“We can know the reason, but we’ll never understand it. It’s a reason rooted deeply in philosophy. When their contemplation of existence reached its highest point, they concluded that nonexistence was the most rational choice.”
“I told you that philosophy scares me.”
“Fine. Let’s drop philosophy for the moment.” The ambassador took a few steps forward and turned to face the commission.
“The migrants have arrived. Thaw them all out!”
A last burst of powerful energy from the two hundred fusion reactors produced an NMR pulse to thaw out eighty million people. The next day, humanity emerged from the freezers and spread out onto continents that had been unpeopled for thousands of years. Tens of thousands gathered on the plain outside Freezer No. 1 as the ambassador stood facing them on a huge platform before the entrance. Few of them were listening, but they spread her words to the rest like ripples through water.
“Citizens, we had planned to travel one hundred and twenty years but have arrived here at last after eleven thousand. You have now seen everything. They’re gone, and we’re the only surviving humans. They left nothing behind, but they left everything behind. We’ve been searching for even a few words from them since awaking, but we’ve found nothing. There’s nothing at all. Did they really have nothing to say? No! They did, and they said it. The blue sky, the green earth, the mountains and forests, all of this re-creation of nature is what they wanted to say. Look at the green of the land: This is our mother. The source of our strength! The foundation of our existence and our eternal resting place! Humanity will still make mistakes in the future, and will still trek through the desert of misery and despair, but so long as we remain rooted in Mother Earth we won’t disappear like they did. No matter the difficulty, life and humanity will endure. Citizens, this is our world now, and we embark on a new round for humanity. We begin with nothing except all that humanity has to offer.”
The ambassador took out the quantum chip from the Lobby Age, and held that sum total of human knowledge up for everyone to see. Then, she froze as her eyes were drawn to a tiny black dot flying swiftly over the crowd. As it drew near, she saw the black hair she’d glimpsed countless times in her dreams, and the eyes that had turned to dust a hundred centuries ago. Hua had not remained eleven thousand years in the past, but had come after her in the end, crossing the ceaseless desert of time in her wake. When they embraced, sky, earth, and human became one.
“Long live the new life!” someone shouted.
“Long live the new life!” resounded the plain. A flock of birds flew overhead, singing joyously.
At the close of everything, everything began.
1 Verse translated by Witter Bynner (1881–1968).
2 A quotation from “Seeing Off Yuan Er on a Mission to Anxi” by Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei (699–759).
2018-04-01
It’s yet another day when I can’t make up my mind. I’ve been dragging my feet for a couple of months already, as though I were walking through a pool of thick, heavy sludge. I feel my life being used up dozens of times faster than before—where “before” is before the Gene Extension program was commercialized. And before I came up with my plan.
I gaze into the distance from a window on the top floor of an office building. The city spreads below me like an exposed silicon die, and me no more than an electron running along its dense nanometer-thick routes. In the scheme of things, that’s how small I am. The decisions I make are no big deal. If I could only make a decision… But as so many times before, I can’t decide. The waffling continues.
Hadron shows up late, again, bringing a gust of wind with him into the office. He has a bruise on his face. A bandage is stuck on his forehead, but he seems very self-possessed. He holds his head high, as though a medal were stuck there. His desk is opposite mine. He sits down, turns on his computer, then stares at me, clearly waiting for me to ask a question. However, I’m not interested.
“Did you see it on TV last night?” Hadron finally asks.
He’s talking about the “Fair Life” attack on a hospital downtown, also the biggest Gene Extension Center in the country. Two long, black burn scars mar the hospital’s snow-white exterior as though dirty hands had fondled the face of a jade-like beauty. Frightening. “Fair Life” is the largest and also most extreme of the many groups opposed to Gene Extension. Hadron is a member, but I didn’t see him on TV. The crowd outside the hospital had roiled like the tide.
“We just had an all-hands,” I say in response. “You know the company policy. Keep this up and you won’t have a way to feed yourself.”
Gene Extension is short for Gene Reforming Life-Extension Technology. By removing those gene segments that produce the aging clock, humanity’s typical life span can be extended to as long as three hundred years. This technology was first commercialized five years ago, and it quickly became a disaster that’s spread to every society and government in the world. Though it’s widely coveted, almost no one can afford it. Gene Extension for one person costs as much as a mansion, and the already widening gap between the rich and the poor suddenly feels even more insurmountable.
“I don’t care,” Hadron says. “I’m not going to live even a hundred years. What do I have to care about?”
Smoking is strictly prohibited in the office, but Hadron lights a cigarette now. Like he’s trying to show just how little he cares.
“Envy. Envy is hazardous to your health.” I wave away the smoke from my eyes. “The past also had lots of people who died too early because they couldn’t afford to pay the medical bills.”
“That’s not the same thing. Practically everyone can afford health care. Now, though, the ninety-nine percent look helplessly at the one percent who have all the money and will live to be three hundred. I’m not afraid to admit I’m envious. It’s envy that’s keeping society fair.” He leans in toward me from the table. “Are you so sure you’re not envious? Join us.”
Hadron’s gaze makes me shiver. For a moment, I wonder if he’s looking through me. Yes, I want to become who he envies. I want to become a Gene Extended person.
But the fact is, I don’t have much money. I’m in my thirties and still have an entry-level job. It’s in the finance department, though. Plenty of opportunities to embezzle funds. After years of planning, it’s all done. Now, I only have to click my mouse, and the five million I need for Gene Extension will go into my secret bank account. From there, it’ll be transferred to the Gene Extension Center’s account. I’ve installed layers upon layers of camouflage into the labyrinthian financial system. It’ll be at least half a year before they discover the money is missing. When they do, I’ll lose my job, I’ll be sentenced, I’ll lose everything I own, I’ll suffer the disapproving gazes of countless people…
But, by then, I’ll be someone who can live for three hundred years.
And yet I’m still hesitating.
I’ve researched the statutes carefully. The penalties for corruption are five million yuan and at most twenty years. After twenty years, I’ll still have over two hundred years of useful life ahead of me. The question now is, given that the math is so simple, can I really be the only one planning something like that? In fact, besides crimes that get the death penalty, once you’ve become one of Gene Extended, they’re all worth committing. So, how many people are there like me, who’ve planned it but are hesitating? This thought makes me want to act right now and, at the same time, makes me flinch.