If there was a medicine that could prolong a person's life to 10,000 years, would you take it? But what about the accompanying price of giving up the birth of a new life, otherwise the punishment of "immediately stopping taking the elixir of immortality and facing a natural death"?
This is the story proposition thrown out in the science fiction ** "After Eternal Life". The drama of the same name adapted from this sci-fi** "After Eternal Life" was officially announced on February 13, and the audience only needs to open iQiyi, Tencent**, Youku**, Bilibili, Mango TV and other **platforms on their mobile phones, and search for "After Eternal Life", and they can free** The full drama is full.
After Eternal Life**The original author is Liang Jianzhang, chairman of the board of directors of Trip.com Group and a population economist, and the stage play "After Eternal Life" is produced by Shanghai Guanyou Film and Television Culture, and directed by Zhou Ke, a well-known drama and drama director. At the same time, Liang Jianzhang, as the producer of this drama, is also the first time to invite netizens across the country to watch the drama online for free.
The producer of the drama "After Eternal Life" believes that during the Spring Festival holiday, young people can take a break from their busy jobs, or accompany their families, eat, drink and party, or seek "poetry and distance", and they also rarely have leisure to "recharge" the spiritual world. This soft sci-fi drama throws out a series of topics that young people "can't avoid" such as "love, family affection, life and death", and uses innovative audio-visual drama forms to discuss the development of science and technology and the ultimate changes and impacts on human society, so that everyone can think more about the meaning of life in addition to immersion; It also provides young people who like science fiction themes with both rational and warm perspectives of "electronic mustard".
What will happen to the world when humanity loses its "new life"?
In the 22nd century, with the rapid development of biotechnology, human beings have finally succeeded in developing life drugs that can bring "eternal life". However, this medical miracle raises a profound moral dilemma: immortality and the birth of a new child can only face a cruel "either/or". The story of "After Eternal Life", set in the background of the invention of the "elixir of eternal life", depicts a human civilization that has stopped reproduction and generational change because of "eternal life".
People who choose to take the elixir live in the "longevity zone", where life can continue indefinitely, but with the rapid growth of the population, they are forbidden to reproduce, social innovation is stagnant, and they are afraid of risks and challenges. People who choose not to take the elixir live in the "life and death zone", facing birth, old age, sickness and death, but they also truly feel the preciousness of life, and the people here are more full of vitality and creativity.
The play focuses on Dema, a young woman from the "Life and Death Zone", who suddenly breaks into the world of Jed, the chief scientist of the "Longevity Zone". When Jade meets the youthful Dema, love is rekindled. The heroine Dema has to make a difficult but important choice between "pursuing eternal life" and "giving birth to new life", and the two are also faced with whether to choose immortality, whether to reproduce, and think about what science will really change and subvert in the future.
To explore, to create, and to love. is the theme of this work. "Compared with the vastness of the universe, life is of course short and small, but as long as there is love, family affection, life and death, the small human beings can continue indefinitely, thus giving birth to infinite innovation, and infinitely passing it on in space and time. Liang Jianzhang, the producer of the play, said: "In the foreseeable future, life and death and emotions will still be the exclusive domain of human beings, and those innovative activities with a deep understanding of human nature will still be led by humans, and innovation and inheritance will also be the most fundamental meaning of life as a privilege that human beings have different from machines or AI." ”
I don't think drama will necessarily give a standard answer, but we will throw out the topic and look forward to exploring and thinking with the audience. The director of the drama Zhou Ke thinks.
The drama also throws out a warning, that is, after the serious aging of the population, social innovation will stagnate, and reproduction and intergenerational replacement are the fundamental driving force of social development. China is currently facing the world's most serious crisis of declining birthrate and aging population, and there is an urgent need to introduce policies to encourage childbirth to maintain the vitality of society and economy in the future.
Young people who escape the "social fatigue" of the Spring Festival What do you think of the "eternal life" drama?
Although Liang Jianzhang is keen on studying population issues, in fact, "After Eternal Life" is a drama that has nothing to do with "giving birth", on the contrary, the meaning of life and the future of mankind in the play repeatedly inspire contemporary young people to think clearly about what they are born for and what they live for? Whether to be born or not to be born must depend on love, on the continuation of human civilization, on the development of inheritance and innovation, rather than on other noises.
Back to the real world, every Spring Festival holiday, "urging marriage and giving birth" is a topic that young people can't escape, and a variety of dinners and high-frequency family and friend gatherings will inevitably make young people fall into a new round of "social fatigue" anytime and anywhere.
What do these "lying flat" young people think of this drama work with the theme of eternal life?
Ms. Chen Lan, a post-95 generation from Shanghai, said after watching the online full version of the drama "After Eternal Life" that this drama reminded her of an Oscar-winning animated film "Dream Travel", life exists because of love and continues because of love. Life is unique and precious, as is family, affection and inheritance.
In the play, Chen Lan doesn't like the long-lived zone that means safety, everything is under control, and people are young on the outside but the core is already "rotten wood that cannot be carved", she feels that life here can be seen at a glance: boring, lack of innovation, lack of passion; She likes the "life and death zone" where there are normal emotions and exchanges between people, and "the main focus is on truth and living out of oneself", which is the life that young people like and the world they yearn for.
Douban film critic and young screenwriter Long Weiping believes that the drama "After Eternal Life" has a Greek epic allegorical color, and the characters and plots in the work are not complicated, mainly focusing on people to think about the meaning of life and find answers from the heart, which is the most distinctive feature of this work.
For example, he was deeply inspired by the fact that for human society, after developing to the stage of worry-free food and clothing, there are two possible directions of development, one is the pursuit of the extension of time, and the other is the pursuit of the extension of space. The extension of time means that through technologies such as immortality or human brain uploading, eventually human beings will not die and do not need to reproduce, but the development of civilization will stagnate. The other direction is the extension of space, continuing to maintain the passion for reproduction, travel and space exploration.
This is an expression of "artistic symbolism", and Long Weiping believes that the biggest problem brought about by immortality is not having children. People are still alive, but society loses its vitality and innovation, which is equivalent to death. True happiness is not the immortality of the individual, but the fulfillment of the obligation of human reproduction, the creation and continuation of civilization, and the creation of new hope. is like the sentence in "The Shawshank Redemption": "Hope is good, maybe the best in the world, and good things never die." (hope is a good thing,maybe the best of things,and no good thing ever dies.)”
Guide young people to think about the meaning of "life" Why Liang Jianzhang again?
In fact, it is not uncommon to see works of art about immortality, from the perspective of science and technology to good and evil to ethics and morality, and the disciplines involved range from biology to sociology, but it is a new perspective to think from the perspective of innovation and inheritance of human civilization.
In Liang Jianzhang's view, the history of human evolution and civilization is a relay race of knowledge and genes, and through innovation and inheritance, human civilization has shown its current prosperity, creating a knowledge edifice of science, technology and culture, as well as a human gene pool of 8 billion. And each generation is the inheritor and accumulator of this great "legacy", but also the innovator and inheritor.
In the study of population issues, Liang Jianzhang is like a lonely walker. In the past ten years, he has been practicing what he does, rushing to the front line of influence, reflection, and population policy, and always "wants others to have children". His enthusiasm is always ignited when talking about population issues. Such an entrepreneur who cares about population issues is rare in China, and as scholar He Fan said, "all problems can be classified as population problems by Liang Jianzhang."
Until the Chinese New Year, he still maintained the habit of doing research every day, which can be described as "not closing during the Spring Festival". He also maintains great attention to the launch of the drama "After Eternal Life", hoping that young people can truly think about the meaning of life and the future of mankind through this work.
From 2012's Are There Too Many Chinese? By 2014, it republished "Chinese can have more lives!" From the book "Population Innovation" to the population science fiction ** "After Eternal Life", and then to the recent launch of online dramas, please free for the people of the whole country**; In 2021, Liang Jianzhang and a number of scholars also co-founded the "Yuwa Population Research Think Tank" and proposed many specific measures to encourage childbirth; In 2023, Ctrip also announced plans to invest 1 billion yuan in maternity subsidies in the future to encourage employees to give birth.
From speaking out in various forms in the public eye, to investing real money in practical support, Liang Jianzhang has achieved a true "unity of knowledge and action" in his research field. He realized that behind the population problem, innovation and inheritance are not only related to the fate of the country, but also can inspire young people to think about the meaning of life, and the reflection on the "population crisis" is the original intention and purpose of Liang Jianzhang's creation of this work.
*The motivation was from the perspective of population, because I have been discussing the relationship between population and innovation, and that an aging society may have a negative impact on innovation, as has been the case in Japan and now in China. If the aging is pushed to the extreme, that is, the life expectancy can be very long, but without the injection of fresh blood from children, what extreme conditions will be produced, I hope to arouse everyone's discussion and thinking. Liang Jianzhang once said.
Immortality and rebirth, lying flat or exploring and innovating? This drama also reminds young people: "eternal life" is just a dream, the most important thing is to live in the present, live well in the present, the world is big, you can make it!
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