Could Immortals be living among us?

I'm going to post a "what if" reply to provoke some different thought on this topic:


"What if" our life span is actually 900 years (as stated in the bible) and "what if" this modern population reduction eugenics agenda is the plan to kill us off before we reach 100 years old. (as babies so to speak)

we keep waiting for this population reduction thing to happen (en masse) well what if it's already been happening??

maybe the immortals escaped this eugenics biowarfare (because of immune system anomalies).

food for thought.

reply to post by infowarrior9970


Doesn't make much sense to me. In all of recorded history the average lifespan is below what ours is now with quite a few people living modern lifespans. You'd have to advocate this "eugenics conspiracy" going back thousands of years affecting nerarly everyone. Yeah, we have some mythology that supposedly points to longer ages, including the Biblical Noah and a few Greek gods. I do not think those anecdotal tales are enough to hang your hat on, really.

The question in my mind is still, are there immortals among us, and, if so, were they "engineered" in the sense that discovering the method would make it open to everyone, or are they simply the result of a mutant gene they had no control of? Ben Abba's opinion is that if you "eat right to keep fit" and have a good attitude, that's all it takes because you can "re-program" yourself. My opinion is that there is no evidence to support that contention, but that a mutant gene is technically possible.

And to the cockroach guy, really. Is it possible for you to BE more off-topic? Go start a thread on cockroaches or something.

Originally posted by schuyler
reply to post by infowarrior9970

 

Doesn't make much sense to me. In all of recorded history the average lifespan is below what ours is now with quite a few people living modern lifespans. You'd have to advocate this "eugenics conspiracy" going back thousands of years affecting nerarly everyone. Yeah, we have some mythology that supposedly points to longer ages, including the Biblical Noah and a few Greek gods. I do not think those anecdotal tales are enough to hang your hat on, really.

The question in my mind is still, are there immortals among us, and, if so, were they "engineered" in the sense that discovering the method would make it open to everyone, or are they simply the result of a mutant gene they had no control of? Ben Abba's opinion is that if you "eat right to keep fit" and have a good attitude, that's all it takes because you can "re-program" yourself. My opinion is that there is no evidence to support that contention, but that a mutant gene is technically possible.

And to the cockroach guy, really. Is it possible for you to BE more off-topic? Go start a thread on cockroaches or something.

Actually if you stop to put some thought into it, quickly replicating life forms would be the first places you'd see any modern tampering with genetics more than likely. What you are doing, by knowing that I am upset about a home issue and accusing me of being off topic because it's so easy to do that to someone who is frustrated and reaching for answers... is PREVENTING the conversation from going in a direction that should be obvious. VERY obvious. You'd see an immortal bug in this world before you'd see an immortal person... think about it.

We've got pathogens which appear extremely difficult to destroy when they are probably not.

We've got pathogens that learn our own DNA and biological systems and learn to use these things against our own bodies that we seem to be able to do nothing about without destroying our own systems.

They are able to do this because they are fused with us... just as I now have very some very stubborn and virulent cockroaches. I sincerely believe by watching their behavior that they are picking up things from me. Sometimes they don't seem to be nearly as interested in food that might be around (such as what's left in the cat's bowl) as they are tracing steps and looking for clues... perhaps clues to understanding their own patterns... their own nature. THEY are even less able to break their own patterns than we are. THEY can't even stop themselves from having young that they will have to compete with for food, because THEY don't even understand the behavior that brings on replication. They have no idea. Some of these females are doing some very strange things. You'd be surprised. Despite the fact that most of the things they do are completely contrary to wanting to break their own cycle.... because that's all they freaking do is poop, eat, screw and have babies.... but I think that is actually what they want MOST!

It's weird observing them but it is not healthy.... I think there are many things about them we don't know.

...but what does that have to do with being immortal? If I step on these roaches, they certainly do die but so would an immortal if he was stepped on. Besides, it's not good to step on them... it spreads germs and eggs.

Also, I don't want to explain my whole situation to you but there are experiments that go on around here. I was unknowingly involved with some of these people and just recently found out about it a little too late.

There is a group of people around here who are into the paranormal, metaphysics.... just as much as anyone you'd find on this site... but they are close to people in the government and in our very own department of defense. They have these clandestine brain storming sessions they call "the meeting of the minds" where they try to pretend like they can tap into arcane knowledge and take what they find and make money off of it and help the government be even more sneaky than it is.

The real estate company I rent from is tied to state authorities as well. Something I have recently been learning about... despite the fact that this state is a two party consent state for recordings and the like... it's still going on in a investigative manner illegally... and in some very strange places. In slums. It's usually for gang investigations but these properties are also used for other things. The guy who brought me here to look at this place is the same guy who pulled the other place out from underneath me because they didn't want to put me there... but what he doesn't know that I know is that him and a few members of his family are employed by the federal government. wait...the editor has gone screwy and I'm going to have to wrap this up and start over to show you Y I want my QUESTION ANSW

reply to post by schuyler


Hi everyone, I originally posted this topic and notice the 2 at the end of my name, this is my second account. I cannot get back into my old one at the moment so for now, I will be responding to your posts under this name.

I do think that we have the genes and the body functions to live forever. Not as in your soul, but physically. We can learn how to enhance our genes through technology and science and it will be only a matter of time before we can turn off the ageing process. Maybe somebody else already turned it off, when we became, "aware" as in the story of the Garden of Eden.

on second thought... I'm going to have to explain this later. I have to go buy plastic. if they run me out of here... i will have to go stay in a house worth a buttload of money over on beachside that is like, an 1/8 of a mile to the north gate of the beginning of their shoreline... in a house THEY OWN.

My sister said she was going to come talk to me because we never spend time and I know something she will be talking to me about. "they" are going to be funding yet a new company... cleaning company, cleaning the same building yada yada having to put up with the same crap. That's going to be the solution offered to me to keep me from leaving the area. It will be presented as the only one available and i would have to stay in this beach house owned by these same freaking people who own the company and have done all the things they do. mark my words, that is what is on the table even if it has not been presented to me yet. I haven't yet worked out all the "anti-measures"

...but yeah... more about the immortality and less about crazy #ers who do crazy #. no, no... more about both!

Genetic engineering will bring you things like big intelligent bugs that can't die. They just live and live and think and live and think some more and live and they got real damn smart but they got that way as other life forms were engineered in different ways... like aggression... to be fighting machine, instead of thinking machines.

Yeah, you'd much rather have smart bugs than really aggressive garbage consuming bugs (which are engineered for those exact reasons) or attack bugs but IMMUNE BUGS? bugs that never stop adapting and never go away. Bugs that never stop trying to solve their obstacles, like Jehovah and when they blow themselves up in an experiment solely because they needed to know what would happen, they grow their parts back together after carrying them back to the repair station.

No, I don't know if jehovah ever really blew himself to just see what would happen but i do maintain that he was a smart, somewhat shy, seemingly immortal bug with a lot of bad ticks on an off day due to his PTSD but generally with a very good heart.... so please do not try to tell me that i can't put these two subjects together... because in my mind, they are already together and the fact that the government likes doing genetic experiments and we wind up with crap we can't kill. How can this not be related?

anyway... sorry that this has to be so scattered to some but i only have so much time and i have to go get sheets of plastic because this is presenting an obstacle to me obviously and I am also panicking a little about not being able to find someone who i was talking to just a few months ago among all the other stuff. There is a lot going on!!! I still feel the need to mention things... not for my own health or entertainment!!!
If ONLY YOU KNEW!!!


Now who was that lady they drove crazy with the cockroaches and ultimately they abducted her and held her until she died of dehydration or something. they were crazy Scientology people in this very state! Why were they holding her again? THIS CRAP doesn't even have to make sense to be happening... people still do this stuff.
I'm not saying THOSE cockroaches were immortal or THESE cockroaches are immortal, but i want to know who those people are..... and... if they were engineering cockroaches where would they be doing it? where do they breed bugs? somebody here must know that... i bet somebody does.

i bet you would find a lot of interesting things by looking at that kind of bio-engineering because they breed bugs for different things and they can get away with this out in the open to a large extent, so if you looked at that field, you'd find some interesting stuff i bet! I bet you can find all kinds of crazy stuff that they would have to keep more hidden in the world of mammals. You can murder bugs all day and get away with it.

you know how the majority of the world believes they will be granted eternal life based on some kind of sacrifice?

what is the pathway from sacrificial behavior to immortality? because it appears there is one at least in theory.
furthermore, life forms are parasitic outside of being sacrificial but parasites are also connected to immortality if only i popular culture (human vampires)

these roaches keep doing something really weird and i know there must be a scientific explanation to this very peculiar handling of the egg case.. but the behavior itself appears to be sacrificial. it is very, very odd.

reply to post by BlackSatinDancer

wait...the editor has gone screwy and I'm going to have to wrap this up and start over to show you Y I want my QUESTION ANSW

Too funny! Thanks for the laugh! The editor has not gone screwy. It's just that you've exceeded your 5,000 character limit for a post. There's a counter at the bottom left of the screen which tells you how many characters you have left. Demanding your question be answered probably does not sit well with most people either. You WANT YOUR QUESTION ANSWERED? Uh....

No.

To return to the actual question on the table, are there immortals among us? In my last post I mentioned that I thought it might be technically possible through a random mutation, but that I doubted "living well and keeping fit" would actually accomplish the feat. However, the literature often suggests this. I just thought of another novel, Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins in which the protaganists extend their lives by a special breathing technique and lots of sex. Well, that's Tom Robbins for you, but it does suggest a "special technique" will get you there. In Robbins' novel you have to keep doing it or the effects wear off and you again begin to age. So, in the literature, at least, there are three basic ways to get immortality:

1. Genetic mutation, over which you have no control. It just happens.
2. Supernatural intervention, e.g. The Wandering Jew story. "Thou shalt tarry til I return."
3. Human intervention by some sort of manipulation.

Now maybe it's just me, but I'm kinda doubting #2 happens. If that's part of someone else's reality, Okay, but in any case, you're still not in control unless petitions to your favorite god actually do work for you.

But, if y'all wanna talk cockroaches, feel free. Anyone else?

I don't personally know of any immortals but my mind is not closed to the idea of physical immortality. Its strange because I was just discussing on another forum here. Even though it is a huge stretch to believe in physical immortality, seems like there is more and more reason to believe its possible but wow would it ever take a radical change of mind. We're all indoctrinated into the idea of death from our earliest years. There is pretty much no way of escaping the idea of having to die..its in our books and movies..go to the store to buy a card and the next section over is sympathy cards...we have a holiday for the dead (Halloween, Days of the Dead, All Souls Day)... our relatives have all told us about it and so on. Who could of escaped the idea that death is inevitable in this death-ist culture? No one.

Yet how many times are we being told there is a mind-body-spirit connection? And it can even be the key to healing. And how many times are we told we get what we believe? If death is a strong unwavering belief in our consciousness it will be not be contradicted.

Its odd that many people (not all but many) believe we have a spirit. We can accept that the spirit is immortal even though we can't see or converse with other spirits (some say they can though) yet many believe the spirit will never die. We can hold this belief about something we know so little about and yet refuse to accept it for our physical bodies..strange.

I'm not so sure we were really supposed to get this evolved and still be dying. I think there was a mistake. Dying to me in the physical is very primitive. Its a waste. Its like the whole disposable culture we're in. Use it and throw it away, get a new one (which reincarnation would suggest you can do --get another one).

If there are immortals among us, I think they keep a low profile. Most especially because our ideas of death would contaminate their beliefs maybe even just subconsciously. Interesting thread OP. .

Originally posted by schuyler
reply to post by BlackSatinDancer

 

wait...the editor has gone screwy and I'm going to have to wrap this up and start over to show you Y I want my QUESTION ANSW

Too funny! Thanks for the laugh!

The editor has not gone screwy. It's just that you've exceeded your 5,000 character limit for a post. There's a counter at the bottom left of the screen which tells you how many characters you have left. Demanding your question be answered probably does not sit well with most people either. You WANT YOUR QUESTION ANSWERED? Uh....

No.

To return to the actual question on the table, are there immortals among us? In my last post I mentioned that I thought it might be technically possible through a random mutation, but that I doubted "living well and keeping fit" would actually accomplish the feat. However, the literature often suggests this. I just thought of another novel, Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins in which the protaganists extend their lives by a special breathing technique and lots of sex. Well, that's Tom Robbins for you, but it does suggest a "special technique" will get you there. In Robbins' novel you have to keep doing it or the effects wear off and you again begin to age. So, in the literature, at least, there are three basic ways to get immortality:

1. Genetic mutation, over which you have no control. It just happens.
2. Supernatural intervention, e.g. The Wandering Jew story. "Thou shalt tarry til I return."
3. Human intervention by some sort of manipulation.

Now maybe it's just me, but I'm kinda doubting #2 happens. If that's part of someone else's reality, Okay, but in any case, you're still not in control unless petitions to your favorite god actually do work for you.

But, if y'all wanna talk cockroaches, feel free. Anyone else?

ok, even though the post didn't seem as long as many others i've seen... thanks for the tip and perhaps i will even be able to see it on this screen.

secondly though... speak for yourself about your own interpretation of questions... if you think it matters.

as for the keeping fit and things like that... I think such a meager degree of health suggestions as "breathe" and "have sex" is actually pretty moot itself but opinions, you know...

Having no control over genetic mutation is HIGHLY debatable though. I think if you look you will find many examples of genetic mutations that are directly linked to some type of resistance or longevity, but if you DON'T want to talk about that... that is fine too.

you ought to read articles on how they genetically engineer plants to be resistant to bugs and disease and so then the bugs and diseases have to become more resistant to the resistant plants... and perhaps we really should be wondering if genetic modification should even be thought about in such a manner but then again, if we seek no control over the potential to genetically modify things that we feel we have rights to, including ourselves... then who or what will?

Originally posted by IblisLucifer
reply to post by DontBlameMeCosIdidntDoIt

 

Would you or anyone else consider the Dalai Lama to be a person in habited by a Immortal being

I would say yes. Tibetan Buddhism seeks conscious immortality through meditation. That is what a Buddha is, an all loving, intelligent and immortal being. Rinpoches (which there are many) are known as the 'Precious Ones. They are' monks and lamas that have attained enlightenment and are thus consciously immortal, meaning they choose when they will die and where they will incarnate, or have a very good estimation, or they will move on to Nirvana. After training in a monastery fro childhood, they remember their past lives and are tested to prove it so. "Unmistaken Child" is an excellent documentary about a monks master who passed away and it is his duty to find the incarnation.

oh wait... according to many threads and posts on this site, we are all already undergoing a transformation that some even believe might have to do with radiation which is supposed to render us death and disease free. I guess all the support concerning those symptoms is not designed to help with "cockroach awakening"
If they are making sacrifices, I'm sure that soon they will start developing weapons. I can hardly believe I cannot discuss the species that is EVERYBODY knows is rumored to outlive us after the apocalypse. As if I am the one that originally composed these theories.

I thought this was America dammit... land of the American cockroach bred to kill them all.

All jokes aside, I have to go build a fort.

Originally posted by BlackSatinDancer
as for the keeping fit and things like that... I think such a meager degree of health suggestions as "breathe" and "have sex" is actually pretty moot itself but opinions, you know...

The point here is that this, metaphorically, is one of several ways people (not me) say immortality can be achieved. This is both in Fiction and non-fiction accounts. It's one option pushed by, for example, Ben Abba, as a non-fiction method. The idea is that an individual is in control of this process and can do so by doing the "right" things, whatever those may be. Don't mistake examples, especially fiction examples, for reality. I simply gave an example from both fiction and non-fiction. I'm not advocating. Tom Robbins is writing fiction; we're not supposed to take him seriously. In fact, sex and special breathing is ludicruous, albeit funny, at least for his fans.

Having no control over genetic mutation is HIGHLY debatable though. I think if you look you will find many examples of genetic mutations that are directly linked to some type of resistance or longevity, but if you DON'T want to talk about that... that is fine too.

you ought to read articles on how they genetically engineer plants to be resistant to bugs and disease and so then the bugs and diseases have to become more resistant to the resistant plants... and perhaps we really should be wondering if genetic modification should even be thought about in such a manner but then again, if we seek no control over the potential to genetically modify things that we feel we have rights to, including ourselves... then who or what will?

I think you are confusing a mutation, which is caused by nature and is a random event with intentional genetic manipulation, which is highly specific. When we are discussing existing immortals who could be living among us (That's the title of this thread) then either of these types of manipulations, mutation or engineering, are brought to play. My feeling is that historically speaking a mutation is more likely and technically possible (and definitely NOT controlled by us), but that an engineered solution is worth discussing and is more common TO discuss in the literature.

Obviously, modern technology is approaching the ability to manipulate genes in ways we could never have imagined, not to mention things like nanotechnology that could do cell repairs and allow us to live longer. As to the ethics of it, it only applies if we know what we are manipulating. In other words, it would NOT apply to a random mutation and it wouldn't easily apply to people who may already be among us. It's a moot point for them.

But the ethics issue is interesting. Thanks for bringing it up. I believe we had postulated three possibilities. So let's apply ethics to each.

1. Supernatural intervention. Ethical? Sure. God gets to make the rules. Tough.
2. Random Mutation. Ethical? Sure. It wasn't intentional at all. Nature did it.
3. Intentional Manipulation. Ethical? Here's where it gets sticky.
3-A. You "do the right thing" Ethical? I think so. If I stop smoking in order to live longer, surely no one would say I was being unethical.
3-B. Take an elixir, the Philosopher's Stone. Ethical? Umm, I think one issue is, should you tell anyone?
3-C. Nanotech or retrovirus. We know how to do it. Ethical? Probably depends on circumstances and you could write a book on it.

Originally posted by schuyler

Originally posted by BlackSatinDancer
as for the keeping fit and things like that... I think such a meager degree of health suggestions as "breathe" and "have sex" is actually pretty moot itself but opinions, you know...

The point here is that this, metaphorically, is one of several ways people (not me) say immortality can be achieved. This is both in Fiction and non-fiction accounts. It's one option pushed by, for example, Ben Abba, as a non-fiction method. The idea is that an individual is in control of this process and can do so by doing the "right" things, whatever those may be. Don't mistake examples, especially fiction examples, for reality. I simply gave an example from both fiction and non-fiction. I'm not advocating. Tom Robbins is writing fiction; we're not supposed to take him seriously. In fact, sex and special breathing is ludicruous, albeit funny, at least for his fans.

Having no .....too.

you ought to read articles on how they genetically engineer plants to be resistant to bugs and disease and so then the bugs and diseases have to become more resistant to the resistant plants... and perhaps we really should be wondering if genetic modification should even be thought about in such a manner but then again, if we seek no control over the potential to genetically modify things that we feel we have rights to, including ourselves... then who or what will?

I think you are confusing a mutation, which is caused by nature and is a random event with intentional genetic manipulation, which is highly specific. When we are discussing existing immortals who could be living among us (That's the title of this thread) then either of these types of manipulations, mutation or engineering, are brought to play. My feeling is that historically speaking a mutation is more likely and technically possible (and definitely NOT controlled by us), but that an engineered solution is worth discussing and is more common TO discuss in the literature.

Obviously, modern technology is approaching the ability to manipulate genes in ways we could never have imagined, not to mention things like nanotechnology that could do cell repairs and allow us to live longer. As to the ethics of it, it only applies if we know what we are manipulating. In other words, it would NOT apply to a random mutation and it wouldn't easily apply to people who may already be among us. It's a moot point for them.

But the ethics issue is interesting. Thanks for bringing it up. I believe we had postulated three possibilities. So let's apply ethics to each.

1. Supernatural intervention. Ethical? Sure. God gets to make the rules. Tough.
2. Random Mutation. Ethical? Sure. It wasn't intentional at all. Nature did it.
3. Intentional Manipulation. Ethical? Here's where it gets sticky.
3-A. You "do the right thing" Ethical? I think so. If I stop smoking in order to live longer, surely no one would say I was being unethical.
3-B. Take an elixir, the Philosopher's Stone. Ethical? Umm, I think one issue is, should you tell anyone?
3-C. Nanotech or retrovirus. We know how to do it. Ethical? Probably depends on circumstances and you could write a book on it.

well, whichever you choose to describe it... I think they can be described either way, I think both natural and assisted methods have been possible and have been in practice up to this point already and to me ethics is an interesting subject because in order to keep things people tamper with from biting them in the rear, it seems that even if a person doesn't think ethics play a factor karma wise- at least they would be working with a clear conscious while tampering with those things if they at least attempt to be ethical .
I see the point in saying if nature does it then ethics can't really get involved but let's say you can cure one of nature's so called mistakes. even though the people born with these so called mistakes are happy people, they have difficult lives and they say so themselves, so to let nature continue to take it's course after you know you can prevent it, then would that not be unethical? Sticky subject indeed.

..and oh if you could cure death altogether. I'm sure that would make a lot of people very happy even if it sounds scary to them at some point, but I am the type of person who thinks that maybe if there is a way to not have to go through the cycles of death, that it might be something that needs to be earned... although far be it from me to say how but many believe it is simply by accepting Christ but what if Christ comes back and says... ok, i was a carpenter, now I'm a scientist- let's cure death, who's with me? and everybody is like "um, maybe we should let God do it"- when God is the one who sent him to do just that... or something like that. Yes, just projections but who knows?

All i know is that there are certainly a lot of possibilities on the table.

reply to post by infowarrior9970


I was reading a book on immortality called "Immortality: How Science is Extending Your Life Span- And Changing the World" by Dr. Ben Bova. He theorizes that in the original translation of the Bible, the word referring to people's age could have most likely meant months, not years, so Moses and the other Biblical characters would have only been in their 70s-90s, which is still quite old for that time.

You could never know if you, or anyone else were immortal. An immortal would live forever, and forever can never arrive: and so you would never know. You could still drop dead any minute.

Originally posted by s12345
You could never know if you, or anyone else were immortal. An immortal would live forever, and forever can never arrive: and so you would never know. You could still drop dead any minute.

If you study the literature on immortality, this issue frequently arises, but it is a more a semantic splitting of hairs than a point relevant to the discussion. It's an eye-rolling philosophical minor point rather than anything practical. If you cannot know it and cannot measure it, it's useless. In fact, a word has been coined to avoid the issue: Hafeem, a person who "lives a long time."

The other issue that bears on this is the chances one would die by accident. That has already been addressed earlier in this thread, but it appears to be from one in 25 to one in 37 or so. If you just look at the raw statistics, then, an otherwise "immortal" person, meaning one not subject to disease or aging, would be from 25 to 37 times the normal lifespan. But since statistics deals in probabilities, nor definitions, it might be possible to beat the odds by avoiding obvious hazards, i.e.: No skydiving.

Statistically it is usually taken that something a certain number of standard deviations from the norm will not actually occur: this relates to a normal or bell curve distribution, this does not matter as this is the one you would use for predicting life expectancy. However if you take it literally the normal distribution as 100% correct, you could simply plug in the number of people in the world or there has been so far, and see how long a single individual would exist, the longest lived. It does assume that the standard deviation would be the same throughout human kind or that you could work it out from an average. I do not however have the information but it would be interesting to see how long this would be. Or perhaps how long it would be for 1 person every 100 years.

"Could immortals be living among us?"

Yes, Henry Kissinger is one.

If one doesn't mind looking into the occult then immortality is supposed to be possible by:
A. Create a servitor: magical servant, an entity coming from your mind.
NOTE
After some time the servitor has to get a life of it's own and a purpose/ work to do It will be your servant and you give it tasks..
B. On your death bed you integrate yourself into the servitor.
NOTE
You will have to be careful on forming the servitor, as you will require one you can integrate yourself into.
PROBLEMS
If this were possible you would have to be careful, as a servitor needs a purpose and has it's own will. So although a servant when you integrate yourslef into it you could find yourself trapped and a prisoner for all time. Reabsorbing of a servitor is supposed to be dangerous and sometimes violent ( probably because you have at this point gone mad as you have created an imaginary friend,), and so if you do not like your servitor you have a real problem....

Also as this is fairly common knowledge other wise I would not know there would be # loads of immortals. However physically you would die but your spirit and mind would live on in your you servitor hybrid. However as your servitor is a part of you this fusion could correctly done not cause any problems.


Alternatively ribonucleicacid RNA was once said when injected fro one rats brain to another that it knew things that were only experienced by the first rat ( the rat who's RNA it was. I do not think however that the experiment was ever duplicated. Could be worth a try however.

Originally posted by s12345
Statistically it is usually taken that something a certain number of standard deviations from the norm will not actually occur: this relates to a normal or bell curve distribution, this does not matter as this is the one you would use for predicting life expectancy.

I don't think that is accurate. Neither side of a bell-shaped curve actually gets to zero; it approaches zero. Now you can say that for all practical purposes something is so far out that it will not occur, you never actually get to zero, so there is a chance, slim though it is, that it WILL occur. Thus statistics always gives you an out.

Besides, we're not trying to predict life expectancy. Just so we're clear, I was discussing the chances that someone would die an accidental death. This is often an issue because someone will say, "Well, eventually you will die of an accident, therefore "Man from Earth" living 14,000 years is impossible." My objection to that kind of statement is that we don't know that for sure and certainly bringing it up in a cavalier fashion without some study of the issue doesn't make it so. (Other people are doing that; not you.)

Today, for example, we are told that we have a one in 3600 chance of being hit by a falling satellite. Okay, but you didn't have that problem 100 years ago. On the other hand, you might have had a greater chance of death by accidental gunshot. That rate has declined by a factor of 6 in the last 100 years. The number has been cut in half and the population has tripled. The point is that statistics is a slimy beast to get ahold of. You can very easily be very precisely wrong.

However if you take it literally the normal distribution as 100% correct, you could simply plug in the number of people in the world or there has been so far, and see how long a single individual would exist, the longest lived. It does assume that the standard deviation would be the same throughout human kind or that you could work it out from an average. I do not however have the information but it would be interesting to see how long this would be. Or perhaps how long it would be for 1 person every 100 years.

It's easy to lose track of the issue here. The problem is that our alleged, hypothetical, unproven immortals are not part of the general population pool. We cannot take the effects of aging and illness out of the equation, either. Dying an accidental death often has much to do with how robust your constitution is to withstand an accident. A healthy person can withstand more accidents. So measuring the lifespans of non-immortals is not going to do anything for you.

I think you've hit on the crux of the problem, though. We don't have the data and there appears to be no way to get at it accurately. We have been handed a problem that is currently unsolvable. I guess I don't have a problem with the fact we have this gap. I just want to avoid coming to a conclsuion based on no evidence.