In Chapter 6, the narrator discusses Pan Han's scientific ideology, which is ultimately degenerative. The biologist believes that technology regresses society, pushing it to grow beyond its means. The narrator uses a metaphor to compare this growth to that of a cancer cell:

[Pan] believed that technological progress was a disease in human society. The explosive development of technology was analogous to the growth of cancer cells, and the results would be identical: the exhaustion of all sources of nourishment, the destruction of organs, and the final death of the host body.

Pan believes that technological progress is akin to cancer—a negative form of growth that leads to resource depletion and societal death. Indeed, a cancerous cell cannot continue to exist and grow unchecked without depriving its neighboring cells of resources, consuming and consuming until it causes the body to shut down completely. To call the body the "host" body is, however, misleading: cancer cells are not typically viral in nature. They originate within the body, simply a piece of broken machinery that sabotages the organism it is part of. Similarly, according to Pan Han's philosophy, technology created by society can destroy society when it ceases to operate with holistic societal health in mind.