folkooc | TFLN, November 2023

The repeated petrification events definitely expand the period of time I can perform at my peak. However, I will not fall to the temptation of petrifying myself for that reason alone. That is a slippery slope down a path we do not wish to follow.

Do you speak of this world or our own? I wish to serve where I may do the most good, in either case. If that is a strategic one, I am so willing. [ Tsukasa appreciates the offer, the idea. He knows they need Senku to get out of here, but the means are not the only problem. ]

You vary, moment to moment.

Yeah, I don't think anyone's going to let you either. I don't know, decisions haven't been made as to the best application of the petrification itself, nor have we finished replicating the technology. It's going to have to be strictly controlled. Humans need their life spans to end. A little longer wouldn't cause much harm, but not much longer. It will be deeply debated when the time comes.

I did mean our own. I hardly have anything to offer here either except for things I am using to spend my time.

Ha. I'm not going to apologize.

Most of all, I will not let me. I am sure there are plenty of people who, if they knew, would want to use petrification to live forever. [ The same people who were rich in the old world, who had power and money and influence. They don't have the same as they once did, but they are still part of the world. Tsukasa will not let them use petrification to recreate the old world. ] Whether anyone else learns what it's capable of in our lifetimes or not, yes, we need to develop the rules and regulations to prevent its misuse in the future and to instill those values in those that follow us. It is the only way.

You do not idly pass your time. Your science is not busywork. You are working on things here.

I would never expect it.

As difficult as it is to consider, the only thing we can do is educate upon the consequences, for when our life spans end there will be nothing more that we can do.

There are many who would consider living forever. I didn't consider it for a minute. It's not as simple as just extending your life. It has cascading effects. Why do you think they were looking for another planet?

However, when the time comes I will be drafting some kind of proposal about setting a lifespan as extended, with all the full health benefits and at some point a cut off about its use. I don't know what that will look like. I have time to think of as many fail safes as possible. That, and it's important not to give up on the study of medicine. The petrification can't possibly anticipate everything in our future.

Then, when I die, I can only hope I've trained someone to take it up in my stead.

Teaching is a bit of busywork, so was making the biofuel and my current project of crafting Gideon a motorcycle. But it does allow me to think. I'm thinking we need to build a rocket. I want to see how high we can go. Not manned, of course.

Unfortunately, you are correct. I might advise we wait a short period to begin the education process. We need to go about it the right way or it would have been better to do nothing at all.

[ Further, Tsukasa would feel more comfortable if more of those who ruled the old world have passed on. It's not murder. It's not any different treatment than what they want for anyone else in the world. It simply provides more time to instill cultural values and decreases the odds the discussion will be hijacked for selfish means. ]

Overpopulation, a problem of finite resources to support life and an increasingly infinite number of life forms needing support. It is an alarming curve that quickly becomes unsustainable. They were not only looking for another planet but another and another and another, passing from planet to planet once they can no longer be sustained. Immortality is a curse, not a blessing.

I am still ruminating over my ideas toward how it should be handled as well. Ideally, we shall continue without war and not need to face another situation like Hyoga's. I look forward to hearing your ideas and putting forward my own. Certainly, you made many Dr. STONE's in our time in the stone world, and petrification is only yet another, not the final one. I would not wish for us to depend on it, only to discover its limits and see someone face that heartbreak when we could have done more.

Preferably, you will have trained more than one.

Taiju isn't here. Whatever you need for your rocket, my strength is yours.

Since we are not at that stage, your waiting period may come to pass without anyone objecting to it. It's hard to say and ultimately with the whole world involved, no longer just up to us. You wouldn't like all those tedious council meetings.

Parasitic to a fault, and completely unaware of the effects of what they're doing. It's a fascinating blind spot if you ask me. Considering they alluded to doing it repeatedly, and yet they have not learned the cause for their destruction.

Ideally, but unrealistic. While we're likely going to continue being in recovery mode for quite some time, eventually those settlements will expand to others and borders will be reformed. It's why Ryusui has already negotiated his kingdom's territory to avoid that kind of future. Can't say the same for every nation out there, surely. That's more Gen's job trying work the soft power of situations like that.

The thing about science is that there is never a final one and while I hope to continue to refine and invent things, my production output is not guaranteed. There are others that will step up as well. It's going to be a fascinating thing, but that competition has always been there. I want to assume it's limited. It must be. We just don't know what the limits are.

I will hold you to that.

Indeed, there are numerous other issues being sorted out at this time. [ While Tsukasa knows it was the plan, is the plan, and is how society progresses, he still doesn't trust everyone in those council meetings, everyone making those decisions. He would rather it were up to them, the small group of them that led things back in the day. He even trusts Ryusui more than most of the others. ] I would not, but unfortunately, those tedious meetings are important for the future of the world.

The ability to learn, to improve, and to do better remains our greatest strength. If we can continue to cultivate that attitude of science, it will go a long way toward ensuring our future, all of our futures. I do hope they learn, for others sake even if not their own. I cannot fathom how long they have been down this path given they spent nearly four thousand years at our planet.

War is a waste of lives, resources, and more. If other borders are disputed, there is no guarantee anyone will honor Ryusui's. When people decide it is worth it to kill for what they want, an agreement will not stop them. Gen has his work cut out for him. We need more than Gen alone, we need a multitude of Gens.

Nothing is guaranteed. Reasonableness has never been your forte. You are trying to build a time traveling device. If I were to make a bet, I would bet that device is finished sometime, whether in your lifetime or another. From the very beginning, you planned to save everyone, and you will. Science will. Petrification has limits, but science is not limited to petrification.

I expect no less.

Believe me, I know it. It's the only reason I don't delegate my position from what it is. I'd hate it more if I didn't have a chance to argue my point. They might not let me at diplomats or politicians but I'm happy enough debating the scientists.

It has to be an extremely long time, that they didn't think a few thousand years was a big deal. We could ask Whyman, but I'm not sure he knows.

No guarantees, and yet he will try and head it off at the start to keep us out of conflict earlier. Is the old guard of Japan going to challenge us? Probably. Someday.
Especially once we're gone. We're going to get a lot of latitude as it is for our role in how things came about. Especially me.

Science will not end with me. That is guaranteed.

It is the burden you must bear for leading the world back from the brink of extinction. The type of person you are, the type to devote himself to that and accomplish it, is not the type to slink back and choose personal comfort and retirement over stewardship for the world he has saved. I know, you didn't save it alone. It's impossible to do alone, but you inspired everyone else. Your work with the scientists will go far, even if you are not present for all the political discussions. [ Tsukasa does not, in his opinion, have the same latitude as Senku or Gen or Ryusui or the others. That's fine. He doesn't have to save the world. He'll do everything he can to make sure it doesn't slip. If that means the weight of the world on his shoulders, so be it. ]

Indeed, the next generation will be the truest test of our accomplishments, and we will never know the outcome. An experiment that does not even begin until we are gone. Everything before then is the set up.

Certainly. It hadn't ended in the thousands of years in which we were petrified. [ The rainbow flames Chrome used hadn't impressed Tsukasa the way he thought, but it was still science. Flame tests. ]

I'm definitely not looking to retire and although when I spoke of my grand ambitions growing up, seizing power was not on that list, I'm not one to shy away from my responsibilities either. I will bear it, as it must be done.

We'll never know the outcome, so I'm not going to worry about that, but will try to do everything in my power to send things on a good path. It's all I can do.

I know. It's one of the ways you're better than Xeno and more trustworthy to boot. Sometimes I wish you could have a life free of that responsibility, to live as you wish, but the world is better off that you don't.

That simple, huh. You're a miracle sometimes.

The world is better off. Although, without being too arrogant, I doubt I'd have had a life in the shadows. I'd be just as innovative as I am now.

I don't believe in miracles.

No no that's just the proper amount of arrogance. You were always going to be great.

I know, but I do.

Statistically likely. I would've gone to university, probably in England or the United States, and then joined NASA or JAXA, although after all of that, I no longer think I would've been an astronaut. I think I like engineering and working with my hands too much. It's hard to predict more than that, that's more the Mentalist's domain.

It would have been very different. I don't sit around worrying about it, what we lost and what I missed out on. Bringing back civilization was the thrill of a lifetime for me, even with all the struggle.

I'm not going to tell you otherwise. I respect people don't believe what I do.

Petrification and revival saved Mirai, my sole goal from the age of twelve onward. So far as I am concerned, I have not lost anything of value in the process. Bringing back civilization better than it was when it was handed to us is an honor and an opportunity I never expected. For all that happened, I do believe we as a world and a people are better off for the fact that it happened.

It's very funny like that, isn't it? It was a calamity of epic proportions and yet somehow we found the good in it.

I'm very glad for your sister. She won't be the only one it saves. That, at least, means that her case was never entirely hopeless. We just need to reverse engineer that.

Indeed good can come from bad. Humanity is difficult to keep down indefinitely. When we work together, we can accomplish what seems like miracles.

Fully agreed. I know that petrification can help others in her situation, but I want us to find the means without petrification. Its properties means we could develop cures to any number of 'hopeless' incurable conditions and give people a chance to really live their lives. Everyone deserves that. Not only Mirai and anyone else similarly petrified. We've lost too many people unnecessarily in the world before. [ Unsurprisingly, Tsukasa is passionate about this issue. It isn't where his skills lie, but he'll support it wholeheartedly. ]

Yes, whatever the petrification did to reverse her condition, it means there is a method and surely it can be replicated. That is science after all.

It is not my specialty either, but I expect to those who study neurology, it will make for a fascinating case study and give them ideas on how to do what it did, without the petrification.

Petrification can heal so much that I wonder how universal a mechanism it suggests and brings forth, so that it may not be particular to neurology or a single area of the body. However, it could also be a complex process that does work differently across situations. Regardless, I look forward to it being pieced apart.

I wish it were possible to scan and understand the structure of petrified people to see what differences the petrification process makes even before revival. Whether it contributes to the healing process before revival and if so to what degree. It's all idle musings on my part, but I trust those who know more will figure it out in due time.

If I had to guess it has to do with the mechanism that selects the target. If you recall, they selected us as the target after observation, but also the swallows before. It must have some way of breaking down organic matter to its purest form in an analytical fashion.

If given all the time in the world I might be able to crack this thing. As it is, I'm not sure I'll have full comprehension in my lifetime.

So the targeting mechanism might ignore injury and convert organic matter without any concern for any damage to it? In a similar fashion, being dead (but not decomposed) as Hyoga was, it would not care that parts of the body no longer function properly. That would be remarkable.

There are more projects you could work on and solve in due time, but you do not have the time to complete them all.

It certainly would be.

It may seem strange or alarming to say this, but this is an area where I may not be the most qualified person to make those determinations. I certainly can become so, but in actuality my knowledge isn't specified enough to deconstruct medicine so thoroughly.

I must pick and choose, and with my sights set as they are, it's unlikely this will become my project, beyond the thought experiment. Unless I accomplish everything by the time I'm thirty, in which case then I can choose another specialty.

I understand it is not your area of expertise, and I have no expectations it ever will be. After all, you have set your sights on time travel, a highly ambitious goal. Should you manage that by the time you are thirty, you may truly be the most accomplished scientist in all of history.

In time, I may choose another specialty besides observing Xeno. Not yet, however.

An amusing accomplishment but not one I'm expecting. I think it will take longer.

If you think of something, just bring it up. We'll make it happen. Can't be that fun to babysit Xeno.

Babysitting Xeno is more fun that you might think. He works himself up into a lather without any assistance and buzzes about in a frustrated state for ages. The barrage is mostly directed toward Stanley if the man's there.

TFLN, November 2023

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