To be immortal. Some wouldn’t know what to do with their time. Others would despair at having to be stuck on the mortal plane that long. But a significant number would love it, and would sign on board in a second if the opportunity presented itself.

Since ancient days, tales of immortality have been with us. As we go about our lives, we see our elders wither away and pass away, without exception. The concept that we could skip decay and go on living was an obvious one from earliest times.

What would be some of the consequences of practical immortality?

Well, for one thing, old age would lose its stigma. In the new world, it would be the young who are waiting their turn to get old so they can get power and authority. Right now, power tends to go to those in their 40s and 50s anyway, so the young already have to wait, but if there was an immortal scheme it would extend even further into the future, so that a thousand-year-old man would be the one with power, and a 20-year-old man would be a piece of shit, a nothing. It’s easy to envisage this.

Entertainment would become more important. Wars would become less so. If you’re going to live a long time, life becomes extra-precious, and you don’ t want to go squandering it in a conflict. As for entertainment, you need something to keep your jollies happy in this long interminable time. Entertainment would likely get a lot more immoral and a lot bloodier. Extremes would be sought and soon reached. The Marquis de Sade would be a happy camper in this new order.

Non-immortal human beings would be utterly expendable. The callous cruelty displayed to them would be shocking to today’s human being. In an immortal world, if there were only a few immortals, they would be the most tight-knit group of fellows imaginable, linked and bonded to an extreme degree. If they had special powers commensurate with their anti-aging advantage they would turn these powers against run-of-the-mill people and toward upending run-of-the-mill situations.

The immortals seek out other immortals in other worlds. If parallel universes exist, the immortals practice breaking through the bounds that separate the different universes to reach a different crowd of immortals. The immortals fight viciously as a group. Their unification is a given. Their priorities tend toward laying waste of the enemy mortals who can still perhaps slay them.

Depending on how invulnerable the immortals are, they will be cautious in the real world to varying degrees. If the immortal cannot be killed, he won’t think twice about venturing into the most dangerous of circumstances for fun and entertainment. He would walk the lines of the World War 1 trenches with machine gun fire going off and shells blossoming in the dirt, with no trepidation and no hesitation. He would live in volcanos in the seconds before an eruption. Now, if he was ageless but still vulnerable to harm, he would be a lot more cautious about how he lived his life. Gone would be the carefree days of youth when he rode motorcycles and had unprotected sex. Everything would be regulated, coordinated, segregated.

Life is only fun if you’re invulnerable and immortal.

Socially oriented immortals could form new societies and watch them grow and mature. Like an ant farm but with real human beings, a new society pruned and tended to by immortals should be an interesting experiment indeed; one that is ever-changing and ever-evolving.

Immortals could build great things. An extended lifespan gives new scope for action. Different buildings, different books become possible. Art is developed like an ageless black orchid flower. Art expands and diverges. Immortality changes the way we look at things — the very way we think and perceive. A curated collection of immortal artifacts is both greater-than and more overwhelming than the works of mere mortals.

Cunning reaches new levels with a lifetime’s lifetimes of experience to draw upon. Fewer and fewer mistakes get made. Solutions trend from sub-optimal to optimal.

Everyone ordinary dies happy.