Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 117 - 118 Aging Crisis

Chapter 117 -118 Aging Crisis

There are many factors contributing to the growth rate of the population, the first reason being the increase in lifespan.

In regions with better medical environments, the average lifespan has already reached 160 years. Note that this is the average lifespan; some individuals, who take exceptionally good care of themselves, even live to be 238 years old!

Under such circumstances of high lifespan, who would want to stay with one partner for life, in sickness and in health?

The entire cultural environment of our civilization is slowly changing due to the increase in lifespan.

Humans are creatures that crave novelty and tire of the old. The former “lifelong companionship” meant fifty to sixty years, but now it means one hundred and fifty to sixty years!

Humans will maintain their youth and strength for an extended period, and the vast majority would rather have their fill of fun before settling down to establish a family and raise children…

Consequently, the marriage rate has plummeted, and the birth rate has naturally declined.

Second, there is the cost issue of cultivating talent. Cutting-edge space industry demands increasingly higher quality in the population. However, in just a few centuries, human intelligence will not make rapid advancements.

Cultivating a high-quality talent could consume most of a family’s savings.

Hence, for most families, having just one child is enough.

“Many young people don’t like getting married, much less having children. Staying childfree can significantly improve their quality of life. For these youths, supporting themselves is already tough enough. How can they consider the whole nation’s security?”

“On the other hand, birth rates in some impoverished countries remain high… Even with the widespread availability of remote network education, under specific environmental influences, the probability of producing high-quality talents is still not high.”

Looking at this report made Zhang Yuan’s heart clench a bit.

The aging trap is a particularly frightening crisis.

The more elderly people there are, the heavier the social burden on the young will be.

And the heavier the burden on the young, the poorer their economic conditions, the less likely they are to want to have children.

This creates a vicious cycle, which is extremely difficult to break out of. Even if the government introduces various policies to encourage childbirth, they are often ineffective…

History has proven that the best way to cure an aging crisis is—war!

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Indeed, the reshuffling brought about by war has been proven by history many times to lead to a baby boom.

But the current global trend is one of peaceful development, and the likelihood of war breaking out has decreased.

Moreover, as a normal person, Zhang Yuan does not wish to use a world war to solve the issue of aging; it’s completely backward.

He shook his head, pushing these wild thoughts aside and continued to analyze the data.

“Under the influence of these trends, Korea’s population has decreased from the original 51 million to 15 million and will be the first country to self-destruct due to aging.”

“Alas, humanity is screwed!” John, who was emotional, sighed again as he watched from the sidelines.

“The increase in lifespan has become the best contraceptive. The rubbish population in poor countries, on the other hand, is growing and largely depends on the relief of prosperous countries to get through the day. It’s beyond me what use these people have.”

When it comes to debates, Zhang Yuan isn’t much good at them, but he bit the bullet and responded, “At least poor countries are also producers of raw materials and have some purpose. Without poverty, how would there be wealth? As long as it’s productivity, even if it’s lower, how can it be useless?”

“In your eyes, everything is doomed.”

John was taken aback, “Indeed, the development of Earth Civilization does require a low-end population… It can’t all be high-quality. The distribution of population, in any era, is inevitably pyramid-shaped.”

Zhang Yuan shook his head, “Actually, overall, Earth Civilization is still progressing, isn’t it? As for the population issue, I believe it can still be resolved. Every era has its problems; it can’t always be smooth sailing.”

“I really don’t believe that humans will become extinct due to aging.”

John replied, “Zhang Yuan, you are too optimistic. Up to now, humans have been using a greedy strategy, solving problems as they occur, rather than preventing them from happening.”

“This decision-making system is unscientific and is very likely to lead to mediocrity. Aging is already a big issue.”

Zhang Yuan actually knew this, but still, facing his own mother civilization, he harbored a natural sense of hope.

In this context, he didn’t want to argue too much with John and just continued to read the following report.

To address the series of problems caused by the cessation of population growth, government departments are constantly encouraging childbirth and introducing related policies.

Such population policies would barely have any significant effect without decades of effort, so he skipped the middle thirty years of development and flipped through to the latest report.

His spirits lifted when he read the first few lines.

“Greetings, colleagues of Earth Era! I am Yuan Yuchan, the new president of the Deep Space Foundation. I will bring you the latest information on Earth Civilization.”

The new Foundation president had become a middle-aged woman, but there was nothing unusual about that.

“In recent years, the most outstanding technological achievements have been in the field of biology, mainly in the decoding work of protein language and the emergence of artificial womb technology!”

“…The decoding of protein language has brought about a qualitative change in the life sciences!”

“We have conquered a multitude of diseases, including the ‘king of cancers’ pancreatic cancer and various malignancies…”

“Overcoming the resistance problems of superbugs is no longer a pipedream!”

Great news!

Seeing this, Zhang Yuan couldn’t help but smile as he sat in his seat.

Below were piles of papers on protein language, covering all aspects of biology.

However, as Zhang Yuan was not very knowledgeable about biology, he could not offer any critique.

All he knew was that the decoding work of protein language was of utmost importance, allowing humans to understand the essence of life from the most microscopic level.

Take the immune system, for example. The HIV virus had reformed, aiding in the treatment of immunodeficiencies. Some people born with congenital immune deficiencies can now be cured, a medical intervention that would have been considered sheer fantasy in the past!

“The average lifespan is set to increase again. I wonder if it will affect the marriage rate.” Zhang Yuan asked with interest, “Have our biologists studied these new drugs?”

“They’re working on it,” John turned his head to say. “Our current equipment is too poor to produce life-extending drugs… There is a conference on life sciences next year, but we two are not biologists, so we’re not involved.”

“Alright then.” Zhang Yuan shook his head. After all, he was young and didn’t need to think too much about longevity.

Dwelling on life and death only causes needless worry.