Questions tagged [immortality]
For questions about the ability to live forever.
3
votes
1answer
92 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 ...
26
votes
24answers
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
177 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
193 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
160 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 ...
55
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
226 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
7k 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
879 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**. ...
2
votes
1answer
503 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 ...
0
votes
2answers
162 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
440 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
465 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 ...
11
votes
10answers
906 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
227 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
372 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 ...
-4
votes
1answer
77 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 ...
1
vote
5answers
161 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
236 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
253 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 ...
211
votes
24answers
52k 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
103 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
259 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
286 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
153 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
286 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
199 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
225 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
696 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 "...
2
votes
0answers
162 views
You are alone on Earth. You are immortal. You are tasked to destroy all traces of civilization as quick as possible. What do you do? [closed]
You are alone on Earth. You are immortal. You are tasked to destroy all traces of civilization as quick as possible. What should you do to complete the task quicker?
7
votes
11answers
929 views
Natural environment to force evolution to Immortality
Which natural conditions are needed to force the evolution to immortality? I've read on a page (I don't remember the page) that if the environment is safe, the animal would evolve to have a shorter ...
27
votes
16answers
8k views
How do I make a server of a virtual world indestructible?
Imagine if we would hit a point in time where we would accept that living in a virtual world is better for being happy and would make us near immortal.
And then we would build something like the ...
6
votes
3answers
280 views
Preparing Digital Immortalization
I'm excited to share my little secret with you, if you promise me not to tell anyone else and help me with my little, ambitious quest.
I think I managed to found a way for someone to enter the ...
1
vote
7answers
543 views
Criminal justice if people could live arbitrarily long lives
In modern society the main punishment for a crime is either imprisonment or financial penalty. Even if you're a billionaire, a 20 year prison sentence isn't something to brush off, and a large fine ...
9
votes
21answers
1k views
How does a mundane army defeat an immortal army?
In trying to both invent and prevent mediums with which opposing armies can defeat "Army X", I come to you, stack exchange, hoping for some second-opinions on how to 'defeat an immortal army'.
In ...
25
votes
11answers
11k views
How could immortal children age faster than immortal adults?
In plenty of stories you have beings who age incredibly slowly and are technically immortal. I have a handful of similar such beings who have through some means or other attained the benefits of ...
0
votes
1answer
120 views
Immortals vs the Gateway to Hell [closed]
Deep under the earth, in a stock standard "Deep Dark Cave" is the entrance to the underworld.
It's a very real place, and visible from the far bank of the River of Souls, but no living person can ...
1
vote
2answers
143 views
Can evolution happen in one single individual?
Lets say there is one being (it can as intelligent as a dog or an average human). But lets also give it/him a bit more unorthodox situations.
He/it doesn't need to sleep and eat. Nor also his cell ...
12
votes
9answers
2k views
Should immortal people have a god? [closed]
Assume we are living in a world in which there are immortal people living among us.
According to some religions the gods are eternal, and according to logic, everything with a start must have an end.
...
12
votes
2answers
451 views
How long would it take for someone to forget the most important things in their life? [closed]
Professor Y is trapped in a virtual reality. The VR is running on accelerated time to the point where he can live out millions of lifetimes in a real-life day, basically giving him immortality within ...
9
votes
8answers
4k views
What Disease(s) could Kill an Immortal?
Ignorance is curable, living is forever. Robert A. Heinlein1
Cutting to the hard data:
Due to some or another reason2 the genetic information stored inside cells (aka DNA) of my Immortals does not ...
3
votes
4answers
639 views
What would immortality do to a society [closed]
So I really don't know, how bad or good it would be for a
species to reach immortality, so some questions.
The world is set in a near future and I talk about humans no special kind of alien.
I talk ...
