Immortality in Fiction - Science Fiction

Science Fiction

Immortality can be achieved in fiction through scientifically plausible means. Extraterrestrial life might be immortal or it might be able to give immortality to humans. Immortality is also achieved in many examples by replacing the mortal human body by machines.

In Doctor Who mythology, the Cybermen are basically human brains placed into mechanical bodies, with every emotion drained out. This process was supposed to allow the Human race to reach its pinnacle. The unforeseen downturn is that with immortality reached, there is no motivator for the Human Race to actually strive for anything more. In another Doctor Who storyline, The Caves of Androzani, a fictitious substance named spectrox, found exclusively on the titular planet, is revealed to be able to prolong human life to more than double its natural length, and as such is the most valuable substance in the galaxy - ironically, the lives of all those involved with it in the story are grim and difficult, due to corporate monopolizing of its distribution, and the resultant infighting over its control, extortionate costs and the theft and smuggling of the substance from its mines.

Another example of immortality in Doctor Who is found in the character Jack Harkness, a companion to the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, who was unintentionally transformed into a 'fact' of the timeline when fellow companion Rose Tyler temporarily acquired omnipotent power and brought him back to life after he was killed by the Daleks; unused to the power, Rose didn't just bring him back to life, she 'brought back forever'. Although he ages at a very slight rate - having grown only the occasional grey hair despite having been alive for over two millennia since he was resurrected - Harkness is capable of recovering from any potentially fatal injuries within moments, although some forms of death take him longer to recover from than others; a bullet to the head only put him down for a few seconds, but he required at least a few minutes to come back after being thrown from the roof of a tall building, while it took him the better part of a day to recuperate after he was killed via a bomb in his stomach (Although the fact that he was able to regenerate his entire body when reduced to only an arm, a shoulder and part of his head should not be overlooked).

In the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood, Jack's colleague Owen Harper acquired a similar kind of immortality when he was brought back to life after being shot. Owen becomes technically dead, and thus incapable of eating, drinking, sleeping, having sex, and healing injuries. However, for all practical purposes, he cannot be killed, apparently lacking the need to breathe and displaying a general immunity to pain, as demonstrated by his not noticing when he cuts his left hand. Owen compares his new state to Jack by saying that, while Jack will 'live forever', he is destined to 'die forever'.

Torchwood's fourth series, Torchwood: Miracle Day, explored what would happen if the whole world became immortal, when an attempt by a mysterious group of three families to gain power resulted in all human life on Earth losing the ability to die (Although the formerly-immortal Jack Harkness became mortal at the same time). However, while they cannot die, they can still get sick and injured and their ability to heal has not been affected, with the result that a suicide bomber's body is left totally pulverized even while he appears to retain some form of consciousness, team member Rex Matheson has to deal with constant pain from the wound in his chest where he was impaled by a rebar in a driving accident, and a woman retains consciousness even after her car is crushed in a car compacter with her still inside it. This is eventually undone and Jack's immortality restored, with all patients classified as 'Category One' under the new medical rules- being fatally injured to the point where the Miracle was the only reason they hadn't died yet- being given a brief moment of clarity and peace before they died.

Megaman Zero's Doctor Weil had his memories transferred into program data and his body remodeled into that of a cyborg's as punishment for sparking the Elf Wars, using the Dark Elf to attack Reploids and humanity alike. He was then banished from nature and humanity, which eventually drove him insane.

In the TV series Stargate SG-1, the primary antagonists for the first eight years, the Goa'uld achieve a measure of immortality. The Goa'uld symbiote can naturally extend the life-span of its human hosts upward of 200 years. By coupling its own natural healing abilities with advanced technology, a Goa'uld can keep itself and its host alive almost indefinitely. However, during the later seasons of the show it is noted that the Goa'uld, even when using life-prolonging technology, change hosts after a number of millennia. Additionally, Lord Yu, one of the oldest Goa'uld, started experiencing similar symptoms to old age (such as memory loss) as his host had become too old to be regenerated by the technology, and the symbionte itself was now physically unable to take a new host due to old age. The Goa'uld do experience a different measure of immortality as they possess genetic memory, so any direct descendants will have all the memories of their predecessor. This is passed on down the generations of the Goa'uld, so one could say a part of the Goa'uld lives on forever.

In the spinoff to SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, the main villains, the Wraith, who drain the life force of human beings to survive, can't die of natural causes, and are difficult to kill by force (their toughness depends on the time of the last feasting). In the episode "The Defiant One", a Wraith remained alive for over 10,000 years by cannibalizing other Wraith when its original food source (captured humans) was depleted.

Both series feature "ascended beings," such as the Ancients, who have learned to shed their physical body and exist as energy, making them immortal. Another species in the series, the Asgard, have mastered a form of immortality, by transferring their minds into cloned bodies when their original form sustains serious injury, but by the time they encounter Earth they have begun to die due to their genetic structure breaking down as a result of being cloned so often, the race committing mass suicide at the conclusion of SG-1 to spare themselves the pain of the death that now awaits them after recognising that they cannot save themselves.

Perry Rhodan is the world's most prolific literary science fiction (SF) series, published since 1961 in Germany. In the storyline Perry Rhodan is the commander of the first mission to the moon, where they come upon a stranded vessel of an alien race in search of eternal youth. Perry Rhodan uses the superior technology to unite the earth and then continues the search for eternal youth. Ultimately he follows the hints laid out by a higher being called ES ("it" in German) that exists in an incorporeal state. This being chooses Perry Rhodan and a select few of his companions to attain Agelessness in order for them to pursue goals set by ES. ES says "I grant you everlasting life, not rejuvenation." Over the course of the series, there is a side-plot, which focuses on the downsides of immortality: It is hard to engage in relationships, when your partner ages and dies off. Similar problems occur with children.

In the Hyperion Cantos Universe, the TechnoCore, a group of sentient artificial intelligences which parasitized humanity, created a parasite called the cruciform. It was first tested in the planet Hyperion, and it is able to regenerate a human body along with personality and memories after death. The cruciforms are a flawed success as there is a loss of intelligence and genetic decay after each resurrection, rendering asexuated humans with little intelligence. However, when the TechnoCore offers it to the Catholic Church in a secret alliance to be able to keep with the need of parasitism over humanity, any error in personality and memories in the resurrection creche fixed through a process that only some priests in the Catholic Church know. This effectively brings perfect immortality to any human who abides to follow the laws of the Catholic Church. Even in the case of a disastrous death, the smallest cruciform remnant is enough to recreate the whole human body again, given the right conditions. However, the main characters in the story debate about the ethics and benefits of immortality, reaching to the conclusion that it stalls the evolution of humankind and it's severely counterproductive to any long-term expectations. Before the arrival of the cruciform and the TechnoCore alliance with the Catholic Church, wealthy humans were able to also achieve significant increase of their life expectancy thanks to several treatments, although the best results came with the expensive Poulsen treatments. One of the very few characters to span all the story, Martin Silenus, artificially expands his life expectancy thanks to these, and also to cryogenic fuges where he only is conscious for a few days each century, making him reach an age over 1,000 years.

In the novel Ender's Shadow a genetic modification known as Anton's Key is discovered, allowing the human mind to achieve supreme intelligence at the cost of an extremely short life, and it is said that the reverse can be done, making a person immortal at the cost of nearly all intelligence.

In Tad Williams' Otherland novels, the Grail Brotherhood, a group made up of the most affluent people in the world, attempt to achieve eternal life in virtual reality. They try to copy their neural pathways into virtual replicas with all of their memories, then kill their physical forms. The process fails due to complications involving the system's artificial intelligence.

In the LucasArts adventure game The Dig, the remains of an alien civilisation advanced enough to gain first physical and then spiritual immortality are explored and analysed. It eventually turns out that the obsession with living forever ultimately brought about their downfall; they lived forever, but lost "everything that made life worth living".

In the game Warhammer 40,000 set thousands of years in the future and across the galaxy there are many examples of immortality and life extension. The emperor himself is immortal. The Necron race are virtually immortal, their souls placed in machines that can be revived from any damage. And the C'tan, beings of pure energy living in artificial bodies, are immortal and can only be fully destroyed by another C'tan or by a Warp-based attack, such as a Talisman of Vaul. Some Chaos space marine characters can live a very very long time due to the time dilating abilities of the warp, coupled with advanced technology and magic from the chaos gods. The genetic modification to make a space marine by itself gives long life. Some sources say a space marine is practically immortal outside of death in battle. Many prominent or wealthy human characters have used technology like cyborgization and so called "juvenat" treatments to extend the normal lifespan. There are examples in warhammer 40k fiction of what looks like senility in extremely old characters such as high level adeptus mechanicus characters, space marine dreadnaughts and high level government officials.

In the Richard K. Morgan novel Altered Carbon their consciousness rotated into a new clone when they die. Certain wealthy called "Meths" (short for Methuselah) can afford to have their consciousness rotated through a series of perpetual rejuvenated clones, thus avoiding old age. It is wryly noted however, that most people don't have the stomach to experience old age and death more than twice, and opt to be "put on stack" (stored) except for special family occasions.

Most of the novels by Alastair Reynolds feature immortal characters of some form or another, usually made possible by advanced medical technology and periodic regeneration of one's body. One of the issues discussed in these novels, particular Chasm City, is the manner in which characters deal with their immortality and the boredom it inevitably generates. The Conjoiners, the most advanced faction, are able to modify their brains to the extent that they simply do not experience boredom at all. Unaugmented humans typically suffer intense boredom and attempt to reduce this by taking part in increasingly dangerous and exciting activities.

Relativistic interstellar travel granting virtual immortality is used as a plot device in Orson Scott Card's series of novels involving Andrew (Ender) Wiggin. Gravitic devices such as the stasis field are used in the Known Space universe created by Larry Niven. This kind of immortality is, however, illusionary. The "slowing" effects of time dilation also extend to all functions of the brain; thus, while to an outside observer the traveler's life would seem greatly extended, the slowed individual would not actually experience his life as any longer than before and would age at the regular speed, relative to his own time frame.

Unstuck in Time - The idea, postulated primarily in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, that one can become unstuck in time, and spend (at least theoretically) eternity in various points of their life. While this person would still die and cease to be, their life would not, in essence, end, as they would eternally wander about their life. In the particular example of Slaughterhouse Five, the main character, Billy Pilgram, meanders about his existence, reliving war experiences, an alien abduction, and his eventual assassination. Whether this would qualify as immortality is debatable.

In Misfits, a flash storm gives several teenagers currently doing community service superpowers. One character, Nathan, seems to have no power until the last episode, when he becomes immortal after falling onto a spiked metal fence. He wakes up in his coffin, pleased to have found his power, though disappointed to be buried alive with nothing but his iPod. As the series progresses, Nathan learns that his power also allows him to see the spirits of those who have passed on - although this apparently only applies when dealing with people he knows or has some connection with, as the only 'ghosts' he has seen are those of his half-brother, a new member of the community service group, and his friend Kelly - and his power allows him to even survive being shot in the head, although he cannot heal from less fatal injuries.

In Alias, the character of Arvin Sloane, fixated on the work of brilliant Renaissance inventor Milo Rambaldi, discovers Rambaldi's last great secret in the series finale when he falls into a special fluid and becomes immortal, only to be subsequently trapped in a secret tomb under several hundred feet of rock.

In the Instrumentality of Mankind universe by Cordwainer Smith, there's a drug which allows to delay aging indefinitely in humans, called stroon or Santaclara drug. However, the Instrumentality is very aware of the dangers of immortality, so every human being can only take stroon up to a life of 400 years. Although there are exceptions, for example if a person is thought to be valuable for humankind, no one is allowed to live longer than 1,000 years. Thus, although humankind could achieve immortality, they avoid it consciously.

In The Electric Church by Jeff Somers, the Electric Church is a religious organization founded by Dennis Squalor, a scientist and religious figure who believed that salvation was only attainable through living forever. The members of the church are "monks", human brains in robotic bodies, who are forced to "convert" civilians by killing them and taking their bodies to be processed. The assassination of Squalor leads to the collapse of the church, which results in the deaths of most monks, the rest of which eventually die due to malfunctioning circuitry or brain tumors.