Chapter 281: We’re G.o.ds!
The hexagon-shaped screen by the top of the podium illuminated the stage along with the stage lights. After a brief moment, they began to dim out again.
The only light source that remained was a bright spotlight at the dome which was pointed onto the empty stage.
Soon, people caught a glimpse of a man approaching the podium from the edges of the stage untouched by the spotlight.
The appearance of the man was accompanied by a solemn piano symphony that resounded across the hall.
The hall that was at first still filled with the chatter of the crowd immediately became silent. The audience stayed mindfully silent as they turned their curious attention to the podium on stage.
The screen by the top of the podium slowly brightened. At the same time, several drones fitted for videography descended from the top of the dome and hovered in the air. The live footage transmitted from the drones were projected onto the screen.
Meanwhile, the display screen above the podium showed the man stepping into the spotlight, into the audience’s view.
It was a Chinese man of indiscernible age.
The man combed his hair regularly and wore a regular black suit without any distinctive features. He looked rather young and relatively plain. The only thing about the man that left a strong impression was his eyes.
They were a pair of piercing eyes with a strange glow underneath them. Despite the man’s young appearance, his pair of distinctive eyes seemed to render his very age a mystery.
If not for this pair of eyes, it would be sensible to gauge the man at approximately twenty-years-old. However, upon meeting those eyes, one may think that he was in his thirties, perhaps even in his forties.
Those were eyes that penetrated everything. They were sharp and familiar with the way of the world.
“Darwin’s ‘Theory of Evolution’ tells us that we evolved from ancient forest apes.”
The man suddenly began his narration without giving any form of introduction or attempts at warming up the crowd.
“But what exactly is evolution?”
The man raised his hand and gestured with his thumb and index finger. “Modern science has taught us that evolution is the transformation of genes.
“Many believe that evolution is a state of transformation from the simple to the complex, an ‘evolution’ from a lower-level to a higher-level. These are all misconceptions, it’s true meaning – the genetics that’s suitable for its surroundings are preserved while the ones which are unfit are eliminated. There’s no such thing as level cla.s.sification in genetics.”
The speaker smiled. “In the Mainland, the Theory of Evolution was once also interpreted as the Theory of Progression. It was not a false claim at the time as the only distinctive difference between the two phrases is that the former discusses unordered evolution while the latter revolves around ordered evolution. In the modern mainstream scientific field, the former was more widely recognized.
“Just like how our ancestors have always lived in Africa but our relatives have left Africa two million years ago. Under different circ.u.mstances and environments, the acc.u.mulated mutation of genes caused prehistoric humans to embark on separate evolutionary paths.
“Our relatives who left Africa would go on to become Denisovans, Neanderthals, and such species. Their brains were bigger than us and they were physically stronger. They once ruled the world.
“It wasn’t until seventy-thousand years ago when our ancestors – the h.o.m.o sapiens finally stepped out of Africa. Around fifty-thousand years ago, the h.o.m.o sapiens began establishing contact with the Denisovans and Neanderthals.
“What happened after that?”
The man spread his arms open with a boastful att.i.tude. “We ate them. We killed all the pre-h.o.m.o sapiens and we can see from the fossil remains that the other pre-h.o.m.o sapiens were once our food as well.
“Not only that, in just thirty-thousand years, we drove seventy-percent of the Earth’s large species to extinction. Before humans, the timeline for a species extinction usually ranged around millions to tens of millions of years. We essentially sped this process up by a thousandfold!”
A change of expression could be seen in many members of the audience and many began whispering among themselves.
“The question I’d like to raise here is does this suggest that the extinct species don’t fit the theory of evolution?”
The man’s voice slowly grew louder. “Does this mean that the Denisovans that are smarter and stronger don’t have genetics as adapted to the environment as we do?
“No, that’s not it!”
The man raised the corner of his lips in a wry smile. “They only failed to adapt to us.”
When he said this, the audience below burst into bouts of murmurs again.
The man disregarded his audience’s reaction as he went on. “Some of you may feel that my use of Theory of Evolution is counterproductive against the nature of science as it’s a theory that’s not clearly defined and may be debunked. In that case, rest easy, as the validity of the Theory of Evolution has nothing to do with my subject today, because today I’m proposing a new theory...
“Does everyone remember the first sign of the development of human civilization?”
When the man raised the question, countless people began to shout their answers, “Fire!”
“Correct, it’s fire.”
The man suddenly reached into his pocket where he took out a box of matches and drew one out of it. As he brushed it against the box, the match produced gentle flames...
After that, the man used another hand to pinch out the flame with the tip of his fingers. The kindle of flame was instantly put out.
The huge screen above the man’s head provided a close-up of his actions for the audience. The tossed the match away before raising his head and said indifferently:
“Lawrence of Arabia enjoyed pinching out the flame on a match with his fingers. When his colleague William Porter asked him what sort of trick he used to put out the fire without hurting himself, Lawrence answered with a smile: The trick... Is to pay no mind to the pain.”
The audience below chuckled.
The man continued. “Fire is the sign of humans advancing toward civilization and was what differentiated humans from other species, cementing their spot on Earth. After that, we invented the wheel in 4,000 B.C.; in 800 B.C., we founded the sundial; ninth century, gunpowder; nineteenth century, steam engines, railroads, electricity and light, the theory of relativity; twentieth century, automobiles, televisions, nuclear missiles, internet, quantum mechanics; twenty-first century, biotechnology, nanotechnology, nuclear fusion, and M theory!”
The man unloaded these words like a barrage of bullets as he paced across the podium. “The genetics of us humans have remained almost completely unchanged over the last thirty-thousand years, but we’ve turned the world upside-down. How did we do it? Was it those supposed G.o.ds?”
Upon hearing this statement, some of the religious members of the audience had a change of expression.
“That might be plausible.”
The man answered his question the very next second, switching his tone, “How was the Neanderthal driven to extinction? In the North American Sci-fi show Westworld, Professor Ford had said to the robot Bernard that the ‘Neanderthals were eaten by us.’. The author of Sapiens, Harari, believed that ‘imagination’ was the primary force behind our ancestors’ survival...
“Over the last several ten-thousand years, the h.o.m.o sapiens from Africa continuously evolved and slowly became more ‘imaginative’. This development allowed our ancestors to best the harshest environments as well as further driving ethnic cohesion and cultural transmission. They created ‘fictional beliefs’ for them to mount their spirits on such as ‘G.o.d’, ‘witches’, ‘totems’, and such.
“This is to say that religion has its place after all.”
The man gestured with his hands before hammering the point again. “But at the end of the day, we still have to rely on science, on technology! Science allows us to make sense of this world while technology allows us to change the world!
“Technology even allows us to progress...”
A brief pause. The man continued again. “No, in terms of science, it’s no longer progression, it has become true ‘evolution’. Since we have control over the trajectory of our progression, we can perfect our evolution! To reinstate my point, we want to attain extended lifespan. This is the true value of evolution!
“As you all may know, our Blacklight company has developed the ‘Age-reversal Treatment’ project which utilizes stem cells to ease the aging process. We’ve also developed three targeted drugs for cancer. In essence, this is a form of evolution, an evolution driven by technology. And this press conference is our attempt at another path of human evolution...
“This is my newly-formed theory – Technology-driven Evolution Theory, that we humans can pave our own evolutionary paths which surpa.s.s the laws of nature by our own device because...”
The man paused briefly as he inspected the audience below before announcing glowingly:
“We’re G.o.ds!”