Immortal / long lived characters - how might they live undetected in the real world?

[8ball]

It would have been fairly easy up until now where images are easily distributable. I think if you're immortal you've presumably got a fair bit of wedge by now so you could easily be a rich recluse

Plenty of mortals live basically undeceted, so you know. Brian, lives at the flats over the road, by the Spar. Yeah. How old is he? Dunno. lived round here for years. Anyway we're moving next summer. Etc. repeat.

I think its going to be a combination of these.

 

[krtek a houby]

... Captain Marvel and The Irishman...

Phase 4, is it? I'd watch that.

 

[JimW]

If you're white, move to China. People will guess your age all over the shop.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Oh yeah but standard mortality is just a paradise of fulfilling lifelong interpersonal relationships and then you die a satisfying death alongside your loving family, right? OK boomer.

 

[Steel Icarus]

If you're white, move to China. People will guess your age all over the shop.

Tbf nobody's likely to guess at 3,745 etc in the UK, even in Bournemouth.

 

[JuanTwoThree]

Bournemouth.

Bournemouth would be a good place to live if you wanted to live in the same place forever. There are parts where the entire population gets replaced in 20 years. Or Hastings etc.

 

[Badgers]

In thinking about Wolverine, Conor MacLeod (the Highlander), Aragorn (LOTR), etc, I was wondering how they would might live undetected in today's society. I mean, if you reached a certain age and you weren't aging, somebody's going to notice. You'd have to fake your death and drop off the radar. But what then? Live on the streets as an unnoticed homeless person? Change your identity every now and again?

I think if I was immortal (Aragorn was not was he?) then I would have time on my hands to perfect mundane matters like false identities, off shore bank accounts, changing my appearance and setting up fake companies to cover my travels/transactions.

 

[Badgers]

If someone questions them, they could say they’ve had Botox. Some movie stars really don’t appear to age these days. I watched the true crime movie Hustlers last night. It stars Jennifer Lopes as a stripper. She is 50 but she looks no older than 35. Paul Rudd has looked the same age for the last 30 years.

Easy eh?

Different country and career every 10-20 years. I am sure the immortal will amass huge wealth just with some basic investments. The changing/maintaining appearance would be the least of the worries.

 

[Yossarian]

I don't know why people think immortals would be rich or technologically adept enough to travel around the world easily setting up new companies and creating new identities - any savings they did manage to accumulate over the centuries would probably have been wiped out at some point by wars, crashing economies, terrible investments, etc., and their experience working as a candlemaker in 16th-century Prague or whatever probably wouldn't be easy to turn into a lucrative 21st-century career.

 

[Bonfirelight]

I don't know why people think immortals would be rich or technologically adept enough to travel around the world easily setting up new companies and creating new identities - any savings they did manage to accumulate over the centuries would probably have been wiped out at some point by wars, crashing economies, terrible investments, etc., and their experience working as a candlemaker in 16th-century Prague or whatever probably wouldn't be easy to turn into a lucrative 21st-century career.

Authentic handmade artisanal candles?They'd make a killing in he 21st century

 

[Badgers]

I don't know why people think immortals would be rich or technologically adept enough to travel around the world easily setting up new companies and creating new identities - any savings they did manage to accumulate over the centuries would probably have been wiped out at some point by wars, crashing economies, terrible investments, etc., and their experience working as a candlemaker in 16th-century Prague or whatever probably wouldn't be easy to turn into a lucrative 21st-century career.

Pick up a few works of art in the 16th century then sell in the 21st

 

[krtek a houby]

Immortals are clearly an allegory/metaphor for the ruling classes/monarchies. They survive for centuries leaching off the people, sometimes even creating disciples who will tug the forelock no matter what horrors the immortals spew forth.

 

[scifisam]

In the TV show Forever the main character changed identities every thirty years or so, and ran an antiques business on the side. His main job was as a doctor of sorts in his various guises because that was his vocation, so he went to slightly dodgy places to get a medical degree and then applied for jobs below the usual pay grade.

Aragorn wasn't immortal, btw. That's why he originally told Arwen not to stay with him, since she was immortal and staying with him rather than going to the Blessed Realms meant choosing to age and die alongside him. But obvs in the world they lived in immortals were accepted and nobody had to hide it anyway.

 

[krtek a houby]

In the TV show Forever the main character changed identities every thirty years or so, and ran an antiques business on the side. His main job was as a doctor of sorts in his various guises because that was his vocation, so he went to slightly dodgy places to get a medical degree and then applied for jobs below the usual pay grade.

Aragorn wasn't immortal, btw. That's why he originally told Arwen not to stay with him, since she was immortal and staying with him rather than going to the Blessed Realms meant choosing to age and die alongside him. But obvs in the world they lived in immortals were accepted and nobody had to hide it anyway.

Iirc, Aragorn was around 80 in LotR? So, in the appendix he lives until something like 120 or so?

 

[Badgers]

Iirc, Aragorn was around 80 in LotR? So, in the appendix he lives until something like 120 or so?

Hopefully his missus chose a moral life

 

[krtek a houby]

Hopefully his missus chose a moral life

Was she a wrong 'un until then?

 

[kabbes]

Your problem is not the people around you. Your problem is the systems and levers of capital. Your neighbours might not notice you’re now 150 years old, but your bank sure will.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Iirc, Aragorn was around 80 in LotR? So, in the appendix he lives until something like 120 or so?

Aragorn made it to 210.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Your problem is not the people around you. Your problem is the systems and levers of capital. Your neighbours might not notice you’re now 150 years old, but your bank sure will.

Could maybe set up some sort of trust?

 

[scifisam]

Iirc, Aragorn was around 80 in LotR? So, in the appendix he lives until something like 120 or so?

Yeah, but that's just what human lifespans were like in LotR, so nobody would have thought it was unusual.

 

[kabbes]

Could maybe set up some sort of trust?

Indeed, that would be a start. But you’re still going to need your own account. And to fill out tax returns for the trust that include notifying which beneficiaries received which dispersals.

The system is not designed for you to be anonymous in it. At least, not if you have money. If you have nothing, it’ll ignore the hell out of you.

 

[Badgers]

Your problem is not the people around you. Your problem is the systems and levers of capital. Your neighbours might not notice you’re now 150 years old, but your bank sure will.

My bank in Panama does not give a shit

 

[kabbes]

My bank in Panama does not give a shit

It’s going to have to interface at some point with systems in the UK that WILL give a shit.

By which I mean, they won’t believe you’re really you and will shut down your identity, leaving you with no access.

 

[krtek a houby]

Have we mentioned Time Lords, yet? I'm sure they're well sorted for getting by over the years...

 

[kabbes]

Have we mentioned Time Lords, yet? I'm sure they're well sorted for getting by over the years...

By living in a society in which everyone does it?

 

[Yossarian]

Authentic handmade artisanal candles?They'd make a killing in he 21st century

"Yes, of course they smell a bit, they're candles - and I use real tallow, not whale oil or beeswax or what have you, it's a warmer flame. And if you think this smells bad, you should have gotten a whiff of Antwerp a few days after the siege ended. Never trusted a Walloon since ... hey, where are you going?"

 

[krtek a houby]

By living in a society in which everyone does it?

Yeah, of course those that still live on Gallifrey but am sure there must have been a few who migrated over the years...

 

[chilango]

Yeah, but that's just what human lifespans were like in LotR, so nobody would have thought it was unusual.

Only those with Numenorean blood though innit?

Not the likes of the barman at the Prancing Pony.

 

[scifisam]

Only those with Numenorean blood though innit?

Not the likes of the barman at the Prancing Pony.

Yep, you're right. But still not unusual in the world they lived in, and also still not immortal.

 

[scifisam]

It’s going to have to interface at some point with systems in the UK that WILL give a shit.

By which I mean, they won’t believe you’re really you and will shut down your identity, leaving you with no access.

You'd have to start a new fake identity who was your child who looked just like you, and let them inherit everything.