I seldom read books, and when I finally start reading a book, I never get past page twenty. How can people have so much spare time that they read all these books? But sometimes I do get past page twenty, and when I read the book Shutter Island, I never put it away after I passed page fifty.

Shutter Island takes place on the island with the same name. Located on this island is a mental hospital named Ashecliffe Hospital, which is a treating centre for the criminally insane. The main character, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is sent to the island to investigate the disappearance of a patient, Rachel Solando. Since there is no way off the island, except for a ferry, she must still be on it. Teddy and his partner, Chuck Aule begins their investigations and it becomes clear that things are not what they seem to be. Soon the investigators have to leave their original mission and find out what is actually happening, otherwise, they might not leave the island alive. What is the real story about shutter Island? Who are Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule? And how is Teddy’s and Rachel’s lives linked to each others?

This is the reason why I never put the book away after I passed page fifty. There is no way to figure out what’s going to happen in the next chapter. When the last chapter is read you have to reread the entire book to find out what has really been going on. But somehow, I never found out.

What will the archaeologists find in the future? If we remove all unlikely scenarios, like alien invasion, rise of the machines (as in the terminator movies) there are, as I see it, not many things left to find in 3006. Or should I say, it’s highly unlikely that there will be archaeologists around at all.

Today the earth is filled with world destroying equipment. I’m not thinking of cars, not about factories or other objects emitting carbondioxid and other greenhouse gases. Even if we include poisonous substances emitted from factories in developing countries these objects are fairly harmless. Okay, some people will get sick and die but the majority of all human beings will live happily ever after. So, where is the real threat and what can be done to prevent it?

Warfare before World War II was fought with simple weapons, first with fists, clubs, shields, swords, bow and arrows. In a slow pace new inventions came, different types of firearms, tanks and grenades made the destruction of life easier and faster but still, quite ineffective. The turn came in the ending of World War II with the invention of the nuclear bomb. Today a handful of countries have these kinds of weapons. And the atomic bomb is not the only weapon that is capable of mass destruction. We also have to consider the threat from viruses. Both naturally existing viruses and artificially made. Hundred years from now, biological knowledge has risen to an even higher level than today and artificial viruses are probably made in every corner of the world.

So where does all of this leave us as human beings? As more and more countries and organisations get access to weapons of mass destruction something bad is bound to happen. Actually, it’s already happening. We remember the reports of anthrax spores shipped in letters after the attack in WTC. We are now at a point where we have enough knowledge to extinguish ourselves and I believe that’s what will happen. Maybe not though a large scale war, but as a local war, an experiment or terrorist attack that goes terrible wrong. Even experiments with good intensions could go wrong, as in the case regarding polio vaccination in Africa as the source for HIV. (http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/)

In maybe as little time as twenty years, a young biological student, a religious fundamentalist will construct a fast spreading deadly virus. Like it’s possible to write a computer virus today, maybe it will be as simple to construct biological viruses tomorrow. This student is bloody tired of the western countries that invades their countries for oil, desecrates their sacred monuments and disturbs their society. He wants to show the world that this is not acceptable, he wants to teach the west a lesson. He doesn’t want to wipe us all out, he just wants us to be really sick for a couple of weeks. But everyone familiar with programming knows about bugs, programming errors. It’s likely that this artificial virus will contain some error, it won’t do exactly what it was supposed to do. Instead of making people spend two weeks in bed, it kills them. And whoops, the humanity is wiped out. I mean, it COULD happen!

I don’t know how or when, but we will not last forever on this planet. We now have the knowledge to exterminate ourselves and we will improve that knowledge. Some day, a madman will push the wrong button, by intention or mistake but as long as we have the power, we will some day use it. The conclusion; there won’t be any archaeologists around in 3006. Even if mankind survives a world war including viruses, nuclear bombs, poisonous chemicals, the society as we know it will break down. There will be civil unrest, uprisings and it will be hard to get organized. To make things worse, the war will probably continue. Even if half of the world is dying from viruses, one quarter will fight for revenge and the remaining quarter will defend itself. No one will have time to look into the past in the year 3006. Digging in the past is something we have time to do now, before we open Pandora’s Box.