What is that, Dad, I asked.

It's the tree, he said. A tree? I repeated. No, he said, it's THE tree. The tree of knowledge, the source of all wisdom and power. Once upon a time humans ate its fruit, and that's why we got smart. It's why we made all these clever machines, you see.

It doesn't look like much, I said after a minute.

Oh, well that's not the FIRST tree, he said. It was planted from a seed of that tree. The original tree is long gone, and this is its last descendant, which still has all of the original's power. It's still a young tree, no fruit yet, but it will bloom one day soon.

That sounds beautiful, I said.

He laughs. Indeed it does, son, he said. Indeed it does. Now, see, humanity's made a lot of progress since then, he said. If we had one piece of that fruit now, well - we could solve world hunger, make everyone immortal. Anything.

So why are we here? I asked. I mean, if there isn't any fruit yet.

Good question. Son, go fetch the chainsaw from the car, will you? We have work to do. Should only tak