Mad!

Mad they called me! Me, Doctor Phineas Barby, mad? It's a weak word used by weak people to describe an intellect that they are unable to fathom.

By nature, I don't find myself to be of a superior posture, I find that I do have little tolerance for the ineffectual, the timid, or those who lack clarity of vision in the pursuit of those theories that we seek, to achieve what lies in our future, just that much sooner.

I took to the books of scholar's past, much that I could find, not so much their successes, but rather where they failed. In failure ofttimes is where you will find the diamonds of knowledge, so encased in the detritus of earth's primordial upheaval that more often they're simply overlooked. Humanity and knowledge could be so much further along if they only had the clarity of vision to look beyond that which they could only see. I alone it seems have that ability. The ability to unearth that which previously had gone unseen for an entire millennium. It was the secret to eternal life. But what is life? Carbon forms created in various entreaties. From the lowliest amoeba to the largest blue whale, life comes in varieties too great to number. Ah, but what is common? All life ends. Some life ends in hours some go on for decades, but there is a finite end. That is until now.

It came upon me one late winters night as I looked out my window on the freshly fallen snow. The clouds had parted and cleared leaving a bright full moon that illuminated the snow to create a million diamonds, sparkling, dancing in the moonlight. Their brightness all but blotted out the stars in the night sky, save those that shined the brightest. I was looking at those stars and pondering on the vastness of the heavens, knowing that even the closest stars were thousands of lifetimes away. We as a species were doomed to look at the stars knowing that their light would shine long after many generations of our ancestors passed on. However, if it is true, I contemplated that it took that many years for their light to arrive and knowing that it was entirely possible that the star may even have died itself by the time its light life had reached us. Even as the star cooled and shrunk to that of a black hole then why could not also be true that our spirit, our life force, inherent in all life forms must also have the ability to shine on, long after even our physical shells have left us. Would this be true for all? Or only for those of us with the intelligence in the vision to turn our intellect into that which shall live on.

While there were no books on how to create eternal life, I knew that there is always the first, and in this first, it shall be mine. What everyone has been missing is that while we know that our life force is electrical in nature, whether it be chemical or the function of extremely excited atoms without it in one form or another the action of life cannot exist. The key then is to capture this essence, keep the fusion going even after the bulk of the cellular structure has started to decompose and cease to exist. Like the dying battery that can no longer perform its original functional design, there remains enough electrons at work to perform basic, elementary functions, including taking on a new charge. Electricity is the future of eternal life! I alone have devised a method to capture this life force as a being succumbs and to preserve it. My lab is ready as I am to undertake the path which no man has taken heretofore.

The phone in the empty office rang, it echoed in the silent halls. Professor Milton picked it up, hello? Professor? Good morning, it's Dean Kaiser. Could you please come up to my office, It's urgent. Professor Milton hung up the phone and walked down the hall. His footsteps echoed in the silent hallway. It would not be long before the halls would be filled with students. Students of science, physics, all minds eager to be guided and filled with knowledge. Professor Milton crossed the campus and made his way to the Administration building and Dean Kaiser's office. Good morning, Professor I am sorry to drag you over here first thing in the morning, but I am afraid I have some disturbing news. Doctor Barby is dead. Dead? But how? The authorities are not entirely sure but, it seems he exploded. What?! There was an explosion in the school? I did not hear anything. Exactly the Dean said, he had a lab in his basement at his home that we did not know about. That remained intact. He appears to have blown himself up. They Fire Marshall is not entirely sure what happened, but he did not think it was on purpose. A horrible experiment gone wrong. He said the room was packed with batteries all wired together. They were intact and showed no signs of damage. Doctor Barby I am afraid however was blown to smithereens. That is incredible professor Milton gasped. Yes, it is Dean Kaiser said. The Fire Marshall gave me a book they found at the scene this morning. It was Doctor Barby’s lab notes. He was experimenting with electricity as a way to extend life, eternal life he had written. Why that's "mad" professor Milton said. Exactly my thoughts the Dean said. The man was indeed mad. Yes, yes, he was, he was mad! How could he think such thoughts? What strange ideas, things only a madman would say. Well, you know professor my mother used to say “only dogs get mad people get angry”. Perhaps, but I don't think he was angry, he was just mad! In fact, come to think of it I believe I heard from some of the other professors that they too had thought he was mad. Mad they called him, some just called him crazy. Indeed, I guess they were right to call him mad. Ha! Yes, the "mad Doctor Barby". Maybe he fancied himself a real life Dr. Frankenstein. What a concept! Oh well, c'est la vie! Coffee professor? Why thank you Dean, I think I will. Extra strong please!