Eternal Youth in Sci-fi

What would change in a science fiction setting where aging had been cured for a long time? Would technological progress be slowed by immortal people not changing with the times? Would it progress even faster due to lifetimes of acquired knowledge?
What happens when you throw aliens into the mix? Would people as willingly risk their lives to explore the unknown?

I'm intrigued by the idea of making a setting with this in mind, but I can't quite wrap my mind around the possibilities. It seems like something we'd expect to have in some form before owning an interstellar empire, but I can't think of any sci-fi where aging isn't a problem.

In Star Trek, to reference your picture, the reason the Federation was so keen on exploration and scientific advancement was because they'd developed a society that was almost entirely free of want, and built upon libertarian-leftist values. Rather than devolve into hedonism or become warlike, they chose exploration as the most fulfilling goal.

Societies in sci-fi who remove aspects of humanity that were important to our development, but not necessarily necessary for human fulfillment (death, hunger, needless hardship) tend to redirect their interest elsewhere, usually 1: war, 2: hedonism, or 3: exploration/arts/science.

>Would technological progress be slowed by immortal people not changing with the times?

Generally, this. It's no secret in the sciences that most great discoveries are made by people in their 20s and 30s. After that, people tend to get set in their ways and resistant to changes, and it's up to a new generation to make the next breakthrough.

A future with eternal life and youth would likely have AMAZING academies and universities, however, where professors with centuries of wisdom would pass on their knowledge to the young and eager.

Being "set in their ways" is the result of their neural tissue breaking down.

>What would change in a science fiction setting where aging had been cured for a long time?
It becomes a fantasy setting

Overpopulating becomes a big issue very quickly. Nobody dies of natural causes means you're going to die of starvation unless you fight for your food. And since the 500 year olds will have much more knowledge and be more established politically you're probably going to end up with a static population where new children are allowed only when an unnatural death occurs.

So now you have a civilisation which rarely has any new individuals. That sort of dynamic gets touched on a bit with vampire coven fiction, you have these ancient matri/patriarchs with lots of feuds and old alliances and history, and obviously younger members are subservient but perhaps ambitious. Some people might go insane, others become paranoid and obsessed with staying alive forever.

The other question is what actually enables this magic anti-aging? If its a treatment that needs to be maintained than whoever controls that controls the civilisation.

The Mars Trilogy does a good take on an anti-aging drug (though it just gives you 300 or so years, and you're an ultra-granny by the end)

I had / have something like this. A character in a setting/story I have found an ancient telomerase-shortening drug that had been hidden away because people worried it would create a population explosion. He injected him and his wife with it because I wanted them to be semi-permanent characters and needed an excuse for him to stay alive through multiple generations of the family he serves. Ironically they have this long-lasting life inborn into them yet he has lived through three generations of them so far. He could probably survive for 300 years if he isn't killed in combat first (and he is the only character with real, true plot armor because he is the "start to finish" character).

This is assuming this setting doesn't have hyperdrives.

Also I imagine death cults would become a big thing in a society like this.

>hyperdrives
I guess you mean for moving the population elsewhere? It doesn't really fix the problem, it no different than sub-light galactic expansion, or even the situation on a single planet.

The first wave from your homeworld goes and makes colonies, but your homeworld keeps breeding and you send a second wave who'll either have to fight the first colonists or go out further. And it doesn't stop.

I've been working on the railroad
All the live-long day.

Overpopulation becomes less of an issue with a method of faster than light travel and planets to colonize.
One reason that I'm fixated on the idea of no aging is its potential to make the setting a little more coherent. Nobody is dying of old age, and populations are exploding, so people are jumping at the chance to colonize other planets. Technology isn't progressing toward infinity because people are stuck in their old ways. Boredom from living too long driving people into expansion and conquest.

At least some people would, after a while, run out and do all kinds of reckless shit, basically as an equivalent to the "I've lived long enough, now I want to die in glorious battle" kind of behavior. Or, to put it a different way, kind of like bucket list behavior but with more of an adrenaline high.

Plus, such a society would likely have amazing medical science, so any non-fatal injuries that pop up along the way would probably be able to be dealt with.

>faster than light travel
>people are stuck in their old ways
I don't really see those people being a sustainable civilisation. Someone, aliens or radical young 'uns, will develop better tech and then they'll take over.

> Boredom from living too long
I'm pretty sure people would be more into a nice painless suicide rather than continually exploring space (which is pretty boring) until they die in an probably painful accident. Some will do it sure, but they'd be a minority

I mean its your setting, do whatever you want, but an immortality drug has a lot of implications some of which are contrary to what you seem to want. Those sorts of contradictions can lead to a loss of verisimilitude and kill all semblance of realism in the setting.

>I don't really see those people being a sustainable civilisation. Someone, aliens or radical young 'uns, will develop better tech and then they'll take over.
And then the cycle repeats. Sounds pretty interesting to me.

>immortality drug
It could be a lot of things really. Genetic engineering before birth is a likely prospect. I also like the idea of it being a common medical procedure that most people get a few times each century. That would give room for people to age just a little bit so it's not a setting entirely of 25 year olds.

>continually exploring space
Actually I was referring to something more along the lines of mountain climbing with no gear, seeing just how low they could go when skydiving before opening their chute, etc.

I'm sure some would go exploring, but exploring is too boring for the types I'm thinking of.

First, Damn you Spock, I was going to get stuff done tonight.

>What would change in a science fiction setting where aging had been cured for a long time?
Relationships would be a lot different. “Till Death Do Us Part” would be insane.
Marriage and children would no longer be important concepts.

>Would technological progress be slowed by immortal people not changing with the times?
Other anons said it. I’ll say it in quote form:
“If an old scientist tells you something can be done, then it almost certainly can be done.
If an old scientist tells you something can be done, then it almost certainly can be done.”
Regardless of what that one user says, people get set in their ways easily and it takes a disciplined mind to keep ones beliefs from tainting your knowledge.

>Would it progress even faster due to lifetimes of acquired knowledge?
Imagine the last few decades on speed. A wide range of certain things, everyone knows or can know instantly. Some things get completely forgotten. But I imagine specific concentrations of knowledge would progress only slightly faster as most people are learning about hoverboards and Future-apps, not advance microbiology.

>What happens when you throw aliens into the mix?
They stick to the wall if they’re cooked enough.
Seriously? Literally anything and everything.

>Would people as willingly risk their lives to explore the unknown?
The young are more equipped for danger, less frail and afraid, and a higher population would mean a higher number of willing explorers.
So, slightly.

>I can't think of any sci-fi where aging isn't a problem.
There was the Brunnen-G from Lexx. Their older generations were so bored that they faced annihilation entirely non-plussed.

>I can't quite wrap my mind around the possibilities.
Well, here’s one possibility:
>Be me
>Be chillin’ at a schway future bar
>See this shiny hot chick
>Start to approach her
>Her face seems familiar
>Have I already nailed her?
>Wait, was she my third mate? No…
>Oh, she recognizes me!
>Did she used to university with me?
>Frell, here she is!
>”Oh hello little Timmy, I haven’t seen you in centuries!”
>”Great-grand-ma-ma? I-uh-er-h-hello!”
>”You’re looking fit, wanna go find a room?”

Seriously though, without some form of technology to enhance the human memory, there would be serious issues.
The human mind is currently not capable of usefully retaining centuries of data.

What if people could have their memories erased as well? Live for 3 lifetimes, get bored, start fresh and do it again.

It would make an interesting dystopia as well, where only certain knowledgeable/qualified/powerful people may retain their memories beyond x number of years. The ones that get to keep their minds would tell everyone how boring life is, and how great it must be to start fresh every century.

>What if people could have their memories erased as well? Live for 3 lifetimes, get bored, start fresh and do it again.
>It would make an interesting dystopia as well, where only certain knowledgeable/qualified/powerful people may retain their memories beyond x number of years. The ones that get to keep their minds would tell everyone how boring life is, and how great it must be to start fresh every century.
This could actually work well.
The individuals consenting to have their memories wiped removes some of the dystopian aspect to it, but not all.
It's a bit like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dark City, and Big O.

Also:
>The Keepers are the only ones that keep all their memories.
>The Keepers run everything.
>The human mind can't hold all these feels, thoughts, and memories.
>The Keepers start to go mad.
>The Keepers try to hide this phenomenon to maintain society.
>The Keepers all go mad.
>Nobody notices anything because nobody remembers a time when the Keepers weren't mad.

Or is it just the university system bumps them up to 'professor' positions where the entirety of their workload is split between filling out funding grant applications, correcting the spelling mistakes on papers that phD students and post docs write for them, and teaching undergrads?

The Federation also doesn't have anti-aging technology. They have really good healthcare. But everyone in the Federation still ages at their natural rate, which for someone like Spock is slower than for humans.

The one time the Feds might have gotten their hands on it, it turned an Admiral corrupt. But they turn corrupt if they stub their toe in the morning, so that's not really anything to go by.

>The Federation also doesn't have anti-aging technology. They have really good healthcare.
Living to a healthy 137 years old is not bad.

The Federation may not have perfect immortality, but culturally they show off many traits of a culture that has been freed from various OTHER types of human limitations, without turning into a dystopian shithole.

Bones is probably also the single oldest human being we have seen in Star Trek. It's probably got more to do with his desire to not die before Spock does than any indication of the Feds' medical technology.

Then again, he might have invented half the stuff that let him even reach that age. Either way, Bones seems like a bit of an outlier.

But how much of that wisdom would be useful, and how much would be centuries out of date? Newtonian physics might be a useful approximation, but it's still been superseded.

>spend the last century mastering and teaching the art of running a newspaper.
>fmil

Well considering you'd have tons of people who personally witnessed various historical events, and could give personal conjecture on the evolution of scientific hypothesis in their lifetime. It wouldn't always be able just the information, but the wisdom of the teachers.

Consider this: if immortality had been invented in the 16th century, how do you think that people born in Elizabethan England would respond to modern Europe?

Social progress would be stymied or slowed at best.