I’m almost 44 years old. At one point in my life I was 25 years old. No offense, but the OP strikes me as one of the dumbest questions ever. I’d take two chugs.
Not only would I want some, but I’d want some for everyone I know.
I’m only 37 and can already tell my body’s starting to get old. I’d go back to about 27-30. That’s an ideal physical age for a man.
To be honest I don’t mind getting old and I’m the last guy on earth to have a so-called “mid life crisis.” I think guys who do are big pussies. But of course I’d reverse it if I could. You’d be insane not to.
Pass the bottle, I’d even stay the age I am now if I had to.
Considering that a lot of people ( if not here ) oppose any sort of life extension it’s not stupid at all.
- Elixir provider looks at crawling baby Jack Batty and shakes head *
“What part of ‘Recommended Dosage’ did he not understand ?”
I certainly wouldnt mind being younger as in being physically fit. As for looks, its not going to bother me till I look like the Crypt Keeper (I already have his sense of humor).
Here is what would make me pause.
Now with this stuff, I can live forever (or a least a few hundred million till the sun starts causing problems). Now, every little accident that might kill me off means I loose millions and millions of years of life rather than something in the 40 to 60 range.
Knowing that, it could certainly turn some people into terrified fraidy cats who tremble at every step and aspect of actual living. For the germaphobe/fear of dying types, it would probably both make their lifes a living hell and prolong the bejeezus out of it as well. For some it would probably be a curse.
I’m actually quite surprised by the answers here (I think you all just take a perverse sense of pleasure in seeing me wrong :p). On the show I’d say that over 50% of those asked turned it down…the last woman actually seemed kind of offended by the question and went into some detail as to why that was. I thought it would be an interesting question to ask 'dopers…and for my own part, as the OP, I’m extremely happy with the responses thus far. It’s making me completely reshape my initial premise on something I’m currently writing.
-XT
I would take it too. I’m easily amused, so boredom probably wont be a problem. Its kinda like slow time travel.
“Hi, honey, its me. Listen, the most amazing thing happened today! I got a shot of Ol’ Elixer, and now I’m twenty-five again, just like when we got married! Its fucking amazing, fit, trim, and full of…What’s that? Ah, no, honey, thats kinda the down side, I could only get the one dose. Which reminds me, might be a bit late getting home, going out with the guys for a couple of beers…Hello? Honey? Hello?..”
I’d down it. No wife or kids, and if the pain of losing everyone I care about starts to become a serious problem, there’s always the blammo solution. Unless it locked me at the weight I had at my preferred age ('cause I’d want to be mid-twenties, I think; I lost my thinness before I lost that blush of immaturity) I can’t see any downside that trumps becoming decrepit.
Worse comes to worst, I can functionally reverse the ‘bad’ parts of the treatment by just dabbing some gray into my temples as I get older and taking a little cyanide when I feel it’s ‘time to go’.
Jeez, I’d feel like the Highlander, watching my husband and kids age and die… yuck. But I still might do it, as self-centered as that is.
Could I score a few doses for my little tribe of loved ones?
PS- remember guys, it’s not living forever- it’s just not dying of old age, which I interpret to mean the wearing out of parts. If you smoke, you could still get cancer; if you screw around, you could still get AIDS; those things could still kill you.
Well, in reality (according to the show at least) there are scientists working on exactly a product like this. Whether it’s even possible or will ever be developed is another matter. According to the one guy (didn’t catch his name but he had a killer beard and pony tail), he thinks he on the track for a process that could allow humans to live for a thousand (or more) years…as long as they don’t die from some other cause.
However, for this OP there is only one bottle…so you have to make the hard choice. You get the benefit of being any age you like (myself, I’d pick 35) and you will never age again. But one of the draw backs is you have to watch everyone else get old around you.
-XT
I’d take it. I’d rather give it to Celtling when she gets older though.
Now here’s my question, doe sit lock you into the physical fitness? Could you still get obese and die of a heart attack? Because, really, I think most of us (me, at least) who have “age-related” problems wouldn’t have them if our lifestyle choices had been better.
What is really age-related?
Even without the immortality, you can cause a lot of damage, and then be stuck with it. I can’t help picturing this scene: DeathBecomesHer
I’d take it
Yeah…though I have 3 so it would be an incredibly tough choice to pick one of them.
No…it’s not a magic elixir. It simply allows you to regress in age and then halts your aging from that time on. If you let yourself get out of shape…you will be out of shape. Eat too much and you’ll get fat. Smoke or drink too much and those could kill you off as well. Or, just have bad luck and you could get cancer or be killed in a horrible smelting accident or murdered by a deranged kit fox.
The one scientist on the show who is pretty confident he is on the right trail said he doesn’t expect that humans will live longer than a couple of centuries anyway, as there are all manner of things that will still do us in.
-XT
And you really could be shot by a jealous husband when you were 125!
(Or a jealous wife, as the case may be.)
I feel the same way. Being the same age won’t stop any of the fears of being alive, except “How will I manage with no one to love me when I get old?”
and I do have a “wacko religious objection” to suicide.
That would make for an interesting debate. Assuming you have more than one children and you could give the elixir to only one would you do it? Assume it goes to waste if you don’t give it to one of them. If you do give it on what basis would you choose?
I’d be 21 forever. I’d spend all my free time working to save up nest egg big enough to live off the interest and fund step 2. Then I’d spend all my free time learning new engineering and medical skills and refining old ones. Biological science and the like till I could replicate the effects of the elixir, make\grow artificial organs, and design and finance massive solar power microwave beam power relay systems to put in low solar orbit and send energy back to earth as well as systems to manufacture, and live in space a well as harvest the asteroid belt’s resources.
Then I’d set back and watch an immortal population with no worries for resources colonize space. At this point I’d start work on a more advanced copy of me to solve the next wave of problems, and work on figuring out how to reverse entropy. Oh and I’d change my name to multivac.
Think of it this way eventually something will get you. Maybe a car accident, maybe a serial killer, maybe you’ll choke on a burrito, maybe the earth will over populate and you’ll die in the resulting famine, maybe you’ll slip in the shower, maybe you’ll partially quantum tunnel through the floor…
Think of it this way, if there’s the slightest chance of something happening then given enough time it will happen.
Not a chance and too late, God offered me a much better deal and I took it, but thanks for the offer.