Questions tagged [immortality]
For questions about the ability to live forever.
103
questions
4
votes
4answers
116 views
How would a society evolve if some people are immortal?
The setting is as follow. In a planet like earth, one day, 10% of the population suddenly becomes immortal. The "immortals" are not physiologically different from the "mortals" and initially it is ...
5
votes
3answers
177 views
How can an immortal surrogate pass on genes to a fertilized embryo?
I am part of a group of immortals from the planet Ziest. From the dawn of time we came…moving silently down through the centuries. Living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the ...
14
votes
9answers
3k views
How would the law enforce a ban on immortality? [closed]
I'm writing a fantasy story where magic is common and wizards follow a strict code of conduct. One of those tenets is "never stray from humanity and do not seek immortality or godhood." While I admit ...
2
votes
6answers
236 views
Why would an immortal man suffer indefinite imprisonment without trying to kill himself? [closed]
A group of men suffers a curse that makes them immortal (or undead, perhaps) but changes them into bloodthirsty animals basically, no longer rational human beings. For this reason they are imprisoned ...
5
votes
1answer
167 views
How would an immortal character amass a fortune? [closed]
As the title says how would someone who is immortal, and driven by collecting vast sums of money be able to exploit that to their own gain.
For context my main character was involved in experiments ...
5
votes
10answers
448 views
Limit immortality technology by cost
The setting is the modern day, US. All aspects (unless addressed by the question) can be assumed to be the same as our current, real Earth.
This question has the assumption that a technology exists ...
1
vote
1answer
149 views
Adverse Effects of Widespread Immortality [closed]
In a medieval high fantasy world where magic exists, if there is a geographic area in which living creatures mature and then stop ageing; what would the negative effects of this be; firstly on a small ...
7
votes
2answers
159 views
How small can a perpetual energy source be to run a far-future civilization indefinitely?
You are the leader of a far-future civilization - human or otherwise - that has endured for trillions of years doing whatever far-future civilizations do. You've surrounded stars with Matrioshka ...
1
vote
6answers
260 views
How can one manipulate elementary particles to make a person live forever?
Assuming that a person has the power to manipulate all elementary particles in any way (i.e. changing them from one elementary particle to another, nuclear transmutation, moving groups of them at a ...
4
votes
5answers
203 views
Why would an omniscient immortal needs to record history?
There is a powerful entity, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent that came into existence since Big Bang. The entity do not interfere with the order of the nature but to observe it unwinds in the ...
4
votes
6answers
548 views
What benefits would translucent full body armour do for immortal beings? [closed]
Set in present day Egypt, a race of immortal humanoid beings were seen with a translucent body armour covering from head to toe. They come in peace and harbour no ill intents, that said their kind of ...
5
votes
7answers
708 views
How can someone be immortal and still age?
I need an explanation for how one could be immortal and still age. If one was truly immortal one would remain an infant forever. How could this be explained?
I'm working on a character who is ...
5
votes
4answers
255 views
Why would a demigod born to a goddess not be immortal? [closed]
In this alternate world, demigods were human beings which gained divinity from a divine parent. A male deity would knock up a mortal woman, who would carry the child to term. This demigod would share ...
3
votes
1answer
109 views
What are some reasons a society might isolate its citizens for a few hundred years? [closed]
I hope I've narrowed down the general idea of my question enough--
Basically, I've started with the idea of a desert society with access to a hidden energy source ruled by a body of immortals.
At ...
29
votes
25answers
9k views
Elf-like race: What could prevent overpopulation?
For an elf-like race whose people do not age beyond physical maturity (the accumulated DNA damage associated with aging does not occur), what would prevent overpopulation?
This elf-like race is ...
0
votes
2answers
210 views
What is the limit of an immortal being's memory? [closed]
-In my story, my main character comes across an immortal being, chained and isolated under a mountain for countless years; subsequently losing memories from her past over time, while still being ...
2
votes
4answers
225 views
Countermeasures against immortality [closed]
If people are not dying from decrepitude, if people have an infinite life expectancy, if all humans become immortal. What would a government do to prevent overpopulation?
What would/should a ...
3
votes
1answer
178 views
Does the body keep growing or maturing in any way past adulthood?
(Edited for clarification)
The general popular conception of how aging works is that your body grows and develops, reaching completion at some point in your late twenties or early thirties, and then ...
2
votes
6answers
4k views
If humans were biologically immortal, but had an average lifespan of 100 years, what would the distribution of ages be?
Let's say that humans were biologically immortal. Once they reach adulthood, they effectively stop aging. Due to disease though, the average lifespan is 100 years. (In practice, your access to ...
56
votes
16answers
7k views
How can a group of immortals hide in a modern society with extensive record-keeping? [duplicate]
The immortals are among us. And they have been for a long time. All of them were born in the 7th to 4th century B.C. in the area of what today is the regions of Macedonia and Thessaly in Greece. ...
0
votes
2answers
266 views
How to survive the collapse of civilization? [closed]
Say you're an immortal, who's seen civilizations rise and fall around your ears; and you've decided to ride the wave, the next time the barbarians are at the gates. You've had to keep your head down ...
58
votes
9answers
8k views
How long will an ageless person live? [duplicate]
Let's imagine there are some ageless people living in big European or American cities. Ageless, forever young but not immortal. They can still die from car crash, gun or knife wound etc.
Assuming ...
15
votes
15answers
3k views
Fastest way for an invincible young immortal to make $1 million USD?
So, I gave a $100 bill to a homeless person a few months ago who gave me "God's blessings" in return. Apparently, that conveyed immortality and invincibility upon me as I no longer age (I think) and ...
24
votes
12answers
7k views
How would a child with a thousand years of experience behave?
Here's one to ponder: what would an immortal eight-year-old be like after one thousand years?
In most stories involving immortality, the immortals are fully formed adults. When those stories do ...
10
votes
5answers
976 views
Hiding a handful of immortals on a Generation Ship?
I have a handful of immortals that have spent the last 6000 years stuck on planet Earth. They really, want to get out of here. They missed their chance back in Egypt before The Fall of the Pharaohs**. ...
3
votes
2answers
570 views
Hereditary immortality: Plausible?
Background info
I am writing a story and I have a young character named Lydia who is worried about dying young and having fertility problems. Her not so close family has a history of that. Dying so ...
-1
votes
2answers
197 views
An immortal with high regeneration power get beheaded, which part regrows? [closed]
For the purposes of this question, an "immortal" is a human with powerful regeneration abilities, similar to Logan/Wolverine from X-Men. This immortal can regrow limbs when they are cut off.
I was ...
31
votes
17answers
9k views
How can I ensure my existing lifestyle stays the same if I'm immortal?
I'm immortal.
Yes, I could give you the secret and also no I won't. Unless...that is...you help me solve a bit of a dilemma I'm facing.
I recently found out that both my wife and I are immortal and ...
21
votes
20answers
9k views
Why would an immortal make good on his loan?
Premise
My world that has undergone a transformative breakthrough in biology and genetics. It's not just the ultra-rich who have it; rather, everyone is immortal. However, this world's understanding ...
3
votes
4answers
752 views
How would we deal with over population if we make all humans immortal? [closed]
It is said that in the future, scientists will achieve immortality and soon every human on earth would be immortal.
When I say immortal, I mean not dying by any means, not from aging, diseases, ...
4
votes
9answers
580 views
How to mitigate the economic impact of immortality?
So, I'm writing a story about the modern world after a mysterious event starts giving humans superpowers. While most people can only keep a couple of them at a time, there were a few that everyone ...
12
votes
10answers
1k views
Neutral, science-based Undead
I'm looking for one or more biological processes that could be bolstered, changed, or introduced to a human to create a severely extended lifespan, ideally requiring death first, in order to best ...
0
votes
2answers
238 views
As an immortal, how can I find someone to run my kingdom when I get bored? [closed]
It really wasn't all that hard, taking over the kingdom. I had a few hundred years to amass my fortunes, and once the nobility saw through my charade of strikingly similar genes passed from son to son,...
55
votes
31answers
13k views
Why would a race with high longevity but low numbers be aggressive and warlike?
Context
Members of my race can live virtually infinite lives (they still have to drink, eat, and can be killed, but don't age and are immune/really resistant to disease) but are unable to reproduce.
...
-2
votes
1answer
473 views
If we all became immortal at once, will we ever stop expanding the size of population? [closed]
Let's set the boundaries:
Same earth, same time
Overnight we all become immortals and totally indestructible
Peoples never fall ill nor need to sustain themselves
They actually can reproduce without ...
5
votes
9answers
2k views
How advanced could someone make a firearm with Medieval Technology
Assume I have someone who doesn't age, and has a lot of time to learn any skill or experiment with things, but who was born and raised (prior to becoming ageless) in a medieval farming village. He is ...
18
votes
3answers
5k views
(Regrowing) Teeth for Immortals?
Lets suppose there is a race of Immortal beings. What are possible solutions to them slowly losing their teeth due to wear and tear? After all, if a normal human lived for hundreds of years at some ...
-3
votes
1answer
82 views
How to calculate food consumption if all current human suddenly becomes immortal? [closed]
What if all human currently become immortal? Those who lived at particular fraction of time gain immortality and newborn don't have it .
So the ages of people on earth currently will become constant ...
2
votes
5answers
182 views
How could my immortal avoid degenerative diseases?
So my main character was genetically engineered to be biologically immortal.
By this I mean her DNA is a lot better than ours. The telomeres do not degrade over time same as genetic information. ...
1
vote
2answers
344 views
How would a society of immortals view a mortal? [closed]
Imagine a society where everyone is immortal, meaning they cannot die from old age. These people would be exactly like humans in every way, except that they are immortal, but could still be killed by ...
1
vote
1answer
331 views
Immortality via cloning [closed]
In this imaginary future (about 50 years from now), cloning functioning and viable healthy humans is possible.
The procedure needs some stem cells that should be extracted just after your birth. Your ...
218
votes
24answers
56k views
How to safely check if you are immortal?
My hero lived his usual life until recently, when he realized that Magic actually exists. So far he has been granted levitation for a short period of time and invisibility for several hours.
Both ...
1
vote
2answers
116 views
What would an alien teach on medival earth [closed]
My protagonist was a diplomat, and a spy. Things went wrong and he had to flee in a crippled starship. So, he crash-landed on a planet which was inhabit by a primitive life form. He crashed on 16th-...
1
vote
5answers
277 views
Age Reversal Accident - how will this affect the person?
In the future the technology to reverse one's age exists. We can make people younger but not older. One day there is an accident, and someone is reverted to a ten year old, instead of reverting to ...
-3
votes
2answers
305 views
Why would the government ban mind uploading when humans are biologically immortal? [closed]
The year is 2317 C.E.
Assume all existing humans were bitten by radioactive "water-bears" or tardigrades. Ignore statistics and disregard murphy's law. Every human can live forever, unless due to ...
1
vote
1answer
169 views
How to build a literal colossus of disease? [closed]
Say you're a single celled being with the following characteristics.
Able to control disease based cells around it
Human-level intelligence
Virtually immortal
You've been around for millennia. You'...
-2
votes
3answers
308 views
How a hero can detect or test his own immortality? [closed]
The hero is born into universe populated by similarly looking to him people. But he suspects he could be immortal and possess some (maybe, passive) special powers.
The facts known to him:
He ages ...
0
votes
2answers
231 views
How Does One Ensures the Immortality of Their Consciousness [closed]
So lately I have been looking into how immortality is commonly pictured. The immortality of the kind "even if he's dead, he'll be back", when the "soul" (I personally prefer consciousness) of the ...
0
votes
2answers
251 views
Hiding immortality [duplicate]
So I somehow turned into an immortal (I don't age). (Looking ~25-30)
Naturally, this brings around some problems. After ~10 years of fun, people started making comments on how young I look. I fear ...
4
votes
6answers
714 views
How can an organization keep prisoners secured who can escape by death and resurrection? [closed]
In my world, there's a small portion of society who are ageless, and resurrect in a distant location immediately when receiving lethal damage on their body.
And then, there is an organization of "...
