Chapter 262: Immortality

Crisis Year 234, humanity officially made the Elixir of Life available to the public.

On one hand, it was the hope of all humanity; people protested against government control over the Elixir of Life nearly every day at various governing institutions, viewing it as some kind of conspiracy by the human elite.

On the other hand, the human elite also believed that the time had come to publicly release the Elixir of Life, and they had prepared for this moment for a long time.

People had been discussing the topic of eternal life for nearly 20 years, but when the day finally arrived, everyone still felt at a loss. They longed for eternal life yet also feared it, unable to foresee how it would reshape the social order of humanity.

Initially, the general public's concern was the cost of the Elixir of Life. However, unexpectedly, the price of the drug was not high.

In the pharmaceutical field, production costs are typically low, and imitation relatively easy, the real cost is predominantly in research and development. For the Elixir of Life, the pricing power was actually entirely in the hands of the human authorities.

To ensure social stability and prevent the monopolization of the drug by wealth oligarchs, the government set the price of the Elixir of Life relatively low, only slightly higher than that of a cancer cure. It's worth mentioning that in this era, cancer treatment had become comparatively simple, as easy as treating a cold in the early 21st century.

As soon as the CS Company released the Elixir of Life, the human authorities quickly took control of the company. After a thorough understanding of the development process, the government deduced that this technology was most likely provided by the Trisolarans, and also that it was impossible to block; essentially, any large biopharmaceutical company had the capability to produce it.

The human authorities also understood that it was better to guide than to block; rather than blindly suppress and control, it was wiser to lead the trends and let humanity enter the era of longevity. Eternal life was an inevitable trend for humanity, and it was only a matter of time before human evolution would genuinely allow the emergence of the Long-Livers.

Despite its affordable price, the authorities strictly kept records and managed those who took the Elixir of Life. The drug was not allowed to be bought and sold privately; everyone had to register with their personal information at designated institutions and take the drug on site.

Such management measures aimed to keep real-time tabs on societal changes, enabling the government to deal more effectively with various potential crises.

The Elixir of Life had been tested for nearly 30 years; humanity naturally would not question its safety, and if there had been even the slightest doubt, the human authorities would not have dared to promote it to the entire population. When the drug was publicly released, almost everyone registered and took the Elixir of Life.

But as time passed, certain phenomena gradually emerged in society.

After obtaining eternal life, it seemed as if the human population became a race of Long-Livers overnight, their mindset already different from that of original humans.

One of the first signs was a wave of divorces in human society; people preferred to live alone. Even the concept of marriage became merely a sexual partnership for them.

They grew increasingly distant from family and children, their attitude towards love grew colder, and they even rejected the idea of procreation. Many sociologists had believed that such phenomena would take decades to manifest, but unexpectedly, it had become evident within less than a year.

Human tests of the Elixir of Life had included its psychological impact. Such phenomena were not evident in the test groups, but once the entire society used the Elixir of Life, the changes occurred in a very short time, as if a sudden population mutation had taken place.

We usually think of population mutations as slow processes, usually starting with individual mutations, followed by environmental changes, and such mutations, through natural selection, are then preserved, ultimately leading to population evolution.

In reality, this view is rather one-sided, failing to fully understand the complex relationship between individual mutations and group evolution. Take the giraffe as an example; its evolution did not happen overnight, but involved a complex interplay of many factors.

Its long neck requires a very strong heart to pump blood to the brain while maintaining body structure; a major part of its body structure would need to change, the conditions are too numerous and too demanding, and cannot be achieved by a single mutation alone. Lastly, it should be noted that the giraffe's long neck evolved not just for foraging leaves at great heights, but more for necking during fights to compete for mates.

The emergence of human Long-Livers can actually be seen as a group mutation phenomenon, which fundamentally differs from individual mutations. Such fundamental changes could trigger a profound shift in the entire human society's mindset in an extremely short time.

In this new context, our previously held morals, ethics, and values may rapidly become obsolete, necessitating that humanity rethinks and reconstructs a conceptual system that is compatible with the age of longevity.

Take the family, for example, which originated mainly due to the development of productive forces and the evolution of social structures, but also reflects the emotional bonds of kinship in humans. To a large extent, offspring are the physical embodiment of humans' genetic desires for the continuation of lineages and emotional attachments.

However, in the age of longevity, human emotions towards kinship continuation might gradually diminish.

In this new era, people might focus more on their survival and pleasure, placing themselves at the center of their lives.

They might live more cautiously, always vigilant against any accidents that may threaten their lives.

At the same time, with what seems like an endless expanse of time, they might develop an aversion to striving—since time is no longer an issue, why should they keep themselves busy and under pressure? Simply maintaining a livelihood might suffice to meet their needs.

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As the impacts of a polarized feminist society and a virtualized society revolution took hold, such self-centered and pleasure-prioritizing attitudes were further encouraged and spread rapidly throughout society.

This naturally led to many social issues: People increasingly preferred to live off the work of others, plundering their labor results, but they lacked the drive to change their own circumstances. Consequently, social development slowed down, and unrest and conflicts became more frequent everywhere.

Of course, many people found it difficult to accept the new societal model led by the Long-Livers.

After taking the elixir for a while, they became aware of the profound change in human society. However, their deep attachment to family and kinship placed them in a dilemma.

They still insisted on working hard, but over time, the existence of such people actually reduced the living space for other Long-Livers. In such a societal context, hard work became a burden, and love and kinship became things rejected by society.

Many who clung to kinship and love, and those who worked hard to become wealthy, were persecuted by the Long-Livers. This further spurred the desire of many people to restore the old social order, thus they preferred to call themselves "Natural Humans."

These two starkly different views led to intense conflicts, an opposition that had nearly risen to the level of ideological difference, and society seemed to be sitting on a volcano that was on the verge of eruption. This unprecedented social change had impacts that reached across the entire Solar System.

...

Crisis Era Year 240.

As the conflict between Long-Livers and Natural Humans intensified, human society at large believed that a separation was necessary, as their differences seemed irreconcilable. This also reflected the collective will of humanity.

After several rounds of solar-wide referenda and the official approval by the legislature, the Elixir Law was finally enacted. This law provided the legal basis for the separation of Long-Livers and Natural Humans.

The Solar System's two largest factions, the Original Earth Faction and the Original Moon Faction, also announced their policy directions. The Original Moon Faction refused to accept Long-Livers, deciding to establish a nation exclusively for Natural Humans; whereas the Original Earth Faction chose not to accept Natural Humans, thus creating a nation for Long-Livers.

Thus, the Solar System was divided into two great nations: the Elixir Nation and the Natural Human Nation.

The Natural Human Nation took the territories within the asteroid orbit in the Solar System, while all the other vast territories of the Solar System were allocated to the Elixir Nation. This division separated the two groups not only geographically but also politically, socially, and culturally.

The Elixir Law also stipulated that Long-Livers could not form families, nor were they to engage in natural procreation. If they did want to reproduce naturally, it would require extremely complicated approval processes and procedures.

The refusal to form families was also a demand of the Long-Livers, who eschewed family life and sought to banish anyone who could not give up family ties to the Natural Human Nation. The more people who left, the more social resources remained, and the less they needed to work.

Although Long-Livers lived far longer than average people, their lifespans were not infinite. After their passing, the Human Gene Center was responsible for pairing their genes and cultivating their offspring. This regulation aimed to ensure the continuation of Long-Liver genes while adhering to the restrictions of the Elixir Law.

In some ways, the Natural Humans were a group that the Long-Livers had internally banished because they were incompatible with their ideology.

And Natural Humans believed that Long-Livers had forsaken something precious to humanity, and that they would inevitably pay a price for their actions. Long-Livers physiologically obtained a lifespan ten times that of normal humans, but that did not necessarily mean they would live to that extent.

If not for the fact that humanity as a whole still faced the Trisolaran Crisis, the war between Long-Livers and Natural Humans might have already erupted.

PS: The viewpoints of this chapter are sure to be unacceptable to many; for example, that Long-Livers would abandon familial ties and even eschew procreation.

Let us first analyze why people in the past liked to procreate. The desire for children to provide support in old age and the bond of kinship are certainly some reasons. But I believe there is also a key point—survival competition. They needed to compete for land, water, and all living space.

Back then, humanity procreated as much as possible on the basis of being able to provide for their offspring, as only in this way could they secure living space. If one family had three brothers, then no one nearby would dare to bully them. Conversely, what if dividing the land among three brothers was not enough for them to live on? The answer is cruel—theft of others' lands, "eating" up the houseless (people without children). What if they failed to rob or to feed? Only one of the brothers could start a family, while the other two became landless wanderers or homelesss peasants. In extreme cases, three brothers might even share one wife.

The whole society showed a similar pattern, with everyone hoping to have more offspring, thus securing more living space for the future, provided they could support them.

In modern times, with greatly improved material conditions, people no longer needed to compete through procreation for future living spaces. Desire for procreation was just genetic selection and kinship ties, which naturally led to a significant decrease in their desire for offspring.

In the era of longevity, coupled with the polarization of women's rights, their kinship bonds were even weaker. Abandoning marriage and family life, I believe, is a very possible occurrence. Should this become a widespread societal phenomenon, those who are unwilling to follow suit would become heretics.

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