Dr. Stone: Here Is Who Petrified the World

Dr. Stone is one of the most engaging anime series today because it allows us to understand more about how science works. The premise is based on how all of the humans throughout the world were turned into stone and how Senku, a young scientific genius, was one of the first people to wake up in a world that had already been reclaimed by nature thousands of years after the event that changed humankind’s history. But who petrified the world in Dr. Stone?

The ones responsible for petrifying the world are the Petrification Weapons called the Medusas, which are sentient technological devices meant to further humans’ lifespans by allowing them to live nearly everlasting lives. They are also said to be parasites that seek out hosts that they can petrify.

There are a lot of mysteries in the events of Dr. Stone, and the cause of the huge petrification event was one of them. Of course, the anime is still far from answering the mystery behind the petrification event, but the manga has already answered this. It has already allowed fans to move on from what used to be the biggest mystery in the storyline. Now, let’s look at who petrified the world in Dr. Stone.

How Was the World Petrified?

The storyline of Dr. Stone is based on the fact that some event had petrified the entire human population of the world. However, Senku, the main character, was revived from his petrification nearly 4,000 years after the entire petrification event. As such, he now has to work together with the other revived humans to use science to find a way to get the world back to its technological capabilities before the world was turned to stone. And because Senku is an all-around scientific genius, he was the best person to lead the newly established Kingdom of Science.

Of course, while the Kingdom of Science could advance far enough to help the world become more efficient due to his scientific inventions, there were still mysteries that Senku and his companions needed to try to solve. The biggest mystery was the phenomenon that turned the human population to stone.

At one point in the manga, Senku and his friends discovered that the petrification beam that turned the human population to stone was the cause of a Petrification Device that they called Medusa, which is a nod to the Greek mythology gorgon that could petrify people by looking at them. They also discovered that the Petrification Device was voice-activated and was the work of what they thought was an enemy of mankind.

Senku and his friends learned of the existence of this mysterious enemy when they intercepted a Morse code signal that constantly repeated the same word, which is “why.” As such, they dubbed this mysterious enemy “Why-Man.” Senku and his companions also learned that Why-Man would use Medusa again to petrify humanity. And because Senku and the others had already worked hard enough to advance science quickly, it was important for them to stop this mysterious being once and for all.

The challenge, however, was that the signal came from the moon. That means that Senku and the others needed to work together to find a way to repeat the greatest accomplishment of humankind, which is putting a human on the moon. And they decided to build a machine that could carry them to the moon, just as how human technology was once able to take people outside of the planet and onto the moon. 

But the challenge was that they had very limited resources and technology to work with. Senku, however, forged an alliance with Dr. Xeno, the only person who could match his intelligence. As such, through this alliance, they could travel the world and build different cities that allowed them to produce the materials they needed to invent a ship that could take them to the moon. And their trip to the moon allowed Senku and his companions to discover the very source of the petrification event that happened 3,700 years ago.

Who Petrified the World?

When Senku and the others arrived on the moon, they went to a black spot their satellites had discovered before the moon mission. This spot was actually made up of a huge mass of Medusa devices. That means that the ones responsible for turning humankind to stone were the Medusa devices all along. This also means that the very same Medusa devices that were found on Earth were those that fell from the moon many years ago.

Why-Man was none other than the Medusa devices that worked together as a sort of hive mind. Senku described them as sentient machine lifeforms, whereas Dr. Xeno called them mechanical parasites. Whatever the case may have been, it was clear that the Medusa devices were capable of independent thought and had a specific purpose for their existence.

The purpose of the Medusa is for someone to perform maintenance on them by replacing the diamond batteries that power them because they weren’t capable of doing this themselves. In exchange, they offer sentient lifeforms a chance at eternal life by preserving them from aging through the process of petrification. As revealed in the storyline of Dr. Stone, a petrified human being would be able to heal fatal wounds and be spared from aging.

In that regard, when someone gets petrified, they are essentially immortal as they won’t end up aging while petrified. On top of that, a person revived from petrification would have all their wounds healed. As such, the Medusas gave humankind eternal life through the petrification process. And the catch was that humans needed to conduct maintenance on them.

Senku hypothesized that the Medusa devices wanted to offer eternal life to intelligent lifeforms to help them progress into the future. And this hypothesis was confirmed by the Petrification Devices on the spot when Senku came up with it.

Senku requested to have a moment alone with the Medusas. He convinced them to move on from humanity and leave the solar system so that they could find other hosts that they could parasitize. However, one of them remained so that humanity could study it and use it to advance human civilization. According to Senku’s observations, this solitary Medusa that decided to stay behind was curious and interested in the concept of discovery, unlike the other Medusa devices that lacked curiosity.

So, with all that said, the ones responsible for turning humanity to stone were not actual enemies but were simply sentient lifeforms that thought that they were helping humankind by turning everyone to stone. This is a common theme in the Dr. Stone storyline, as there were no true enemies that Senku and the others encountered. Instead, they were able to make allies and friends out of all of the enemies they encountered, as this seems to be the “advancement” that humanity achieved. In comparison, humans 3,700 years ago were divided. They were waging war among themselves instead of seeking to understand one another and work together, just like Senku and the other groups of survivors did.