The Alchemists

Everyone stared at Aleksis, still waiting for her answer to Nicolae's question.

Ugh, eventually the girl slowly nodded and pretended to be busy with her bag and books.

Seeing her behavior, people immediately concluded that the nerdy girl was a shy person. Nicolae also noticed Aleksis' reluctance to talk so he left her alone and didn't bother her again.

As a teacher assistant, Nicolae taught the basics of innovation. His class discussed technological developments throughout human history. Today, the students would be learning to make case studies of various pros and cons in technological innovation that have, so far, existed.

Some of the cases he discussed were genetic engineering to determine the characteristics of children, pets, and even pure cloning. These things were still a hot debate among the people because some wanted to have genetically perfected offsprings by manipulating their baby's genes while they are still in the womb, while others likened the action into trying to play God.

The discussion was very lively because the students were very enthusiastic to answer or submit rebuttal arguments in order to get noticed by their handsome teacher assistant. Even Aleksis who was lazy to debate followed the discussion with interest.

"I think it's okay, Sir," said a long-haired girl from the front row. "Humans have been trying to experiment with their bodies for a long time. Plastic surgery has been prevalent in South Korea since the 1990s, the IVF program has begun to be used by infertile couples who want to have children decades ago. Operations such as corneal transplants, heart transplants, kidney transplants, etc, are carried out to prolong the lives of people whose organs have been damaged. What is the difference between any of these and the current genetic engineering?"

Nicolae nodded. "Thank you, Anna. Anybody wants to argue?"

"In my opinion, everything Anna mentioned is still within normal limits, meaning there is no genetic engineering done. If humans are created to be more perfect species, we don't need to use technology to change our genes. For example, we will be created like chameleons that have mimicry* ability ...

Moreover, for tens of thousands of years, our bodies have evolved through evolution and that is natural engineering carried out by nature according to our needs. In my opinion, using technology to drastically change human genes will adversely affect humanity and create many problems in identifying an individual.

If they can change their DNA, it will be difficult to trace a person's true identity. This can be exploited to commit crimes, not to mention fraud or theft of DNA from people who are considered superior ... Even though we already have the technology, it doesn't mean we should recklessly use it."

Aleksis listened to the exchange of opinions with curiosity. She recalled that Alaric's company possessed the most advanced AI technology. One of its subsidiaries was also carrying out genetic engineering works similar to what had been discussed in the class.

Recently there was a lot of controversy surrounding the two technologies yet she had no idea what direction the world government policy would take in the future.

If they knew that the alchemists had engineered their genes hundreds of years ago, surely the whole world would be in an uproar, thought Aleksis.

She suspected that if humans continue their research on this, sooner or later, they would discover the same secrets that had been discovered by the Alchemists. It means that in the future, all humans would also be perfect and live forever.

But humans have the habits of exploiting nature to the point of destroying it. They also kept breeding and filling the earth while consuming its natural resources ... If that time comes, how would the world accommodate the billions of immortal people?

For hundreds of years, the alchemists were very small in number. Because they feel no need to rush their lives, they very rarely married and have children. This made them have a perfect society.

Aleksis could not imagine what would happen once all humans turn immortal like her clan.

"Does our transfer student have an opinion on this? You keep frowning ..." Nicolae's sudden call knocked Aleksis out of her reverie. He had been watching her since earlier and was curious why she kept frowning and taking deep breaths.

"Uhm ... in my opinion, whatever technology we use, nothing is more important than educating the public first why we need to use a certain technology. We need to provide some appropriate legalities and policies BEFORE launching a technology. For example, if a company will collect human DNA data, the government should first establish rules on how DNA data must be used. This is to prevent abuse ... So it should be a top to bottom approach."

Even though the question came all of a sudden, Aleksis was smart and could answer casually. She made Rhionen Industries her reference and based her response on the information she received from Terry last night. Alaric's Company had now collected a lot of genetic related data that they could easily abuse for their own purposes.

The students in the auditorium seemed to be paying close attention. Aleksis' answer was very simple but on point. Not only the students appeared impressed, but even Nicolae was. He threw Aleksis a complicated look before looking away, seemingly lost in thoughts.

The discussion warmed up again but Aleksis did not interfere again. She did not want to attract too much attention. A message had come to her phone-watch from Takeshi telling her that he and Mischa would be waiting for her in the cafeteria at lunchtime.

[OK. I'll see you later.]

The class ended at 10 am. Nicolae dismissed everyone after giving them some reference materials to read. The task was welcomed by the students, something Aleksis never expected since the assignment was only from a teacher assistant.

She hurriedly left the place and looked for the next class. She was very surprised to see in such a large classroom, there were only 3 students.

"Eh ... where are the others?" she asked. "I'm a new student ..."

A student wearing a pair of glasses responded to Aleksis with a shrug. "It is rare for students to come to classes in person nowadays. Normally, they study remotely with an online module and only go to campus to take exams ..."

Aleksis now understood what Terry meant this morning. Apparently, the case was ... Students very rarely come to class to study, unless the teacher assistant or professor was very handsome and famous ...

Suddenly a mischievous smile was formed on her lips.

Maybe it was true female students like handsome teachers... But what about male students? Wouldn't they be very happy to come to campus if it meant seeing a very beautiful female student in the class ...

Muhuahahaha ...

At this point, Aleksis felt it was useless trying to cover up her appearance or make herself look ugly. It was because even though she looked shabby and nerdy, the girls on campus didn't want to be her friends. They still saw her as a rival just because she was close to Terry and Nicolae had talked to her in class. Earlier, even Rosemary had begun to give her the cold treatment.

From the beginning, Aleksis was not a girl that could be bullied, but now she was tempted to respond to the girls' actions. Alright ... for today she would be patient.

Tomorrow though, they would see a new Aleksis.

.

.

* mimicry = the natural ability of a chameleon to disguise itself to look like its surrounding environment.