As Ding Yun continued her research, utilizing the waters of Daughter Spring to develop the optimal anti-pollution human genes.
Within the New Human Heritage Organization, a holographic network video conference was convened, as previously mentioned.
Although the primary purpose of this meeting was to discuss and potentially revise their specific policies, they adhered to tradition by first sharing the latest investigation results and new achievements, establishing a baseline.
In fact, in almost every meeting, discussions about matters at hand were less frequent than the submission of recent breakthroughs and new accomplishments.
"I'm not afraid of being embarrassed; our research group hasn't had any new breakthroughs recently. Natural Humans have implemented extremely strict controls over gene technology, artificial intelligence, and aerospace technology. Therefore, despite absorbing seventeen New Humans with talents in these three fields into our research group, there have been no specific breakthroughs yet."
As there were no breakthroughs and little to report, Ji Hua stood up first and bowed, speaking frankly to avoid disappointing everyone.
Following suit, other department heads with no significant breakthroughs or new developments also stood up, stating their current situations to facilitate the meeting's progress and prevent unnecessary time wastage.
After these individuals briefly reported their statuses, He Linxi, the head of the archaeology team responsible for investigating the past five hundred years, stood up and said,
"Over the past year, we ventured into numerous contaminated zones, jointly excavated three architectural ruins, and recovered many ancient artifacts from these sites dating back hundreds of years. Regrettably, useful information was scarce, with most items being valueless.
However, our efforts were not entirely in vain. Among the retrieved items, we discovered a data storage device from a social networking software company over four hundred years old. Although the device was obsolete and some data was lost, we managed to repair it through technical means and extract partial data.
It contains a plethora of ancient human comments, curses, discussions, reposts, and blog posts from over four centuries ago. These include discussions on population and population imbalance.
However, due to the data being excessively fragmented and its authenticity not entirely verifiable, the data analysis team is still in the process of organizing and analyzing the information. Specific conclusions are expected in about a month.
Based on the fragmented information collected so far, we have already reached a terrifying conclusion: over four hundred years ago, a global pandemic occurred, causing immense death and destruction. This plague persisted for nearly twenty years, resulting in over a billion deaths among ancient humans.
This is the information we have summarized. Other related information is still pending verification, so we must wait! "
He Linxi then sat down. Simultaneously, Mu Xue stood up, her expression quite serious, and said,
"What I have to say might not be directly related to our ultimate goal, but it is indeed extremely important.
My research group has over a dozen individuals who are more concerned with environmental pollution and purification. Therefore, over the years, they have been actively involved in various polluted areas, conducting in-depth research on pollution levels, current conditions, and methods of purification.
Regarding purification, their breakthroughs have been minimal.
However, in their study and documentation of pollution, they have recently arrived at a frightening conclusion: our planet is dying. Much of the pollution has penetrated thousands of meters underground, and various chemical pollutants have entered the entire ecological cycle.
Currently, species on the planet are very scarce. If the situation continues to deteriorate, the remaining species will likely not survive much longer. Even though their genes have been constantly adapting to environmental changes in an attempt to acclimate, this adaptation is not limitless.
When the environment deteriorates to a certain extent, no amount of genetic adaptation can help some forms of life survive. Take insects, for example. Apart from mutated cockroaches, where else can we find other insects? But if the environment becomes too harsh, even cockroaches will be unable to adapt.
Have you noticed that even artificial food is no longer pure? The nutrient solutions contain slight pollution. All of these indicate that the world's pollution is becoming increasingly severe. Yet, to this day, Natural Humans still show no intention of pooling their resources to purify the environment. Instead, they continue large-scale mining, factory construction, and pollutant discharge.
If this continues, even if we understand what gene fragments have been inserted into us, it might not be enough to save the future of our New Humans, and we will ultimately perish! "
Following this, the remaining few departments sequentially reported their breakthroughs, but unfortunately, their research outcomes were meager, offering little to no significant advancement or surprise.
As for the issues raised earlier, they were powerless to address them in the short term.
Currently, the management of all industries is inseparable from artificial intelligence, and artificial intelligence is entirely controlled by the World Mainframe, which is managed by Natural Humans. As rebels, no matter how many problems they discover, they cannot bypass the World Mainframe to manipulate and command all industries and all humans.
Furthermore, if they were to attempt to purify the environment through their own efforts, with their limited human resources, it would be pure wishful thinking.
Therefore, after some discussion, they had to bypass the environmental issue again and focus on proposing ways to expand their organization, increase their influence, and, if possible, directly overthrow Natural Human rule.
Unfortunately, after much deliberation, they could not devise any effective solutions. This was because, in the absence of any immediate threat or visible benefit, it was genuinely difficult to mobilize other New Humans to join them and assist them.
Sustaining oneself with love and ideals could only last so long. Love would soon wither, and ideals would turn to ash.
In the end, they only decided to increase investment in propaganda, focusing on promoting the extravagance and privileges of Natural Humans and the dire consequences of environmental deterioration, hoping to awaken more New Humans. Beyond that, they were at a loss.
…
Months later, their increased investment in propaganda yielded some results, though they were quite modest. Most New Humans merely posted a few protest remarks on the official website and then continued their lives as usual, eating and sleeping. The number of people who genuinely joined them as a result was exceedingly small.
It was around this time that Ding Yun's numerous experiments finally succeeded.
The human genes she developed, in conjunction with the waters of Daughter Spring and the harsh polluted environment, not only formed perfectly but also passed the deduction of the photon computer.
The reason people in their organization, including the original body, believed New Humans had no future was primarily because when they simulated the combination of New Human genes in the photon computer, gene collapse occurred after less than three hundred years of simulation. Only by continuously incorporating Natural Human genes could this situation be alleviated.
However, the human genes Ding Yun developed, under the condition of minimal environmental change, successfully simulated and propagated for over a thousand years in the photon computer without significant issues. This strongly indicated that the genes she created possessed extremely high stability, comparable to that of Natural Human genes.
As soon as the results were out, Ding Yun immediately packaged the human gene sequence she had deduced and the simulation results from the photon computer, uploading them to the gene research group on their organization's platform. She also notified all her direct supervisors.
Within half an hour, other relevant researchers within the research group, as well as her supervisors, were frantically contacting Ding Yun. Meanwhile, informed personnel at the contaminated zone base were heading directly to Ding Yun's laboratory to discuss and analyze the experimental results in person.
However, Ji Hua was the fastest. Upon her arrival, she helped Ding Yun keep everyone else outside the laboratory. Then, with an excited expression, she examined Ding Yun like a precious treasure and said with a smile,
"Wonderful, wonderful! You truly are... My most correct decision in this life was probably to cultivate you and save you. I've briefly reviewed what you sent me. So, your experiment has succeeded, and you even have a successful embryo. Is everything here genuine?"
Perhaps worried that her words might be misunderstood or dissatisfy Ding Yun, Ji Hua quickly added, "Ah, Li Hua, please don't misunderstand. I'm not doubting you. It's just that this matter is too significant. You know, we've been concerned about this for over a hundred years. I'm so excited I'm speaking incoherently. Please don't misunderstand. It's simply that the implications are too immense! We never dared to hope that our genes could adapt to the current environment and still propagate normally without gene collapse in subsequent generations. Truly, truly, I don't know how to describe my current feelings!"
"Um, Director Ji, please calm down. I understand you might still have some doubts, so let's not get too excited yet, shall we? The information I submitted is very comprehensive. I believe you can first have other researchers in our gene research group conduct their own experiments using the gene sequence I provided. If everyone's experimental results are without issue, and they can also confirm that the photon computer's calculation process is correct, then this matter can be definitively confirmed as having no problems."
Ding Yun could understand the other person's excitement, but she still preferred them to remain calm and verify together. This would not only confirm the correctness of her research achievement early on but also give other researchers something to do, preventing them from constantly bothering her with questions. While she could answer ordinary questions, discussing the matter of Daughter Spring water was quite difficult for her. Rather than stammering when asked, it was better to avoid the awkwardness altogether.
"Yes, yes, you're right. I was a bit too agitated. Wait a moment, I'll have them start their respective detection and replication experiments immediately. If everything is in order, you will have truly made a great contribution this time, accomplishing what tens of thousands of people have strived for in the past."
As she spoke, Ji Hua had somewhat calmed down and quickly used her authority to assign tasks, telling the researchers not to come over and to disperse from the doorway to conduct replication experiments. The complete gene sequence data had been sent to them. Conducting a replication experiment and performing a deduction using the photon computer were not difficult.
Ding Yun, meanwhile, immediately sat down and posed a question that had been troubling her for months:
"Director Ji, there's something I wanted to ask you. How can we go about promoting my research findings? If I recall correctly, we are not supposed to interfere with the current New Human gene bank, right? This means we cannot modify genes from the next generation onwards, and genetic modification can only be done at the very beginning of embryonic development; adults cannot be modified. So, what are the organization's plans going forward?"
"Uh..."
Perhaps due to the complete lack of hope for breakthroughs before, Ji Hua and the others had not considered such distant matters. They hadn't anticipated that the appearance of hope for a breakthrough would not be a little hope, but an immediately applicable and feasible achievement. Thus, for a moment, she truly didn't know what to say.
After a long pause, Ji Hua shook her head with a wry smile:
"You... you've really stumped me. Honestly, we haven't thought about this at all. But if your findings are genuine, we will definitely convene an emergency meeting to discuss this matter.
So, you don't need to worry; there will be a resolution. We will definitely find a way. We absolutely will not let your research results go to waste."
"Um, I do have a suggestion. It's just a suggestion. I've been browsing various laws recently and found that opening companies to help New Humans bear offspring is not illegal, but the success rate is extremely low, and very few people are willing to spend money on it. Therefore, such companies are rare. My idea is to use the original genetic information of New Human couples to help them conceive offspring with their bloodline. This way, can't we both make money and, at the same time, subtly modify the genes of their offspring, doing it gradually? As long as we nurture enough newborns, the continuation of our lineage will be assured..."
What Ding Yun meant by modifying genes was, of course, not entirely true. What she intended was to use the method of cultivating anti-pollution genes to help New Humans who were willing to provide their genetic information conceive offspring that were suitable for the current environment and capable of self-propagation. The core technology still involved the waters of Daughter Spring. The official New Human gene bank was used to regulate population size, and their organization could not interfere with or alter the genes within it. However, establishing a "New Human Infertility Hospital" should be relatively easy, right? Relevant laws did not prohibit it. Other similar hospitals had extremely low success rates and charged exorbitant fees. Their hospital's higher success rate and lower fees could only be considered a technological breakthrough, not predatory competition, and certainly not illegal.