Longevity



By means of technology, the conscious existence of souls has been prolonged beyond the measure of human understanding. Generations now live with no knowledge of their natural mortality, as every day they remain marks yet another longest life in known history.

Boundaries of biology
For most of its physical existence, the human body is in a constant state of decay, continuously retreating from the seeming inevitability of the aging process. In spite of all advancements in sciences and technology, humanity still holds no complete dominion over its own biological form.

There is no cell in the human body which cannot be replaced, no tissue which cannot be grown and no organ which cannot be replaced by an artificial creation. Even still, no way of assembling all existing pieces so far has opened to any human lineage the gateway to biological immortality.

Hundreds of years do the bodies of the living prevail at the peak of their physicality, unchanging if not subjected to outside forces and restored even from those with ease. But at some point after centuries, all minds have been known to fall victim to a relentless entropy corroding the consciousness and mind.

Transcending the mundane
Such is the nature of artificial longevity, that it surpasses the boundaries of the biological body. When the erstwhile natural form of the body is no longer a suitable vessel and a mind sheds itself from this hull, it inevitably dies.

But there is hope for a line of consciousness to persist. Copied into the digital realm, a mind may exceed the lifespan of its original form, briefly existing in two entities, before one falls victim to the boundaries of biology.

In its digital form, any mind may be as persistent and resilient as the entirety of civilization itself. Through endless redundancy and reconstruction, transfer and copy, a soul can exist throughout all ages and any imaginable form.

Wayfare of life
"There is no permanence to human life, no matter how many years, decades or centuries it may span" - wayfarer mantra

The nature of artificial longevity throughout the Heliopolis dictates much of civilization in a deeply rooted, subtle way.

Lives emerge where population thrives, in the centers of civilization around the star Sol. For every generation newly born in such places, the elder one must make way. Naturally, the elder always goes where there are new things to learn and their accumulated wisdom may be applied. They wander to new and more dangerous places, to fulfill more complex tasks and stray further from all institutions. Following this simple pattern, souls expand throughout the solar system, emerging from the Cradle Earth and striding outward bound, toward the outer worlds and fringes of the heliosphere. Each inhabited island of humanity likewise radiates a sphere of expansion, of wandering souls outward.

These spheres are what form the population of the solar system, shaping the societies therein. At the cradles, there reigns constant change, where shifting myriad humanities are the status quo. But beyond the fringes of the Heliosphere, there reside the eldritch entities first venturing into the dark cosmos of rogue planets and bodies. These entities are often far removed from the concerns and norms of what is described as broad humanity. As alien as any extraterrestrial lifeform could be, they form their own cosmos outside the Heliopolis, forging alliances and waging wars of their own, only seldom taking note of the matters of their small, homestead star.