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Originally Posted by The Supreme Canuck
I'd like to know what impact that would have on the progression of knowledge. Is it true that new theories only come into general acceptance when the proponents of the old theories die? What happens when no one dies, ever? Will we stagnate? Will we slow but not stop (people get hit by buses all the time)? Will nothing change?
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I don't think the immortality of the proponent of some particular theory will stop new theories from replacing it. Certainly new theories have come along even when the mortal, but still alive proponent of the old theory was still around. The death of old theories and old scientists doesn't seem strongly linked.
But the other part of your question is, will people continue to be creative if they are no longer mortal. I have heard the idea, most often in science fiction, that our desire to be creative, like our desire to procreate, springs from our desire to have immortality for at least some small part of us. While I know of no real world evidence for this concept, one way or the other, it is an interesting idea.
There was a SF short story I read many years ago, where the world is exactly as you describe, there is a treatment that a human undergoes in their late teens that makes them effectively immortal (you can still be murdered or killed accidentally, but you can't die from natural causes). The treatment has to be given before a certain age (like 20).
But one thing that is discovered, is when people become immortal, they are no longer creative, in either the sciences or the arts. And so a program develops to pick out the potentially most creative children and nuture them as much as possible (the story takes place in a special school for these children). But, at the critical age, the young adult gets to decide if they want a creative, but mortal life (such people are considered almost superstars), or if they want to be one of the ordinary, non-creative immortals.