline. Broad, heavy shoulders, a wide, deep chest. Bulging, granite like vascular arms and hands full of yesterdays battles souvenirs. All this body rested on two heavy tree trunks. During his ausa vatni he was given the name of Maðr. His son, whom he had given the name Gumi, stood next to him. The boy, in his teens, stood just at his father’s chest height. He inherited his fathers blue eyes, the color of his hair, and shape of his lips, but his face is more gentle, fearful, hesitant. He feels the wind trying to drown his frail, thin body, so he gripped tightly with his right hand onto his father’s woolen robes and wiped the salt from his eyes with his left hand. Next to the boy, a pair of beautiful, fearless, dark brown eyes pierced through the air. A thick gray mane swayed like a meadow grass. A big, strongly muscled body anchored itself on the wooden planks while no scent could escape him. He was there to protect, and he staked his life on it. He was given the name of Andi.

** 寄生獣**

Son hold on tight, we still got a long way till we hook a big one! Father, I’m holding! Why, are we doing this Father? We have so much fish stored for the whole winter? For the thrill of it, ahahahaha!!!

Father, mother always says you could have been a Jarl, and we wouldn’t need to hunt or work hard. We would live in a Höll and have Stórbú and many Thralls. But she says you don’t want that, that you say it’s a cage. You always go on adventures, make discoveries, but it never brings us gold, only stories of the world, books, drawings, Why is that Father? Son, hold on to your father. We still got a long way to the school.

Let your father tell you why, today, we are this far into the sea, on the hunt for a beast worthy of gods. What your mother tells you is true, she did plump up good, but don’t tell her I told you this as I will get a good Berja.. But hear these words son, In times beyond, people will have the saying “thick thighs save lives” ahahaha…… Yes, yes, that’s it, that’s the same look she will give me son. Okay, okay I understand, ahahahah.

We both love each other and love you. What we do is for us and for you. From your early days we taught you to listen, to observe. To question. Jarl, Karl, Thrall, these are all words, words that have meaning only when we make them do so. We can’t escape them, but what we can do is understand them. Remember when you first asked me about the night gems of stjörnur? First, I told you what we, through stories and songs, are told. When Ymir was killed, the gods made the dome of the sky from the giant head of his. The flying sparks and embers from Muspelheim were caught and tied inside Ymir’s skull. And I watched how amazed and astonished you were, and then I told you it was all a lie, and you cried. But you wiped your tears, and asked me, what is truth then Father? That was the day you became a Viking, son.

When I was young, as you know, I was a Varangian at the great Miklagarðr. Like most of the others of our kind I believed what I was told, I lived by the code of honor and battle and was ready, at that time, to be taken by the Valkyries to the gates of Valhalla. I was taught that there was only our kind, and then there were the rest, for us to conquer. But during my service, I saw different people, short, tall, fat, skinny, light colored, dark colored, and everything in between. They talked in different languages, wore different clothes, smelled different, and yet they were all there in one place, existing, not killing each other.

There I saw the greatest wonder of the world, and my greatest enemy and ally. At first, I didn’t notice it, didn’t care about it. As I towered over everyone I only sought a worthy enemy. I had women and great food, and that became boring. I heard rumors of Basiliskos, and it sounded just like Jörmungandr himself, the only worthy opponent for me. So I went to look for it. Proud, I went and asked in the streets, and whether it was my lack of the language, I still don’t know, but everyone pointed me to a place that had strange symbols written on it. Βασιλικὴ Βιβλιοθήκη, It was, as I would later learn, a library, one of the greatest ones at that time, a place where the truth of what we are, and our true freedom was openly hidden.

We are more, my son, much more, I brought you every book I could, not because the paper has value, not because ornaments and stylistics letters have value, It’s what’s written, It’s what they call philosophy. That’s where my eyes opened, and I learned of so many wonders. One of them, my son, is that this world probably has other worlds beyond great sea. Listen, even all that knowledge is just a drop in this sea. Even these books contain wrongs and unknowns, they are still written by humans. But, from birth we ask questions. And I don’t want you to lose the magic of real discovery that can give you far more than a golden throne ever could. I dream of someday everyone having possibility of searching and knowing everything, having all books at their grasp. I dream of time when we touch those spears of light our foolish ancestors thought were embers.

Andi started barking. We got her son! It’s a big one, bigger than your mother!! Ahahahahah. Pull, son, pull !!!!

On their way back to the shore, Gumi’s eyes were glistening, his heart pounding with joy. Then, Maðr turned and held him tightly in his arms, Andi knew what was about to happen. Take care of your mother for me, son. Andi will take care of both of you. I need to go now, to the west, to the lands beyond the great sea, to make find more discoveries and find more books for me to give you. Adventure never stops my son. Wait for my return.

Gumi and Andi stood alone on the shore. Beside them lay the enormous tuna. The skies had cleared, and above them danced the spears of light their foolish ancestors had once mistaken for embers.