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Dr. Zeus Inc., also known simply as The Company, is a fictional entity in a series of time travel science fiction stories by Kage Baker. According to the stories, Dr. Zeus operates from the 24th century, using technologies of time travel and immortality to exploit the past for commercial gain. The immortality technology is limited to taking young children and turning them into cyborgs. The time travel technology only allows journeys into the past, and returns to the present. No artifacts or people can be brought forward from their own times. In addition, the technology is expensive and dangerous for normal humans to use. History, or at least recorded history, cannot be changed. Dr. Zeus cannot save Lincoln, warn the ''Titanic'', prevent the sack of Rome, or stop the burning of the Library at Alexandria. It can take valuable artifacts thought to be lost in these and other events, hide them and 'rediscover' them in the future. However, even without the dangers of time travel, Dr. Zeus' employees hate the past. By their time, all stimulants and narcotics are illegal, vegetarianism is compulsory, and they are disease- and dirt-phobic. They find the past's inhabitants disgusting. To carry out its mission, Dr. Zeus sends its employees far into human prehistory, where they take children from Neanderthal and modern human families and give them the immortality treatment. These individuals are then promised a bright future in the 24th century, in exchange for working for the Company till then. Their job is to preserve cultural artifacts, valuable plants, and endangered species, hiding them in safe places till the Company can 'recover' them in the future. The cyborgs will get to the 24th century the old-fashioned way, by living through the intervening millennia. Along the way they can create others to help them, using children who would otherwise die and not affect history. They are also provided with many recordings of future culture, entertainment, and a carefully edited view of history. Dr. Zeus alone knows everything that will happen up till the 24th century. As the series progresses, it becomes apparent that the Dr. Zeus story is itself a fiction. How they came by their technology, and how long the Company has really existed, is an unfolding mystery. Furthermore, not even Dr. Zeus knows what happens after July 9, 2355; although it is possible to send messages to the past, there is nothing from beyond that date. This is known as the Silence, and is a source of dread to both Company people and cyborgs. ==Origin of Dr. Zeus Inc.== The story of the Company's origin evolves through the sequence of novels and short stories. As told in the introductions to ''In The Garden of Iden'' and ''Sky Coyote'', the Company was founded in the 24th century by scientists and businessmen who developed both the immortality process and time travel. This theory is backed up by the mortal Bugleg who, in ''Sky Coyote'', claims to have developed "Pineal Tribrantine 3", an artificial hormone which keeps the cyborgs youthful. Towards the end of ''Mendoza in Hollywood'', Mendoza gleans enough from historical records to realize that the Company has, operating under various names, been active on Santa Catalina Island for some time in history. Exiled to that island in the distant past, she is instructed to await the arrival of technologically advanced humanoids and inform the Company when their technology reaches a certain level. At this point, she believes, Company operatives will arrive from the future, kill all the humanoids and hide their technology to be "discovered" later. Further clues appear in ''The Graveyard Game'' when Lewis, attempting to discover Mendoza's location after her disappearance, stumbles across a secret society in Victorian England called "The Gentlemen's Speculative Society". This is the most recent in a series of secret societies, apparently dating back to ancient Egypt, dedicated to discovering advanced technology and exploiting it for profit. The successor to the Society is a company known to be an early cover for Dr. Zeus Inc. The first incarnation of these societies, in Egypt, was started by none other than the Facilitator Joseph, Lewis's friend and partner in the search for Mendoza. At the beginning of ''The Life of the World to Come'' it is revealed that Sir Francis Drake discovered a cache of secret documents and mysterious potions and gadgets on Santa Catalina in the 16th century. He then gave the discovery to the alchemist John Dee, a member of one of the secret societies. In the final book, the artificial intelligence known as "Zeus" is created in the 24th century, in an attempt to counter the powerful AI owned by Alec Checkerfield. Since "Zeus" has access to all the Company's information and the time travel technology, it effectively existed before its creation. This fact is underscored by the delivery, minutes after the activation of the AI, of a communications terminal in the shape of the god Zeus, ordered a few years previously. At this point, it can be argued, the Zeus AI intervened in history to ensure its own creation in the 24th century, instructing its operatives to carry out those activities which produce the history already known to have happened. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dr. Zeus Inc.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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