Ta. I had to think about whether I’d read Methuselah’s Children—yep, decades ago. As I recall, there were some fairly cool ideas in it, but the end was a bit lame. Perhaps I misremember. I’ve been disappointed re-reading Heinlein years later, apart from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which weathered time a bit better.
Re Niven: are you referring to the ‘involuntary organ donation’ in Flatlander? Never read it. Would be interested in a synopsis.
Heinlein became a lot more “wooly” in his later writing - Dr Brin blames that on him becoming too powerfull for the publishers to make him tighten it up
Niven - he did a lot about organ “donation”! - before we understood just how difficult it actually is!
But I was thinking about one of his editorials when he said that the very rich would drive the medical process to benefit themselves but that we could beneit from that after they had shaken the bugs out
Flatlander is an interesting short story - not really about medical stuff
Quite a few of his stories have easy organ transplants and the resultant rise of “organleggers” who murder people to sell their organs
His ARM (police) are tasked with catching organleggers and also making sure people don’t breed without a license - another part of his stories that has NOT aged well!
Much of Niven's SF starts with some technological development and explores the social ramifications. He's described his work as "social science fiction."
Generally the technological development itself is handled simplistically, so the organ transplant thing is just "we cracked organ rejection", or "we've invented teleportation and replaced all the phone booths with teleporters", etc. The focus isn't on the technology, it's on how society responds to the technology.
The first organ transplant story was a short story about a guy who's in prison and facing the death penalty, his lawyer tells him they've got him dead to rights. There's a short-lived breakout attempt when a prisoner in an adjacent cell sets off a bomb, but ultimately he gets caught.
The next scene is back in court, where he's being sentenced to death for being a repeat offender at... traffic violations.
Niven wrote a few stories about cops chasing organ leggers, and one novel, "The Gift from Earth", set in a human colony from the pre-FTL days, that is a totalitarian society where the ruling class always finds somebody to arrest when somebody needs the right organ...
If we did somehow manage to invent the elixir of eternal youth, we would need to immediately put a stop to all that baby-making humans seem to enjoy getting up to.
If we didn’t… Well, there are no positive outcomes in that scenario.
As he grew old, Qin Shi Huang desperately sought the fabled https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_of_life which supposedly confers immortality. In his obsessive quest, he fell prey to many fraudulent elixirs.
"He just didn’t like vegetables, and developed scurvy!"
That happened to a friend of mine. He told me he was going on this crazy diet (this was back in the late 90s/early 2000s). Then a week later, ran into him, "Guess what I've got! Scurvy!"
Wonderful analysis
Have you read Heinlein’s “Methuselas Children”?
Writen in 1941 and mentions the “youthful blood”
Larry Niven also has some interesting remarks about the advantage of very rich people trying all of these treatments -
Ta. I had to think about whether I’d read Methuselah’s Children—yep, decades ago. As I recall, there were some fairly cool ideas in it, but the end was a bit lame. Perhaps I misremember. I’ve been disappointed re-reading Heinlein years later, apart from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which weathered time a bit better.
Re Niven: are you referring to the ‘involuntary organ donation’ in Flatlander? Never read it. Would be interested in a synopsis.
Heinlein became a lot more “wooly” in his later writing - Dr Brin blames that on him becoming too powerfull for the publishers to make him tighten it up
Niven - he did a lot about organ “donation”! - before we understood just how difficult it actually is!
But I was thinking about one of his editorials when he said that the very rich would drive the medical process to benefit themselves but that we could beneit from that after they had shaken the bugs out
Flatlander is an interesting short story - not really about medical stuff
Quite a few of his stories have easy organ transplants and the resultant rise of “organleggers” who murder people to sell their organs
His ARM (police) are tasked with catching organleggers and also making sure people don’t breed without a license - another part of his stories that has NOT aged well!
Much of Niven's SF starts with some technological development and explores the social ramifications. He's described his work as "social science fiction."
Generally the technological development itself is handled simplistically, so the organ transplant thing is just "we cracked organ rejection", or "we've invented teleportation and replaced all the phone booths with teleporters", etc. The focus isn't on the technology, it's on how society responds to the technology.
The first organ transplant story was a short story about a guy who's in prison and facing the death penalty, his lawyer tells him they've got him dead to rights. There's a short-lived breakout attempt when a prisoner in an adjacent cell sets off a bomb, but ultimately he gets caught.
The next scene is back in court, where he's being sentenced to death for being a repeat offender at... traffic violations.
Niven wrote a few stories about cops chasing organ leggers, and one novel, "The Gift from Earth", set in a human colony from the pre-FTL days, that is a totalitarian society where the ruling class always finds somebody to arrest when somebody needs the right organ...
If we did somehow manage to invent the elixir of eternal youth, we would need to immediately put a stop to all that baby-making humans seem to enjoy getting up to.
If we didn’t… Well, there are no positive outcomes in that scenario.
“If we could enable people to live forever, we should do that. I think this is absolute.” Peter Thiel
I wonder if he thinks it is equally absolute whether it’s based on popularity vs. wealth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang
As he grew old, Qin Shi Huang desperately sought the fabled https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_of_life which supposedly confers immortality. In his obsessive quest, he fell prey to many fraudulent elixirs.
The cause of Qin Shi Huang's death remains unknown, though he had been worn down by his many years of rule.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang#cite_note-91 One hypothesis holds that he was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang#cite_note-91 containing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang#cite_note-91, given to him by his court alchemists and physicians in his quest for immortality.
"He just didn’t like vegetables, and developed scurvy!"
That happened to a friend of mine. He told me he was going on this crazy diet (this was back in the late 90s/early 2000s). Then a week later, ran into him, "Guess what I've got! Scurvy!"
Why do you give us all these facts about real people who are looking for the elixer of life in the blood of young’uns?
C. Montgomery Burns, of Simpsons fame, could be Peter Thiel, if Peter Thiel could be little more vicious.
The myth of the vampire has all the makings of this. Blood, blood, and more blood will tell.
The same people who believe their blood is superior are exactly the people who are falling for the idea that the blood of others is even better.
I wish I could wait to see these people die of old age. Unfortunately, I am already getting old, and I may not get to enjoy their obituaries.
Our belief in the mystical nature and power of blood seems to have originated with language. Right up to Billy Bob Thornton & Angelina Jolie.
You may have a typo there. Should that perhaps read “if Peter Thiel could be a little less vicious”?
<grin>