Inferno by Brown

Ref: Dan Brown (2013). Inferno. New York, Random House Publishing.

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Summary­

  • An eccentric billionaire-environmentalist engineers a virus capable of regulating future human population growth, to an environmentally sustainable level.

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Where did we come from?

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Where are we going?

  • Legalized genetic enhancements would immediately create a world of haves and have nots. We already have a growing chasm between the rich and the poor, but genetic engineering would create a race of superhumans and….perceived sub-humans. You think people are concerned about the ultrarich 1% running the world? Just imagine if that 1% were also, quite literally, a superior species- smarter, stronger, healthier.

  • Eugenics: an attempt to use rudimentary genetic engineering to increase the birth rate of those with certain “desirable” genetic traits, while decreasing the birth rate of those with “less desirable” ethnic traits- ethnic cleansing at the genetic level.

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Misc Quotes

A virus, unlike a bacteria of chemical pathogen, could spread through a population with astounding speed and penetration. Parasitic in their behavior, viruses entered an organism and attached to a host cell in a process called adsorption. They then injected their own DNA, or RNA into that cell, recruiting the invaded cell, and forcing it to replicate multiple versions of the virus. Once a sufficient number of copies existed, the new virus particles would kill the cell and burst through the cell wall, speeding off to find new host cells to attack, and the process would be repeated.

The deadly plague travelled from China to Venice on the backs of rats stowed away on trading vessels. The same plague that destroyed an unfathomable 2/3’s of China’s population arrived in Europe and very quickly killed 1/3, young and old, rich and poor alike. By the time city officials realized it was the rats that were causing the disease, it was too late, but Venice still enforced a decree by which all incoming vessels had to anchor offshore for a full 40 days before they would be permitted to unload. To this day, the number 40- quaranta in Italian- served as a grim reminder of the origins of the word quarantine.

The octagonal shape had nothing to do with aesthetics and everything to do with symbolism. In Christianity, the number 8 represented rebirth and re-creation. The octagon served as a visual reminder of the 6 days of God’s creation of heaven and Earth, the one day of Sabbath, and the 8th day, upon which Christians were “reborn” or “re-created” through baptism. Octagon’s had become a common shape for baptisteries around the world.

Demand for clean water, global surface temperatures, ozone depletion, consumption of ocean resources, species extinction, CO2 concentration, deforestation, and global sea levels.

By any biological gauge, our species has exceeded our sustainable numbers.

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Chronology

  • 1920s: CFR Founded as a private think tank. The CFR had among its past membership nearly every secretary of state, more than half a dozen presidents, a majority of CIA chiefs, senators, judges, as well as dynastic legends with names like Morgan, Rothschild, & Rockefeller. The membership's unparalleled collection of brainpower, political influence, and wealth had earned the Council on Foreign Relations the reputation of being “the most influential private club on Earth.-Inferno by Dan Brown.

  • 14c: Italian literature was, by requirement, divided into 2 categories: tragedy, representing high literature , was written in formal Italian; comedy, representing low literature, was written in vernacular and geared toward the general population.-Inferno by Dan Brown.

  • 1320: Dante Alighieri's Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso is completed; describing Dante’s brutal descent into the underworld, journey through purgatory, and eventual arrival in paradise.- Inferno by Dan Brown.

    • Purgatory: Where your soul is purged of all sin.

    • Dante’s inferno: “Abandon all hope ye who enter here.”

    • Dante’s pit was constructed in 9 distinct levels, the 9 rings of hell, into which sinners were cast in accordance with the depth of their sin.-Inferno by Dan Brown.

    • The Seven Deadly Sins (saglia): Superbia (pride), Avarita (greed), Gula (glutton), Luxuria (lust), Ira (envy), Anvidia (wrath), Acedia (sloth).

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