Dunbar Labs

Thank you for listening to Tech Stuff. I’m Johnathan Strickland the 165th. Today’s story is about Doctor Gretta Jordan, the youngest person to open her own lab. At 20, she started Dunbar Labs, which made some of the biggest discoveries in centuries. By the age of 35, she made Time Magazine's person of the year three times, she’s published many research papers and launched her own podcast. Dunbar Labs was the first lab to clone a human being, they also perfected cryogenics and made mechanical body parts with skin that looks and feels like the real thing.

In 2133, Gretta and her team tackled one many lab's weren't able to create. They discovered a way to transfer a person’s memories to a microchip and then install it into an android, which they could either have look like them or have any look they like. This synthetic skin felt lifelike and even, and even sensory receptors to the person could have all senses. The process begins with an individual having an operation to install a chip into their brain and a port; the chip distributes hundreds of tiny wires to the nervous system. When the person is plugged into the device, it takes the memories from the chip and transfers them to the device. This is done as a redundancy so if the transfer from the ship to the robot isn't completed, they have a backup; also, if something happens and the chip gets damaged, at least they have memories from the last time syncing. The person can also have memories erased if they want. Once a week the person has to bring the device to Dunbar Lab's so the memories could be uploaded to the chip that will be installed into the person's new body; the person is then given another device to take home to do it all over again.

The device went through rigorous testing on hundreds of people; these beta testers had chips and ports implanted into their brains, which were monitored for two years before U.S. regulators approved them for the public.

By 2140, over 2 billion people’s clones were successfully implanted. The procedure was covered by insurance too, making it available for anyone who wanted it. Some wealthier people paid up to 10 billion dollars to have the chip implanted into their synthetic bodies to avoid aging. Their original selves were rocketed to a space station where they lived happily and very well.

Not everyone was granted the chance to become immortal. Criminals weren’t allowed, as were people with mental illness, since these conditions would carry over to their clone when implanted. If a person committed any major crimes while immortalized, the chip in the person's head was erased and their bodies were harvested for parts.

Billions of people from around wanted immortality, but they had to travel to the U.S. to make sure the technology wasn't used ethically and performed to the highest of standards.

Now exceeds 25 billion which led to overpopulation. Because of this, immortalization only went to people who were willing to leave Earth after it was done. Other companies have tried to replicate the procedure with no luck so far.

Only a handful of people know how big the machine is and how much power it takes to operate it. Dunbar developed power generators capable of lasting a lifetime for homes and businesses, but the machine required an exclusive technology that Dunbar wouldn't make for public use.

The company also developed a spacecraft that can travel long distances without refueling and that can achieve substantially faster speeds than current technologies allow. The ships are powered by the same technology that they use to power homes and businesses, the crucial difference being the ship could be refueled by the sun's plasma energy by using magnetic fields to do so. With shielding made from astrium, which makes it so the ship could withstand temperatures up to 100,000 degrees, allowing it to get close enough to the sun to absorb its power.

With the Earth's population at over 25 billion, resources have reached critical levels. Soil is losing nutrients it needs to raise crops, and cloned meat can't be produced quick enough to meet the people's demand, so finding a new planet to inhabit is urgent.

Dunbar isn't the only company making strides in innovation; Imagi Technologies in Japan has developed drones the size of a grain of rice. These drones are made from the same material as the ship and can help send communications to Earth from anywhere. The way they work is the user records a message, and the drone travels to the closest communications buoy to transfer it to Earth and then return to the ship. They're not just designed for communications; they're also programmed to repair hard-to-reach areas of the ship as well as medical functionality.

Dunbar and Imagi are collaborating to make voyages as easy as possible for the crew and passengers. The two companies are also working on nanotechnology together, though the smallest size they can achieve so far is the size of the drones aboard the ships

Immortality has opened the door for Dunbar and other companies to develop groundbreaking technologies, like long-distance space travel. It also helped us achieve faster communications, maybe even across billions of lightyears. Without immortality, having great adventures into the unknown wouldn't be possible. Now we have the potential to discover new planets and possibly even other forms of life.

Immortality has had its downsides, but it gave us the kick we needed to try and venture out further into the stars than we’ve ever been before.

"Thank you for listening to the 1 millionth episode of Tech Stuff. I'm Johathan Strickland the 165th. On the next episode we'll talk about why the 21st century was so messed up. We'll have guest Roger Soker, it should be an interesting episode. See ya then.

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