On Change And Mortality
In fiction which deals with societies of immortal or semi-immortal beings who are interacting with mortal humans, I've often come across the assertion (by the immortals) that mortals are more creative and/or their societies change a lot because they are aware of their mortality, and therefore of their limited time, and thus hurry up and make changes.
Thinking about this, after hearing it repeatedly, I think it is a mistaken assertion.
Because mortals aren't really aware of their mortality. When you're young, you behave as if you're going to live forever -- which is often why youths do such reckless things. When you're much older, yes, mortality starts looming... but it isn't as if the creative changes of mortal societies are all done by the old in fear of their looming mortality. On the contrary, the old tend to cling to the status-quo.
Which, I think, is the key.
Mortal societies change a lot because they are mortal, yes, but not because we are aware of our mortality. We change because the old people die. I've seen that stated cynically, yes; like the epigram (which I wish I could remember properly) about if a young scientist says something can be done they are usually right, while if an old scientist says something can't be done they are usually wrong. Something along those lines. But, trying not to be cynical, I think it is reasonable to say that (a) it is unusual for older people to embrace new things, and (b) the ones with more power in ANY society, the ones able to make far-reaching decisions (not just in government, but in all walks of life), tend to be older rather than younger.
The implications for a society of immortals -- unless they are fundamentally different in their attitudes towards change than we are -- is that change happens slowly because the ones in power stay in power for a long long time. For mortals, the ones in power are guaranteed to change every seventy years or so, which opens up the vistas for different people, with new ideas, to be in charge.
Though now that I think about it, what if there was a society of immortals that did have a fundamental difference in their attitude towards change? Like, what if they tended to get bored when there wasn't enough change happening? So they would change things around just to keep sane. That would be very interesting, especially if their desire for change was more rapid than that of the mortals they were interacting with. Because one reason why mortals tend to avoid change is because change involves risk, and mortals are risk-averse, being mortal. Whereas for true immortals (not semi-immortals) they can't die, so, like, there is a lot less to lose on their part.
NOTE: what I mean by "semi-immortals" are those beings who (a) can't die of old age, but they can be killed, or (b) can die of old age, but only after a very long time. Technically the latter aren't even semi-immortal, but I'm thinking of Marvelverse Asgardians, who refer to short-lived species such as humans as "mortal" (and themselves as not, even though they actually are).
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Thinking about this, after hearing it repeatedly, I think it is a mistaken assertion.
Because mortals aren't really aware of their mortality. When you're young, you behave as if you're going to live forever -- which is often why youths do such reckless things. When you're much older, yes, mortality starts looming... but it isn't as if the creative changes of mortal societies are all done by the old in fear of their looming mortality. On the contrary, the old tend to cling to the status-quo.
Which, I think, is the key.
Mortal societies change a lot because they are mortal, yes, but not because we are aware of our mortality. We change because the old people die. I've seen that stated cynically, yes; like the epigram (which I wish I could remember properly) about if a young scientist says something can be done they are usually right, while if an old scientist says something can't be done they are usually wrong. Something along those lines. But, trying not to be cynical, I think it is reasonable to say that (a) it is unusual for older people to embrace new things, and (b) the ones with more power in ANY society, the ones able to make far-reaching decisions (not just in government, but in all walks of life), tend to be older rather than younger.
The implications for a society of immortals -- unless they are fundamentally different in their attitudes towards change than we are -- is that change happens slowly because the ones in power stay in power for a long long time. For mortals, the ones in power are guaranteed to change every seventy years or so, which opens up the vistas for different people, with new ideas, to be in charge.
Though now that I think about it, what if there was a society of immortals that did have a fundamental difference in their attitude towards change? Like, what if they tended to get bored when there wasn't enough change happening? So they would change things around just to keep sane. That would be very interesting, especially if their desire for change was more rapid than that of the mortals they were interacting with. Because one reason why mortals tend to avoid change is because change involves risk, and mortals are risk-averse, being mortal. Whereas for true immortals (not semi-immortals) they can't die, so, like, there is a lot less to lose on their part.
NOTE: what I mean by "semi-immortals" are those beings who (a) can't die of old age, but they can be killed, or (b) can die of old age, but only after a very long time. Technically the latter aren't even semi-immortal, but I'm thinking of Marvelverse Asgardians, who refer to short-lived species such as humans as "mortal" (and themselves as not, even though they actually are).
This entry was originally posted at https://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/1164281.html. (Comments
) Respond here, or respond on the Dreamwidth post, as you prefer. You can use your DW login or OpenId there.