- [I] Ideas - anything that didn't make it into [[2022-06-06 Love]] - "genetically engineering roosters to be smart" - "political factions getting away with things because status quo inertia" - inspired a little by Robert Heinlein & Time Enough for Love I've written [stories about the downsides of immortality before](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/the-offer) %% ( [[2021-08-18 The Offer (DRAFT)]] ) %%, but not since I’ve read some of the new research coming out on that front. While I don’t personally identify as a rationalist (a trait I’ll admit I’m told is common to rationalists :sweat_smile:), I read Scott Alexander‘s newsletter Astral Codex Ten pretty regularly and do keep up with what’s going on in the rationalist blogosphere, though I’ll _also_ admit that’s a word I have difficulty even writing with a straight face. Anyway, philosophers, alchemists and scientists have been seeking the secrets of eternal life for a long time, and storytellers have been warning about the side effects for what I assume is just as long. The one that always springs to my mind when the subject comes up is the Greek story of the goddess who asked for her husband to have eternal life, and wound up married to a grasshopper. Somebody later on learned their lesson and asked instead for eternal youth, which is preferable for what is probably obvious in retrospect. That worked out pretty well, I guess, as far as Greek gods go. _The Offer_ deals with a guy who isn’t really enthusiastic immortality. I thought it might be fun to write about Savali, since he’s very driven — essentially the opposite of _The Offer_’s protagonist, who is driven by a son’s love for his mother and willing to sacrifice his happiness to keep her from suffering. Immortals show up pretty often in stories, but most often it’s just inherent to the nature of the creature — like the gods who were trying to get their human paramours to share their lifespan and nature. Or elves, who never die and simply sail away to quieter shores when they’re done with the pace of life among mortal-kind. Or vampires, who _do_ die but continue on with just a few inconveniences, like an aversion to sunlight and a ravenous thirst for blood. A lot of fantastical immortals are of the “can be killed but can’t die of natural causes and don’t age much past a certain point” variety, which makes sense for creatures like werewolves who are “turned” but leads naturally to the low fertility rates of the fae, since the elderly actually play a key role in child rearing in species that experience menopause (i.e. humans and elephants). Three of my favorite authors have functionally immortal protagonists; Kate Daniels (written by Ilona Andrews) comes from a very magical bloodline; her father was born in the Fertile Crescent during the very early days of human civilization. She was born into postmodern Atlanta and is able to “eat the apples of immortality with impunity.” Otherwise, though, she presents as a fairly normal 30ish woman who marries, has kids, and deals with leaving the shadow of a frustrating parent. L. E. Modesitt’s _Forever Hero_ is, by contrast, a genetic freak born into a post-apocalyptic Earth, rescued as a brilliant but feral child by a spacefaring human civilization, and is basically the only one of his kind. Robert Heinlein’s Lazarus Long (born Woodrow Wilson Smith in the early 20th century and, in some timelines, the first man on the moon) is also a genetic freak, but he’s not totally unique in his longevity, either. He’s an early product of an outright breeding experiment aimed at producing long-lived humans; the Howard Foundation pays qualifying members to make babies with other qualifying members. Early qualifications consist essentially of having had your grandparents and great-grandparents live to a certain age. Lazarus Long lives for thousands of years through a combination of excellent genetics and rejuvenation techniques developed by a population convinced that the Howard families were “keeping the secrets of longevity to themselves,” i.e. lying about it just being good genetics. Anyway, _Time Enough for Love_ is the book that centers on his long, long life, and the premise is that after many thousands of years and many fine adventures, Lazarus is bored enough to want to experience aging to death. He refuses rejuvenation techniques and finds a flophouse where he can go out in peace. The only problem is that although he does his best to protect his anonymity, the Howard Foundation leadership has a top-notch spying apparatus and a great deal of interest in keeping Lazarus’ excellent genes around. After all, he’s an ancestor or cousin (many times removed) to most of them basically the last witness to most of their history, and a living legend. So they haul him out of the flophouse and illegally refuse to honor his suicide attempts and finally manage to get him into a sort of reverse-Schezenfraud deal where as long as people keep showing up to listen to his stories, he’ll agree to live while Foundation leadership (and their emerging AI) figure out some sort of new experience worth staying alive for. Lazarus has all of Savali’s disdain for bureaucracy and political hangers-on and the slow wheels of political change, but underestimates the Chairman’s willpower and the cleverness of the Foundation’s computer. She cracks time travel and even how to hop into parallel universes. They wind up all falling in love, of course. The AI spins her personality out into a meatspace body, leaving behind a bud or twin who also achieves sentinence. Then there’s a lot of incest; he hooks up with his twin clone daughters as well as his own mother (nearly with his toddler self in the back seat of the car). In between buffing and raising babies, they found some sort of Time Corps. Anyway, _Time Enough For Love_ was the first time I was exposed to the idea that the worst part of living forever as a highly competent Renaissance man all but worshipped as a god might be sheer boredom. My take on The Realmwalker is in a lot of ways a more sciency homage to Lazarus Long — without the incest and polygamy. ## Further Reading - Check out the [[2022-06-06 Love|Love Newsletter]] for more about how Savali acquired love.