97: Chapter 97: Selfish Genes and the Setting of Human Aging

"Exactly." Jiang Zhe spoke slowly: "To understand where consciousness comes from, one must first understand where the fleshly vessel that carries consciousness comes from."

"Only by clarifying the mechanism behind the origin of the body can we find a starting point for the problem of consciousness or the soul."

At this moment, in the University of History faculty housing in the capital—

Professor Liu Guangyi, Professor Chen Runzhi, Professor Wang Shouren, and Qian Mingyi were gathered in the living room, their gazes fixed on the projection screen.

Inside Qingfeng Temple, Zheng Ming and Celestial Master Zhang had been waiting for a long time. There was also a doctor named Zhou Ming, who was wearing a Zhongshan suit—he was in his early fifties and had previously been invited by Zheng Ming to drink tea at a teahouse.

Zheng Ming felt that Jiang Zhe's topic tonight involved the body, so it was naturally impossible to avoid medicine and biology. Coincidentally, Zhou Ming was an expert in this field.

The questions in Jiang Zhe's words basically could not escape Zhou Ming's discerning eye.

As for Xu Mu, because there was a conflict with his daughter-in-law at home, he went to mediate and did not come.

Inside a laboratory at Huaqing University, Professor Guan Jingming and Li Mo, along with a group of graduate students, were also sitting in front of the screen. Although this was not related to their major, they were watching silently.

On the other side, in the library teacher's office in Yangcheng, biology teacher Chen Min, physics teacher Gao Yuliang, and several students led by Zhang Yu—Jiang Zhe's fan students—were gathered together, staring at the big screen in unison.

On the screen, in the living room.

Jiang Zhe had not prepared a lesson plan and was improvising: "To understand where the body comes from, Xiao Yu, you answer an elementary question for your big brother first: Why do humans age?"

Steel Rain began to ponder. Due to her increased intelligence, her dog brain was becoming clearer and clearer.

As soon as her big brother's question entered her mind, the textbook knowledge from biology and geography teacher Zhang Cuihua and the information she had looked up in the library instantly merged in Steel Rain's mind.

"Big brother, don't underestimate me!"

Steel Rain smiled confidently, "This time, you won't stump me."

"Starting from biology, aging is a multi-faceted process of functional decline."

"At the basic cellular level, there are currently several mainstream theories: telomere shortening and cell division."

"The length of telomeres is related to the lifespan of humans themselves; the Hayflick limit for cell division is 50 times."

"Every time a cell in the human body divides, our telomeres shorten a little bit; it's like a life clock."

"Whenever telomeres reach a critical point, the cell stops dividing; it begins to head toward aging, until death."

Watching her big brother's slightly surprised expression, Steel Rain's desire to perform surged.

"Second is free radical damage; when our mitochondria produce energy, they leak free radicals—these active free radicals oxidize the proteins, fats, and DNA in our bodies, and as they accumulate, they destroy the functions of our cells—ultimately accelerating our cell division speed."

"For example, a person who could have lived for 100 years, under the destruction of these free radicals, has their death accelerated."

"People age faster and faster because more and more free radicals are produced, which is why there are so many anti-aging products appearing now!"

"There are too many theories like this; at present, no one can be certain."

Following a series of summaries, Steel Rain nodded slightly. It was the first time she had seen her big brother look surprised. I, Steel Rain, soaked in the library all day today and looked up a huge amount of data.

[???] barrages kept appearing in the live broadcast room.

"Currently, traditional biology believes that aging is not caused by a single factor; rather, it is the interaction and mutual damage between human internal and external factors."

"There is even: The Selfish Gene!"

"The Selfish Gene—it means that human genes are very selfish. They only want the host, which is us humans, to reproduce quickly, pass on the genes, and then our role-playing game ends, GG."

"Because these selfish genes want to pass their genetic information to the next generation quickly after adulthood—they can only incite men and women to be in heat after adulthood—once we satisfy these selfish genes—once we have children, the person who gets married will age rapidly, gain weight, and have their lifespan reduced!"

"Because our genes no longer need us, the host; it has already manipulated the host into passing its genes to the next generation; as a host of the selfish gene, it doesn't matter anymore, and we can die at any time."

"It's like the genes used us up and then heartlessly threw us away."

The more she spoke, the more excited she became. She finally understood people as smart as her big brother.

It turned out that when knowledge spills out, there is a sense of accomplishment!

"Xiao Yu..."

"Don't, big brother, I haven't finished yet!"

Seeing Jiang Zhe about to speak, Steel Rain hurriedly raised her hand to stop him.

Jiang Zhe watched Steel Rain's performance with a look that was both scrutinizing and amused.

"So this is why single people live longer than married people; even if single people eat and drink indiscriminately, because they always have a thought: [I haven't gotten married yet, my genetic information hasn't been passed on]—in this way, the selfish gene has never completed the task of manipulating the host to perform [gene transmission], which causes the speed of cell division to 50 times in the single population to be very slow, far slower than that of married people!"

"Thus, these originally very selfish genes will help the single host extend their life, allowing the host to live longer—so as to pass the genes to the next generation."

"As a result, in the end, single people never get married from start to finish, never have children—never complete the task of gene transmission, and finally, the selfish gene discovers it has been tricked. In the end, let's all die together!"

As Steel Rain's impassioned speech came to an end, the friends in the live broadcast room opened their mouths wide, as if meeting Steel Rain for the first time.

"Huh? Something's wrong, Xiao Yu, have you been possessed?"

"You little dummy, how did you become so professional all of a sudden?"

"Impressive, isn't this improvement too great?"

"Summarized even more professionally than my biology teacher, worthy of being a kid who takes extra lessons every day!"

Xiao Yu's performance truly made Professor Liu Guangyi, Professor Chen Runzhi, Professor Wang Shouren, and Qian Mingyi look at her with admiration.

They were full of smiles and nodded in approval, "It's all because her brother taught her well!"

Inside Qingfeng Temple, Zheng Ming looked at Zhou Ming with curiosity. Zhou Ming smiled with satisfaction, "Everything she said is correct. It looks like she knew her brother would talk about this tonight and checked the information in advance, it's just a bit anthropomorphized."

"Genes are indeed dominating a person's joys and sorrows—your animal desires are those selfish genes accelerating you to complete this animal desire as soon as possible: for example, rape, most of it is genes driving you to complete this task."

"When you have no goal to resolve your physiological needs, the genes will drive you to complete the act of [rape]!"

After speaking, Zheng Ming nodded, "I see."

In the living room.

Jiang Zhe listened calmly. First, he showed an approving expression, and then nodded in agreement.

"It seems Xiao Yu guessed what big brother would talk about tonight and checked the information in advance."

"Hehe!" Steel Rain grinned.

"What you said is indeed correct; these are all facts and mechanisms that occur on the body and can be observed and verified."

He did not start from Xiao Yu's answer but asked a question with a serious face:

"Xiao Yu, is there a possibility..."

"If aging was artificially set from the very beginning?"