Questions tagged [immortality]
For questions about the ability to live forever.
125
questions
17
votes
19answers
6k views
How would the punishment of murder change if people could just respawn?
In this world, since there has been writing, when someone dies unless they are pregnant, they kill themselves on purpose, or they die while asleep, they will respawn where they last slept, just like ...
-2
votes
1answer
58 views
Could my deuterostome-like species exist? [closed]
I am writing a science-fantasy story that is set in a pseudo-post-apocalyptic Earth ten million years in the future, and it is about a strange creature that looks vaguely a deuterostome called Céleste ...
2
votes
3answers
187 views
How would an immortal go about conquering the world? [closed]
Bob Jennings is immortal. His abilities are such:
He is completely immune to bodily harm, i.e. bullets bounce off of him, he can't get killed by anything.
He does not have to breathe or eat.
He is ...
5
votes
2answers
485 views
What would happen after an immortal suffered brain damage?
Assuming the existence of an immortal being with almost instant regeneration, if he suffered brain damage and regenerated, his memories, personality, etc. would they be restored or lost? Would it ...
2
votes
1answer
93 views
What would an inhabitable world for a very long term immortal be? [closed]
I've seen a a lots of topics about short/mid term immortality, but I'm interested in very long term immortality in the range of millions of years.
The immortal character, a Homo Sapiens, has slowly ...
11
votes
7answers
573 views
Can a Digital Immortal Pass Away?
Digital Immortality
It is the virtual era, and mankind has progressed towards immortality, realized through conversion of the body and mind (and soul) into a digital form, allowing people to shed ...
4
votes
5answers
164 views
How does my society manage to not fall apart? [closed]
So, I am writing a story which is set in a world almost identical to real, except there is small difference, about ten percent of human population ages almost twice as fast as normal, they reach "...
25
votes
14answers
5k views
Why would some immortal beings choose to appear elderly?
In a magical world where mages can become immortal, why would some of them retain the appearance of being old (70s-80s), even though they can become young and beautiful? Even some mages who become ...
0
votes
2answers
83 views
In a space faring egalitarian civilization where immortality is the norm, how would you enforce an upper limit on age by region? [closed]
The premise is a space faring civilization that achieved post scarcity and immortality but not enlightened enough to be immune to petty feelings like jealousy.
In this post scarcity civilization, the ...
3
votes
2answers
332 views
Creature that increases its own lifespan by killing other members of its own species
There is an intelligent creature whose natural life span is around 50 years, during which they need to feed to not die of starvation, and after which they naturally die. But killing other beings of ...
2
votes
3answers
167 views
Possibly of achieving prolonged immortality
Death, most if not all of us fear it. However, it may be possible to postpone death for a while, and hopefully entirely. One major way of postponing death for awhile is through the biological route, I....
4
votes
6answers
317 views
Why must all deities visiting the realm of the living become mortal? [closed]
There are many states of being in this world, and some have managed to become immortal and gain the ability to manipulate nature at will to a certain extent. People called them deities and they are ...
3
votes
6answers
373 views
Could a Ruling Class of Immortals Lead to Significant Social and Technical Stagnation?
There is a land ruled by Alchemists who have used their craft and powers to cheat death itself.
Centuries ago they learned how to create artificial humans without conscious minds that were useful ...
3
votes
6answers
195 views
Biological Explanations for Aging Stopping in a 100% Human Being
So there's this man that was born 1,000 years ago, but today he's still living and he's (biologically) 28 years old. He just stopped aging at that age.
He is not immortal. He has been hurt in wars. ...
11
votes
2answers
686 views
Forgetting Curve of an Immortal Being
The older a memory is the fewer details we remember. The importance or impact of an event can also drastically affect how much we remember about it, but even the most impactful will, presumably, ...
1
vote
2answers
229 views
Is there any way that an immortal being could go without being ever noticed? [closed]
I've started this concept of a series of stories, in which an immortal being causes all of the conflicts for his own entertainment. The question is how could he go unnoticed by any modern government? ...
27
votes
15answers
10k views
How does an immortal vampire king hide his vampirism and immortality?
I am aware of this question, but I think my situation is somewhat different. In the low-fantasy setting I'm working on, the king is a vampire in a world in which vampirism is punished by death. But ...
0
votes
4answers
278 views
In a population of 30 million, how many people would a 3,000-year-old know?
In my universe, everyone is a few thousand years old (ranging from about 1,500 to 4,000 years) and the population is capped at around 30 million people. People live pretty spread out across a planet ...
7
votes
9answers
1k views
Immortal Passing Ritual [closed]
On a different planet, humanoid creatures called immortals have achieved immortality.
The society is built specifically for these immortals, so in general, the immortals enjoy and cherish their lives....
18
votes
15answers
10k views
How would a young girl/boy (about 14) who never gets old survive in the 16th century? [closed]
In fantasy setting, in medieval time, there are a disease, curse... for simplicity in this scenario, let's call it "vampire".
The victim who is afflicted with this "vampirism" does not get older. So ...
0
votes
4answers
237 views
How one can verify if they are protected by the system (universe) without taking any risks? [duplicate]
The observer should determine whether he is in some kind of game where the system will not allow him to die while at the same time hiding this fact from him. The system can use any unsuspicious means ...
4
votes
5answers
547 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
245 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 ...
15
votes
9answers
4k 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
275 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
215 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
611 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
198 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 ...
8
votes
2answers
234 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
306 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
270 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
599 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
2k 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
773 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
114 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
10k 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
319 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 ...
3
votes
4answers
283 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
222 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
5k 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 ...
58
votes
16answers
12k 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
318 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 ...
25
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
1k 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
618 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
267 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 ...
32
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 ...
22
votes
20answers
10k 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 ...
