Bloodline

But first, a warning: if you venture down that road, especially in regard to a few of the videos, what you may see, you can never un-see. You’ve been warned.

So let’s get started.

Dogs. The genesis for this book came from a Russian experiment performed in the 1940s on dogs. It was the precursor for developing the first heart-lung machine, but what this archival footage shows is disturbing for the dog lovers out there. Watch at your own peril. In this video, you will see what Amanda witnesses at the Dubai lab-only with humans.

http://www.archive.org/details/experime1940

Since we’re talking about dogs, let’s talk about real heroes: military war dogs. Everything in this book, from K9 storm vests to parachuting with dogs, is real. A great resource for me was The Dogs of War by Lisa Rogak. We also got to spend a little time in Kane’s point of view. I tried to be accurate with how dogs experience the world, using a fantastic resource: Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz.

Somalia. Part of this novel takes place in Somalia and among its pirates. The history, behavior, and reality of that country are as described. In fact, shortly after I wrote the scenes set in Somalia that deal with the rescue of the president’s daughter by a joint Sigma/SEAL Team six operation, reality proved to be even more spectacular than fiction. In January 2012, an American woman and a Danish man were freed from Somali pirates via a daring rescue by SEAL Team six. Although I don’t believe the woman rescued was the president’s daughter.

This novel also raises the issue of child soldiers. And, sadly, the details related in this novel are real. I based much of my research on A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, an author with whom I was able to meet and talk briefly.

But again, shortly after I wrote this novel, a very powerful video became an internet meme addressing this very issue, titled KONY 2012:

http://www.kony2012.com/index.html

Dubai. I mentioned many locales in this amazing city, and I thought I’d share some videos so the true marvels of the architecture described in this novel can be better appreciated.

The Palm islands are featured prominently in this novel. Here’s a video link that offers a peek at these man- made wonders that can be seen from space:

http://youtu.be/0lXclgws7n8

Also mentioned are the islands of the World:

http://youtu.be/7eUcRjo9Yv4

A couple other architectural miracles are still in the early stages of construction: the underwater hotel of Hydropolis (http://dai.ly/9qqx4s) and the floating ice sculpture of the Blue Crystal (http://www.blue- crystal.de/bc_base_uk.html).

And what about the spiraling wonder of Burj Abaadi, the Eternal Tower? Is such a construction possible? It is- only it’s being built on the mainland, not an island. This video is amazing:

http://youtu.be/q082y8in-ik

But what about Utopia? The engineering and design of that man-made deep-sea island is based on actual engineering concepts and on the real-world wonder that is the Hibernia oil Platform. If you take a look at its icebreaker base, you might get an idea where the shape of Utopia came from. Here’s a peek:

http://www.solarnavigator.net/oil_rigs.htm

And lastly, yes, the Palazzo Versace has refrigerated beaches.

Robotics. DARPA and other labs around the world are indeed moving into neuro-robotics. In this novel, we have the pairing of cortical neurons integrated into small robots. How far along are we in this development? Watch the following videos from various universities around the world and decide for yourselves.

Here are rat brains driving small vehicles:

http://io9.com/5288834/first-real-cyborg-a-robot-controlled-by-a-living-brain

And rats are never going to be satisfied unless they can fly fighter jets, which they’re doing:

http://youtu.be/nXncJZCMog0

But more disturbing are robotic swarms, robots coordinating together to achieve a common goal. Like wiping out mankind. The first video shows a swarm operating on the ground:

http://youtu.be/QUHn0r_j5cE

The next video is absolutely fascinating and horrifying. It’s an airborne robotic swarm. This is some truly fantastic footage:

http://youtu.be/YQIMGV5vtd4

I also introduce the monstrous quadrupods. If you’d like to see one in early stages of development, here is a DARPA project to build a robotic cheetah. Watch this one to the end to see how fast these robots can run. Then consider the videos above. Happy dreams!

http://bit.ly/HVXiSn

Red Market. This novel dealt a great deal with the abuses involved in organ trafficking, including the imprisonment of people who were “harvested” for profit. Much of the horrifying details came from a wonderfully readable and enlightening book, The Red Market by Scott Carney.

The Science of Immortality. spectacularly, all of the science in regard to the latest technologies and theories about longevity are based on hard facts. Much of the vision for the novel was gleaned from reading, listening to, and watching Raymond Kurzweil. Just Google that name and be blown away.

I also owe a debt to the work of Aubrey de Grey and his book (written with Michael Rae) Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Can Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime. The topic regarding the seven deadly damages of aging are straight out of this book.

I also enjoyed Jonathan Weiner’s take on the subject, Long for This World.

Another scientist whose work is mentioned in this novel is Sebastian Seung and his research at MIT on connectomes, the building of a synaptic map of the human brain. Here’s a link to his website, which features some great videos:

http://connectomethebook.com/

Also, in this book, I mentioned the creation of a neuron-by-neuron virtual brain. This project is real, called the Blue Brain Project, and is being conducted by the Brain mind institute of the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne, Switzerland (if you watch the first robot-swarm video cited above, you’ll see what they have accomplished).

Lastly, is triple-helix DNA possible? Yes, in fact, a team at the University of Copenhagen has produced such a complex. And Scientific American has a great article on this very subject, titled “A new molecule of life” (December 2008), covering how powerful a tool PNA could be not only to extend life but also to reboot mankind.

History of Immortality. One of the jumping-off points in the construction of this novel was the startlingly accurate biblical estimate of human longevity. In the book of Genesis, it is stated quite plainly that man can only live a maximum of 120 years. Then, in 1961, Dr. Leonard Hayflick came up with that exact same number from his study of genetics, telomeres, and cellular division. Is this just coincidence? I don’t know, but it was a fascinating seed in which to grow a novel-if not the Tree of life.

The story of St. Patrick’s staff and its connection to immortality and Jesus Christ is a legend that really exists.

I mentioned other historical/mythological elements relating to the Tree of life-from the Bible to the epic of Gilgamesh to Hindu Vedic scriptures. These examples are all faithful to their sources, as are the ties to the Great Flood. But I was really just scratching the surface. For more details, check out Immortal Again: Secrets of the Ancients by Walter Parks. And that Masonic picture of three men entwined together with the three-headed snakes is a real archival picture. Though I doubt the Bloodline had anything to do with it.

Which brings us full circle to the central question raised by my novel: Are there immortals already walking among us?

My opinion: oh, yeah.