NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7: Part 7
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Settling into a comfortable seat with an optimal vantage point, I waited for Connors like many of the other students. It wasn't long before a blonde angel caught my eye. I believe her name was Gwen Stacy? Blue eyes, a dainty figure, and a keen gaze into a textbook on neogenetics under the humble authorship of our teacher, for if a man is brilliant, he will be brilliant at everything, won't he? Also, from what I heard, he was a world expert in herpetology and was the author of a couple of best-selling books on the discipline, which is related to amphibians and reptiles.
Soon Connors himself appeared. Powerful shoulders, a strong-willed look, and the slight aristocratic features in his face and gait. The Doctor didn't look like an ordinary surgeon or geneticist, but like a combat medic. The veteran's aged gaze swept over the audience. He hummed with satisfaction at the sight of the nearly full seats and continued to walk forward with a limp. The blue eyes of the herpetologist burned with youthful excitement and desire to teach something. Admittedly, I did not think to see such a thing, but it's damn motivating to grasp new knowledge and move forward to previously unattainable heights.
Quickly stowing his briefcase on the teacher's desk, Connors began to pull out a mini-projector and small speakers for a visual demonstration of his lecture. A minute and he had the holographic projector up and running, and the entire audience immediately fell silent in fascination.
The spectacular processes of human cell transformation and various mutations completely captured my attention. There were also personal projects of Professor Connors on neogenetics, which confirmed and sometimes disproved many known hypotheses, theories and theses.
But the most interesting things were just ahead. For Dr Connors, the complete reconstruction of the regeneration process in our body was not a fantasy at all, but a technology almost tested on 'mice', and it fascinated him even more. Just think what a fabulous time we live in, and I have to admit, it's a little exhilarating. Even if there were technical nuances that required some modifications, but still, the concept of stopping old age, and the working tools are already in front of my eyes.
If everything goes as it should, there will be no more invalids, old people and other poor people in the world, who have to suffer a whole life in a mutilated body, as if in a prison, from which there is no way out. If you think about it seriously, what's the use of cars when you can move towards new medicine. After all, we can achieve hybrid variants, but there are nuances or disadvantages there too. However, in China there are already working prototypes of nanites, which are already able to arrange fully autonomous monitoring of the state of the body and at a critically needed moment to inject a certain dose of the necessary medicine. The nanites are miniaturised and dissolve in the body over time, and if you add to that increased regeneration and survivability, you can increase human life expectancy quite nicely.
Still, it will be more difficult for me to decide on my future speciality. I could, of course, apply to be Connors's apprentice and then intern with Von Doom, but that would be too much work, even if it was feasible. And there are so many other interesting things in the world that the desire to choose one thing or another disappears, so what to do? One life is not enough for everything, I say, as a person who has lived a whole life doing the wrong thing. At first you think that you will have time, and all these little things are simply unimportant, but as it turns out afterwards, they still had their own, albeit negligible, but meaning. While you are young and full of energy, you only want to speed up the passage of time, but a year, two years, or all ten, and you finally see that you were not doing what you liked, but simply making money, ruining your health and destroying the remnants of a personal life that you gave you a stormy youth.
But I will take into account all mistakes and finally start to live in full force, spitting on all 'well-wishers', because they, in fact, do not care either, but why do they get in your way? The dilemma of crayfish in one bucket? Everything can be, because even with all desire you will always be pulled back, because they have scored, so score and you. But no, we'll choose a different path, and try to make the world a little better. It may be a little naive, but who else but us?
If everyone waits for the 'mythical' hero, nothing will change. After all, we are all just frozen in place like that Rodin thinker, but we are not statues and cannot wait centuries in desolation for 'heroes' to save the world.
That is why we need to light a fire in the hearts of others, because only the wind of change can fan a flame from a couple of sparks. Innovative fire and thirst for knowledge will awaken those of us who want to learn new and yet unexplored things, and the children of progress with a burning eye will set their footsteps into the hitherto unseen future.
Seems simple, doesn't it? But everything is a bit more complicated, and to create such a huge propaganda machine and create a technocratic society will take more than one hundred years and a colossal budget, which, unfortunately, I do not have.
Having returned to the professor's lecture, I continued to listen attentively.
- Neogenetics is an extremely multifunctional tool that can both change society and prepare humans for life in the conditions of space and colonised planets, and even if it seems to you a utopian fantasy, but already now science has stepped as far as never before. - Visually using the holographic projector, Connors supported his words with scientific facts and various articles or works known in narrow circles.
- On the example of the same countries of Scandinavia, which I love so much, we can observe a qualitative leap in the field of gene pool. And even though it does not concern neogenetics in general, but the topic itself is quite interesting, because, it would seem, all that is needed is to remove the destructive influence and the elements that bring this influence. Unfortunately, such an experiment was conducted only in Scandinavian countries, and according to my subjective observations, it was quite successful. With this 'isolation' we can see how the gene pool comes back to normal over time. When we get healthy people, we have more opportunities to improve the human genome, because, you must agree, it is much easier to work with the material that is at its peak and practically has no bugs of various kinds, or viruses that will eventually destroy the whole well-established system. - Switching to a more understandable language for students, the professor smiled slightly.
- But neogenetics also combines well with other components. Using the developments of our colleagues from Boston, who received a grant for research from Chinese pharmacological corporations, we found out that with the help of nanites, which have the software of our scientific department, it is possible to control mutations and manage all the previously considered chaotic processes. - The hologram zoomed in dramatically, and the doctor began to explain the plain truths.
- Unfortunately, this project requires too much third-party investment from our sponsors and the problem with the energy we need for our needs, as the original nanites serve more as a disposable tool for intervention, and we need something more durable and inexpensive. - Connors smiled again. - But I do have something for you. Working with Anthony Stark, we were able to create a self-contained nanite charger based on his arc reactor. - Unbuttoning his snow-white shirt, the doctor revealed to the shocked audience a reactor pulsing with sky-blue light in time with his heart, which produced a colossal amount of energy.
- At the moment the technology is still being finalised, so I can't say anything concrete. The problem with financing and access to our colleagues from the Celestial Empire remains. - Connors sounded tired. - But I still think that the project on natural regeneration is more promising, although I do not exclude the possibility of mutually beneficial symbiosis with any other scientific sphere of our rapidly developing scientific community. I recommend to all those interested to read my books on neogenetics and to sign up for an elective course, and I thank others for their attention. This lecture is over, so you may leave now. - The doctor left the lecture room, leaving the students in a complete reverie of his lecture.
Admittedly, I expected something more, and yet, it is an interesting topic for further human development, because sooner or later we will reach a qualitative peak and will not be able to move on, and the imaginary superiority will not allow to see the prospects and the boundary to which one can strive.
This lecture gave me an opportunity to hear and even see another point of view and philosophy of symbiosis, so I can really try to combine everything. It may be difficult, but it sounds promising. So I'll practice with Von Doom, and then maybe I'll work for Ozcorp. I will gain experience and money, and then I can slowly do something of my own or start investing in any project like Connors', because they are always short of finances.
I have heard that some people do get support from a sponsor, like the well-known Dr Otto Octavius, but this is rather an exception to the rules, which confirms these very rules.
If I can fully control the process of mutation development with the help of refined nanites, can I completely rebuild this body to my own standards and tastes? Why not? The only question is, again, one of finances. Mr Oz may have given me a platinum card, but I can't let down his trust so quickly. Of course, any project requires a cash injection, but that's no reason to be indebted to everyone, so we'll wait a bit.
I wonder how the doctor talked Stark into borrowing his arc reactor. I can't believe he just gave his toy to the scientists. The technology never went into production, and only Stark has access to it. Could our doctor have just 'borrowed' the arc reactor from Mr Stark? Who knows, this Connors guy, but he looks like a hardened warrior who'd do anything, or almost anything, for his own goals or principles.
- Hey, Parker. - I heard the voice of the blonde angel, what's her name?
- Hey, Gwen, long time no see. How was your weekend? - Smiling innocently, I tried to remember what she needed from Parker, and therefore me.