I wouldn't mind being immortal...

[cherydactyl]

I have so many things I would like to do in life, I think I need several lifetimes to do them all. Concurrent ones might be nice, but consecutive is fine too.

It occurs to me that a long-lived male person is easy to conceive of...Lazurus Long, for example. The problem with conceiving a similarly long-lived female is in reproductive timelines. Unlike men who mature sexually and pretty much stay viable and potent, women have a definite reproductive lifecycle defined by a limited number of ova, which are said to be created before she is born. Or, at least the men don't decline because of reproductive schedule, only due to overall health.

Would a long-lived female only be able to live the bulk of her life post-menopausally? Or would it imply she had an extra-big set of eggs, that her 'monthly' cycles only happened once per year, or less frequently? Were of longer duration? Would it mean she violated the rule of being born with all the ova she would ever have? Would menopause after a few hundred years of cycling mean impending death within a few decades?

How annoying it is that men could easily be supposed to be long lived and fully potent for their duration, but to have an immortal woman be believable requires one to consider her reproductive stage. Well, I guess really it requires *me* to consider it. I can't help it that I must critically examine ideas. Truly I can't.

I heard somewhere (I believe it was a Frazz strip, bolstered by Roald Dahl's Matilda, I suppose), that mammals have a certain number of heart beats in their lifetimes and then they are done. Which explains why exercise is so good for longevity, because although heart rates peak during exercise, it also causes a slower heart beat at rest.

To paraphrase George Carlin, these are things I think about when the computer is downloading and my family are asleep (so I can't make too much noise).

p.s. I keep thinking I need to write down some of these ideas in a file and start writing short stories.

p.p.s. I did finally start reading The Ode Less Traveled by Stephen Fry this morning. Maybe poetry first. Then later, I can tackle drawing, painting, photography, sailing, fencing, aikido, tai chi, game design, juggling, calligraphy, paper making, baking, science reporting, essay writing, mountain climbing, and all the other hobbies I would like to pursue but don't have time for.

Comments

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

I agree. There is a big difference between being unable to have more children (women after menopause) and able to have more children but having increased risk for certain genetic defects (older men).

You can probably get around the issue by having artificial uteri and frozen eggs. Then an immortal woman isn't bound by any finite number of eggs.

Here's another solution... have immortal women put their periods on hold. We're doing that now with certain types of birth control pills. If don't have a period, then you're not using up an egg. Then we have deal with any problems of aging eggs may cause.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

I'm not worried about it from the perspective of the hypothetical immortal woman wanting to reproduce through her lifespan (I figure we have stem cells in the possibility pipeline in the next 20 or 40 years, for example), but about what stage of life she would be in throughout her extended span. I would rather be a physical 30-something than a physical 65-year-old if I were to live for hundreds of years. For one thing, apparent-65-year-olds rock climbing and sky-diving are rather more remarkable, and therefore such a person is more likely to be noticed as the ages wear on.