Like a lot of human cultures that manage to evolve, and survive past their
early Great Filters, the people on one version of Earth figured out how to
defeat death. They did it both biologically, and technologically,
which is standard. The outcome wasn’t as favorable as it is for others.
While inventing immortality is in no way inevitable, it’s pretty hard to
miss unless you’re deliberately trying to avoid it. If you do, there is
every chance that you will run up against your next Great Filter, and die
out as a species, so be careful. Still, some people don’t think that death
is something that should be overcome, and this side of the argument wins
about as often as it loses. This is about an Earth where that didn’t happen
initially, but it became that way after they already started to walk up the
path of immortality, and actually go pretty far along it. Right around the
time that scientists and engineers were coming up with the right solutions,
the world was suffering sociopolitically. Leaders were being elected in
multiple countries who did not have the best interests of the public at
heart. Fascists, is what they were, but unlike their predecessors, they were
a lot less obvious about it, and a lot more insidious. They started
manipulating laws slowly and quietly, so as not to sound any alarms. While
they were doing that, they instigated social unrest, which led voters to
believe that the secret fascists were their only hope. Eventually, they just
did away with voting altogether, first by postponing it due to extenuating
circumstances, and then simply refusing to let go of their power. Meanwhile,
longevity researchers were allowed to keep working, but when their work was
sufficiently complete, there were significant downsides to releasing it.
Once the rich took notice of the new technology, they took control. The
wealth disparity increased drastically, raising the richest of people to
almost godlike status, and dropping everyone else to ants. It was bad
before, where tyrants could pass their unearned power on to the next
generation of tyrants, but now the threat was insurmountable, for the
original tyrants could conceivably be able to maintain their power literally
forever. A great war began, and nearly resulted in the destruction of the
human race. They survived, but everything changed. Instead of finally making
longevity treatments and upgrades free for public use, the victors simply
made all such enhancements illegal. The standard lifespan was eighty years,
and it was against the law to live past it, even if one managed to be
healthy enough to surpass it. All seventy-nine-year-olds were executed, and
many people were executed before that if the new government felt threatened
by them in some other way. They weren’t about to let a fascist plutocracy
rule the lands again, and their anger clouded them to the fact that the only
way to enforce their will was to become the fascists. Anyone who attempted
to show them this reality was—you guessed it—executed. Of course, once a
given technology exists, you can’t put that toothpaste back in the tube.
Another resistance rose up in response to the consequences of the first one.
They lost, and were wiped out, but this only served to galvanize a third
resistance to try again. They won this time, and were able to make
immortality free for all. Unfortunately, when they looked around, they
realized that almost everyone was dead, and it didn’t really matter anymore. Most of the few immortals left standing would later find ways to let themselves die,
and leave the uninhabitable world behind.
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