Cancel my health and medical insurance. At this point any spending in that vein becomes superfluous, and every penny I waste now is going to come back to haunt me when compound interest starts to make me wealthy beyond imagining. Immediately begin diverting that same amount of money into CDs. Instruct the bank to roll everything over. Leave a will that names my “son” sole inheritor. Set up Swiss bank accounts in my son’s name. Return to active military service and get my 20 years in, resorting to buzzed and/or dyed hair to hide my appearance. Set up Direct Deposit to dump my pay and retirement pay into a USAA bank account which forwards all of my earnings to the Swiss account. As soon as possible, begin purchasing real estate on the highest ground in non-disaster-prone cities with stable economic engines. My goal here is to have real estate in several cities, all above the flood plain and safe from any rising sea level problems, and start earning rental income. Free cashflow should be invested in the best guaranteed interest-bearing securities possible (bonds, CDs, or interest-bearing accounts, but zero risk for this phase). After military retirement take a contracting job on the other side of the country. Work 20 years there and retire again.
Phase II
Prepare a fake identity for my “son” and travel abroad to a country with easily-forged documents (India?); continue filing taxes in the United States and handling my affairs through a lawyer. Two years after my arrival, prepare a letter asserting that (1) my wife and I have been gravely injured in an automobile accident, (2) my estate is to be placed in a trust for my newborn son, to be turned over to him when he reaches the age of 18, (3) he is to apply (or be applied) for U.S. citizenship as soon as he is legally allowed to do so. Shortly thereafter, fake my death as well as my wife’s (note that the wife need never really exist). Live “dangerously” off the record for 18 years in Asia, working for cash or gold, never risking imprisonment. Work in construction, or on a fishing boat, where my physical abilities will make me a desirable employee. Become fluent in several local languages.
Phase III
Report to America to claim my inheritance and become a citizen. Re-assess the wisdom of my investments, purchase more real estate. Attend college as an undergraduate again, and then go back for a graduate degree and a Ph.D.; join the US State Department Foreign Service if possible (note language skills above). This career path will permit me to travel all over the world. This makes my accumulation of wealth (Phase I) and my foreign disappearance (Phase II) easier to work out.
Once I’ve done Phases I-III a few times, I should be wealthy enough to stop living in the “real” economy – shell companies can manage my wealth, giving me access to whatever money I need. It’d be nice to parlay my immortality into becoming a collector of historical artifacts, but any time I want to accumulate power, I’ll have to do it carefully, because power = fame = attention. I can only go so long in the spotlight before dying off mysteriously, and the more famous I am the more scrutiny will be directed at my death. Aiming for the “man-behind-the-power” roles would probably be my focus. I’ve got at least 60 years to choose a major “goal” for myself, but along the way, it’d be nice to accomplish some laudable side goals:
join Skull and Bones
create a viable third party (small-L libertarians) in America
accelerate nuclear fusion research
learn Kung-Fu
become an ordained priest, an imam, and a rabbi
learn to fly jet aircraft
become an astronaut (this will have to wait until private spaceflight, since gov’t astronauts are subjected to routine physicals)
Same problem. Constant dehydration deaths, plus losing limbs to large, toothy marine animals. One other immortal who lost a hand never grew it back. However, he lost it to another immortal, so maybe limbs lost to mundane reasons regrow.
I wasn’t meaning that you js_africanus would make a perfect soldier, but the ability to give say, the US Marine Corps, the regenerative abilities you possess
would be invaluable. I don’t even agree necessarily that these abilities would make even one such soldier in a squad a worse soldier, after all he would feel the same pain (actually probably worse since he’d feel it in situations others wouldn’t).
Oh agreed totally, but military research doesn’t get disseminated to the wider world anyway. Sorry man, but you’re going to be the control sample under The Man’s terms and conditions for a good long time. And you bet that he’d want to test your endurance in lots of horrible ways.
That’s why the Count St. Germain has been lying low for the past few centuries!
(Well maybe, who knows? It’s the fact that I’ve been light-heartedly thinking about this tonight that’s made me decide to subscribe here once my guest-ship is up).
Same way I’ve always handled immortality… set up short-range goals for the next 10,000 years (mostly centered on social change) and start jotting down some ideas for long-term goals (solar burnout, entropy). Why do you ask?
I would probably end up getting degrees in every subject, just because I can. Pick up languages and travel. Develop my own version of the Illuminati, and if they really exist already, destroy that version first.
Or realistically, maybe I would put all that off and play video games for eternity. In fact, this is a perfect example to pitch Planescape: Torment. Without spoiling too much, the main character is immortal, and loses his memory as a result. Existence is torment for him. The main goal is to regain your memories and determine how you became immortal and how you can become mortal again.
I’d start working on FTL technology, since I’m going to outlive the Sun, and when the Sun dies, it won’t be pretty. I’d also need an out if an ELE takes place on Earth.
Remember the series of novels about Casca, the Eternal Mercenary?
I imagine it would be very difficult to hide your immortality in this day and time. Eventually, somebody is bound to notice that your fingerprints and/or DNA have been around for quite a while.
Frankly, I’d go public with it. I’d set myself up as an advisor or some sort. After all, in another 100 years, I’ll be the only person who can truthfully say “Been there, done that”.
Well, unless you believe that the only reason the government keeps pennies in circulation is to amass a DNA registry, then I’d say most people have no such issue. Who here has his/her DNA on file, after all?
They’re not going to need you at all, because it’s the irrational partical accelerator, a liquid lunch, and some rubber bands that made it happen. That’s how they would reverse engineer the process. It would be like trying to figure out what caused the house fire by looking at the burnt corpses. It just wouldn’t be profitable.
Think of it this way. They just tested the DNA of the superstrong infant. It’s not like he’s locked up in some German government facility.
The particle accelerator blew up, remember? And given that you were irresponsibly playing around it with the two rubber bands, I think it’s safe to say you were plastered when it happened and dont’ know what was going on. (Besides when people try to replicate such occurrences, they end up looking very silly, or dead, or both.)
That doesn’t change the fact that reverse engineering from my physiology is going to be a dead end. The real discovery is knowing that such an outcome can obtain, but that’s all I have to offer. HOW to get to that goal involves the irrational particle accelerator, the booze, and the rubber bands.
Once you know what steel is, you don’t have to study it any more. You need to study the process of making it.
I’d cheer. I’d go to the death clock website and point at it and laugh. I’d start some kind of mega-tireless exercise regimen and get my body in top physical condition, and start entering strength/fitness/endurance/martial arts/dance competitions. I’d probably experiment with a little drug abuse, simply because it wouldn’t have any effects (or would my amazing body simply process the drugs with no effect?). I’d attempt to live off of prize money and maturing CDs/investments instead of working full time for a while, getting my personal creative projects going.
Then I’d probably be extremely depressed, seeing my family and friends growing old and not being able to do anything about it, and probably having them resent me terribly. sigh I’d get no peace till well after their deaths and beyond. But maybe I’d make new friends and family eventually.
But would I fake my own death? It’s hard to say. Since I don’t have any actual ‘dangerous’ abilities, maybe I could just get by as the hundred year old woman, without specifically endorsing it.
Everytime I scan over the thread titles, I think this one says “unexpeted immorality.” Gives me a half second pause while I reread and recall what it really says.
