The Story

In the future, an advanced version of humanity begins to clone historical figures from the distant past, and they introduce these clones into present-day society. These clones live like normal people, except for one major difference.

My idea for this story has two different versions. In this post, we'll explore the first.

Version 1:

After five hundred years of digital entertainment, with television shows becoming more and more wild, virtual reality becoming more and more real, and technologies taking up more and more of our time, the world has grown bored with traditional media.

But a new trend is emerging.

A group of entertainment moguls are turning TV into real life. They're injecting the drama of movies and television into the real world. Some of the most popular ideas involve cutting-edge science, and eventually they arrive at this idea: "What if we clone a bunch of famous historical figures and place them in different families all over the world?"

"What if we let the news, and culture, and social media follow these people in their daily lives? We'll let the people and the clones write the story. We'll let everything happen in real time."

These entertainment moguls then consult and group of leading scientists, and they create a list of 1000 historical figures whose DNA they have on file. They announce this idea to the public, and allow the entire population of Earth to upvote the top ten historical figures they want to introduce to modern times. Every ten years, they'll repeat the process, and allow the people of Earth to vote on ten more.

After the first vote, the moguls must find ten interesting families who will raise the clones as their own.

Let's say the ten famous clones are: Marilyn Monroe, Leonardo da Vinci, Adolf Hitler, Jesus, William Shakespeare, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan, Mary Magdalene, and Elon Musk (it's the future).

The story could then follow the lives of each of these clones.

Do these famous clones hang out? Have masterminds? Or do they get together for therapy sessions, sharing the woes and throes of being a famous clone in world full of real boys and girls?

(They call these therapy sessions a "Woe and Throe," or perhaps a "Bitch and Stitch")

Who do these clones become?

What if the clone of Adolf is a stand-up guy? He lives with the inherited guilt of what his clone-father did to the world, and his is a story of redemption? What if, growing up in a good home, he turns out to be a great artist, after all? What if his modern mother shelters him from the cruelty of the world? Do people give him a lot of shit, or do they realize this Hitler is not THAT Hitler? Can they give him another first-chance? Or do people, deep down, feel so strongly that what Hitler did is ingrained in his DNA that they can't see past it?

You know that moral question, "If you could go back in time and kill Hitler as a baby, would you?" Well, people tell that to Clone Hitler all the time. They also tell him their answer. So he has to wrestle with all these issues.

Or is the future so beyond the events of World War II that it doesn't matter? And why did they vote to clone Hitler, anyways? What does that say about this future society? They're looking to shake things up? Do they crave real-world drama? Or have they come so far emotionally, and spiritually, that deep down they're seeking to forgive Hitler, and through this clone want to give him the chance for redemption, give him a better childhood?

What are the clones' personal lives like?

What if the clones of Marilyn Monroe and Adolf Hitler got together and had a child? What if Marilyn Monroe also had a child with Leonardo? And what if Cleopatra had a child with Elon Musk? And Joan of Arc had a child with Genghis Khan? And Mary Magdalene actually had a child with Jesus?

Do the clones pursue the same interests as their clone-mothers and clone-fathers, or do they have completely different ideas of themselves? Does Jesus become an MMA figther, who also has knocks people out with emotional wisdoms? Does Marilyn Monroe become a leading psychoanalyst? Does Elon Musk hatch a plan to journey to the center of the Earth, and somehow survive the molten core? Instead of exploring outward into space (the galaxy is already under colonization), he decides to explore inward. It's Clone Elon's dream to be the first person to stand at the center of the Earth.

[Verbal Image: Clone Elon curled into a fetal ball at the center of the Earth]

Story Questions:

As the story follows these clones, you could explore how the lives of the originals affect the lives of the clones. What consequences do the clones have to live with and atone for? What preconceptions and biases does society have to overcome? What can everyone learn from this experience? Is there some sort of global catharsis, such as when the clone of Adolf Hitler wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his great works and leadership, where he shows the world how to break through biases, forgive the past, and come together as one people?

And how many different ways could you entertain the reader? What situations between famous historical figures would people really like to see? What do people write steamy fan fiction about? What controversial situations could you conjure?

What is it like to be born a celebrity? To be born Jesus, and everyone knows you are? Did the doctors bring a manger into the hospital room? Did some jackass sneak a donkey in? Or did they stage the whole thing outside? How you write all these little things will say a lot about the culture, and about the families these clones are born into.

Idea for the Sequel:

The idea of cloned historical figures, such as Marilyon Monroe and Elvis Presley, having children is an idea I'll explore in a future post, which could function as a sequel.

Notes:

What other technological and scientific advancements can you take into account? Have humans achieved biological immortality? Will these clones live for hundreds of years? Will people have all sorts of biological and mechanical enhancements? Or would the story be more effective keeping it simple, focusing on the clones?

If you wanted to include figures like the Buddha, or people whose remains have unknown whereabouts, you'll have to find a plausible explanation for how they found/confirmed their remains. For instance, if a treasure hunter found Genghis Khan's tomb, then the contents of that tomb must confirm, wihtout out a doubt, that these remains are those of Genghis Khan. Maybe they found such a tomb for the Buddha, and Jesus.

What are the other ideas the entertainment moguls come up with for making real life the stuff of TV drama? Life the stuff of movies and video games? How do they make money with these ideas? Do they make documentaries? Do they own all the rights to any videos, games or documentaries based on the lives of the clones, and all their real-world media ideas? Or are they simply bored billionaires who want some entertainment of their own?

This story would be a great idea for a novel, and a TV Show, or even reduced into a single episode of Black Mirror.

If you choose to write this story, feel free to change any and every detail. The examples provided in this post simply help me share the idea of the story with you, but when you take the idea and turn it into a book, movie or show, you make the story your own!

If you'd like to collaborate, let me know in the comments. I'd love to share all my ideas for how this story could expand, and I'm sure plenty of other readers and writers have even better ideas. If we combined all these ideas, from all these creative minds, just think how rich this story could be?

In the next post, we'll explore version 2.

Why I'm giving away all my ideas: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@caincallen/hey-steemians-inventor-and-ghostwriter-here-sharing-why-i-have-to-give-away-all-my-ideas