Chapter 256: Humanity Society in 30 Years

Crisis Era Year 233.

The Bunker Project began construction, and Humanity's Sophon and The Waterdrop Project were also about to be launched. Humanity's technology had been suppressed by the Trisolarans for more than 200 years, yet it had also accumulated for over 200 years. Henceforth, Humanity's technology would soar to new heights beneath the Bunker, never again to be restricted.

This would drive a significant number of technological revolutions, and Humanity's destiny was truly rewritten. It was just that all of this was still unknown to Humanity, hidden beneath the Bunker.

Thirty years had passed since the Doomsday Battle, and human society had undergone comprehensive transformations in science and technology, culture, and social systems.

The first aspect was the change in the Solar System's situation.

The Stellar Defense System had played little role in the war, leading Humanity to realize that this defense system was effective only when there was not a great disparity between civilizations' levels.

When the real Trisolaran Interstellar Fleet arrived, the defense might be useless. A typical example was when The Waterdrop attacked Earth; the planetary defense system had virtually no effect.

Earth had merely been affected by the war, dealing the greatest blow to Humanity. Moreover, the Solar System's Stellar Defense was substantially ineffective against other Waterdrops.

Humanity had spent a fortune to create a pile of useless scrap metal; the strategy for this century was almost entirely wrong.

In fact, the Stellar Defense System was not designed solely to combat the Trisolarans; it was a product of Humanity's full colonization of the Solar System.

After Humanity fully entered space, various powers established many space bases. To coordinate all these scattered bases for unified deployment, the Stellar Defense System was established, driven by both the Earth Camp and the Moon Camp.

After the war, the Stellar Defense System also underwent a series of reforms, most importantly, structural streamlining. Those redundant, bloated bases were all converted for civilian use.

Only the most powerful parts were retained as military forces, and the Stellar Defense System underwent comprehensive reform.

Since defense was ineffective, resources were funneled into offensive capabilities and mobility. On the surface, Humanity's military might seemed to have shrunk by 90%, but in reality, this made military command more streamlined and, in fact, increased combat power.

If we speculate with the most sinister intentions, this was actually an act of centralizing power. When people needed support for exploration and pioneering, they were supported, allowing them to fully colonize the Solar System.

Once the borders of Humanity were established, it was time to reclaim it all.

It was similar to Emperor Zhou granting fiefs throughout the realm, allowing all the lords to pioneer the wild frontiers. As the pioneering neared completion, Emperor Zhou would then absorb the separate principalities, only history might not reunite under Emperor Zhou again.

The Stellar Defense System might not have been effective against the Trisolarans, and perhaps Ye Chen and the others knew this from the beginning. But it was an inevitable path for the development of human society in the Solar System.

The Trisolarans might also have considered the Stellar Defense System utterly insignificant, even ignoring it outright during their battles with Humanity. Perhaps this also served to lull the Trisolarans into complacency on a grand scale.

There might be good people among Humanity, but clearly, Ye Chen and the others were not.

The second aspect, the issue of ideological trends.

The most significant manifestations of the ideological trend were the rise of feminism and moral deviation.

Feminism, as its name suggests, arose as material abundance massively increased, elevating the status of women and their role in society. This led to the worship of feminism, with the subconscious belief that women are the very representation of truth, goodness, and beauty, and are the standard-bearers of civilization and morality. Feminism is also the inevitable outcome of Humanity's pursuit of a morally harmonious society.

In its early stages, feminism did not have a significant impact on human society and was even beneficial, as it was a slow-developing process. The current human society is only showing this trend, and if society were to face a major crisis, it would be able to adjust quickly.

Feminism has no relationship with the rising status of women in families. This rise in status within the family is largely a reflection of men's love for their wives, but men still primarily shoulder the family responsibilities.

However, when feminism is combined with the consciousness of moral deviation, the problem becomes more serious.

The fundamental cause of moral deviation is the shock to human consciousness by the Dark Forest theory, which holds that in conditions of material scarcity, human nature takes on another extreme state.

This suggests to everyone that the universe is extreme, and that must be the true rational state. Therefore, we as Humans should return to the most fundamental state of human nature, which is in line with the universe's state of existence.

These individuals call themselves rational people. They advocate radical concepts, ignoring or denying the constraints of social responsibility and moral duty, with the Dark Forest theory apparently legitimizing their views.

They naturally stand in stark opposition to the advocates of feminism. Despite legal restrictions, their debates rage from the internet to reality, from words to physical conflicts, ever-present.

The third aspect is the problems brought about by technological development.

Humanity, 160 years after the Crisis, saw many aspects of scientific and technological development become slow and ponderous, but in these thirty years, humanity had experienced another burst of technological leaping forward.

In the doomsday war, humanity defeated Trisolaris, even though it was only a few splashes from the rising Trisolaran world, but it lifted the shadow that the Trisolarans had cast overhead for 200 years.

The key was once again the broadening of humanity's horizons, which sometimes decides the level at which technology can develop.

Scientific and technological advances are the greatest drivers of social transformation. For instance, in the field of biology, breakthroughs in genetic editing and cell regeneration gave humanity hopes of achieving immortality.

Some scientists predict that within the next hundred years, humanity might master the technology for eternal life. Since the cost of hibernation has greatly reduced, it is possible for present-day humans to live to see that era.

This, in turn, leads to many new problems, such as if the majority wish to hibernate until that era, then there would be a significant labor shortage. Inevitably, new issues will arise when different eras coexist.

Humanity's governance summoned many sociologists to study this problem, hoping to impose some restrictions through legislation, only to find that it was an almost intractable issue.

Increasing the price of the medication was even less feasible, as projections based on social history suggested that this would not only fail to mitigate conflicts but could intensify them.

A greater trouble emerged in year 213 of the Crisis when a company called CS Company announced the successful development of a drug that delays aging.

This drug, taken once a month, could continually delay the aging process. The principle of the drug was to regularly clear cell-debilitating substances like free radicals and simultaneously maintain the activity of the telomerase enzyme for longer periods.

According to the company's claims, this drug could extend a person's lifespan by fivefold. If someone started taking the drug at the age of 22, and their natural lifespan would have been 150 years, in the end, they could live to be 500 years old.

Upon the release of this news, various research institutions studied and analyzed the drug, confirming its advertised effectiveness without any impact on human intelligence. This elation swept through humanity, yet they also dared not try the drug recklessly or promote it widely.

Humanity's governance was also aware of the impact this drug would have, and they also knew that such technology could not be easily sealed or locked away.

The only option was to impose usage restrictions under the guise of safety, buying time for the governing bodies to ease into the change. Yet, this could not prevent waves of volunteers from desiring to try it.

The most fundamental aspect of a stable human society is the equality of life for everyone. If this equality were to be disrupted, it's unclear what problems may arise.

Now, 20 years have passed, and waves of volunteers, after being tested by various scientific instruments, were found to have only aged a few years physically, with no side effects to their health. This made the temptation of eternal life increasingly unbearable.

Perhaps before the doomsday war, the temptation of eternal life wasn't so strong. But after the war, humanity temporarily overcame the crisis of survival and developed an irresistible need for immortality.

If all of humanity were to achieve eternal life, its consequential impact would be hard to estimate.

The Long-Livers wouldn't bring prosperity, but they might actually bring disaster to society:

Firstly, their mindset would differ from natural humans; with such a long life ahead and no survival pressures, why strive for anything today?

Eternal life could easily lead to nihilism. The current absence of pervasive nihilism among humanity is due to busy lives and survival crises leaving no time for such thoughts.

Secondly, eternal life would lead to the solidification of social structures, slowing and weighing down societal progress and cooling human relationships.

Nihilism is the greatest enemy of civilization's development. When a civilization becomes nihilistic and structurally rigid, it might have reached the limits of its potential, perhaps beyond the power of humankind to change.

Even in science, development would become exceedingly slow, with urgency and a sense of crisis diminishing.

There's a misconception: eternal life would give people more time to learn and delve into their fields of study, thereby hastening scientific progress.

While the depth of a researcher's knowledge is essential, it doesn't directly relate to technological advancement. Scientific progress is not about the accumulation of knowledge, but its renewal. In this regard, eternal life is unfavorable for technological development.

Often, technological advancement is an inevitability of societal growth. For example, with relativity, if Einstein hadn't published it, someone else would have within a few years. Einstein's talent is undeniable, but his obstinance regarding quantum mechanics also caused him to miss out on many quantum theory discoveries.

Now, CS Company has once again announced their significant breakthrough: an updated Elixir of Life that can slow aging by 10 to 20 times, potentially extending human lifespans to 1000 to 2000 years.

The Trisolarans, perhaps foreseeing these issues that humanity was bound to face, might have imparted the technology for eternal life.

The era of human immortality has arrived sooner than anyone thought, but is humanity truly ready?