odds of it happening eventually, go up the longer you live.
Despite this DNA replication being highly controlled and very accurate, the sheer number of times it is performed in the lifespan of a person (estimated to be 10,000 trillion times!) means the introduction of a significant number of errors into the DNA of some of our cells from this fundamental process is inevitable. source
Other way round: they are immortal because they don’t have transcription and replication errors.
Another point of view would be error replication leading to mutation since they cannot die. So a million years in the future how much different would they be from their original species.
Imagine this: you’re immortal, not just in the sense of “not aging,” but in the sense that you cannot die. No matter what happens, disease, trauma, fire, bullets, you persist.
Now introduce cancer into the equation. You don’t get a merciful end. You don’t get release. The cells in your body still mutate, still misfire, still turn against you. Tumors grow. They spread. They choke your organs, twist your bones, invade your brain.
In a mortal body, this means death, an end to the suffering. In your body? It means endless malfunction. Organs clogged with growths but never failing enough to kill you. Skin splitting under lesions that never close. Your lungs filled with tumors, every breath a shallow gasp, but the suffocation never comes. Your brain riddled with metastases until you’re half-aware, locked inside a prison of decaying flesh that never stops decaying.
And it doesn’t stop there. Given infinite time, you don’t get one cancer. You get all of them. Over centuries, every tissue eventually betrays you. Your body becomes a battlefield of competing malignancies, tumors devouring tumors, a grotesque ecosystem of your own flesh.
You live forever, yes. But you might pray for death long before eternity runs out.
this is why im on lemmy. 👏👏👏
You’d live so long, your cancer would get cancer.
Supernatural had a guy who was immortal but kept aging/developing disease. He tried to take Sam’s eyes to replace his own
Or you turn into cancerman from that X-files episode
AKA the Ted Faro Scenario
Wrong way around.
They’re immortals because they’ve left their cancer riddled bodies behind to become made of living metal.
Or I’ve been reading too much 40K.
I dunno, I guess we’d have to ask that crayfish that cloned itself a few million times and will likely never die.
Maybe immortals are just lobsters without a shell ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I highly doubt immortals maintain the same body parts due to this. Kinda like a car. Parts have to eventually be replaced.
