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[Descan]

Again. You. Are. Immortal.

You have all the time in the world! And they couldn't be -that- difficult to find, a wizard in 1300s figured it out.

And finally, you'd think it'd be worth it to... you know, stop people dying. Most people dislike death, except in the case of old age, which I've never understood.

[Mephansteras]

Again. You. Are. Immortal.

You have all the time in the world! And they couldn't be -that- difficult to find, a wizard in 1300s figured it out.

And finally, you'd think it'd be worth it to... you know, stop people dying. Most people dislike death, except in the case of old age, which I've never understood.

Yes, you're immortal and have all the time in the world to make more. That doesn't mean that it's a simple process. Or one you'd actually want to repeat. Maybe it's incredibly difficult and painful? We don't really know, other than the fact that he chose not to make more.

Also, you're forgetting some very crucial details there. Stopping people dying is all well and good, but what do you do with a population that never dies but still has kids? Overpopulation becomes a problem really, really quickly. You can tell people not to have kids, but unless you get rid of the biological urge or sterilize everyone, it's going to happen. You have to think about the consequences of giving people immortality. This also ties into that 'can't let it get into the wrong hands' thing. If the really bad guy gets it before everyone else, what's to stop him from killing off everyone else who knows how? If it's cheap and easy to give it to everyone, sure, that's an option. But if it's difficult, expensive, or whatever, then you really do have to worry about the wrong people getting it before you have a chance to give enough people immortality to offset the horrible person.

And old people are ok dying because being old sucks. At least according to all the old people I've talked to, and while I'm not even middle aged yet I can attest to growing older being pretty lousy.

[Descan]

From what I could tell, the philosophers stone stopped aging, too. I could be wrong about that, though. Then, I could understand wanting to die.

Anyway, you have a lot more options for space exploration and colonization with magic AND science than you do with just science. There's a spell that creates water, for instance! Water, from nothing! And an air refreshing spell, too! The world wouldn't be quite so crowded if the wizards would just pay attention to the other 99% of the human race.

And while I'm sure a lot of people would have kids still, I don't think it'd be nearly as many as it is now. Maybe 2, 3 times the rate of people dying from accidents, tops. (does the stone make you invulnerable too?)

[FuzzyZergling]

If I made a stone like that, I'd hide it and pretend I was just naturally immortal.

[Knight of Fools]

That'd be a great way to get a government/corporation/cult to kidnap/spy/experiment on you.

Well, they created a new whole body for him. So assumedly that body was healthy enough to withstand a few years of aging. It's not like Voldemort would be all that old anyway. Certainly a few decades younger than Dumbledore.

I forgot about the whole new body thing.

[Karnewarrior]

I think you have to keep drinking the juice too. Besides, the stone makes any metal into gold; releasing it to the muggles isn't an option even if you take away the Statute of Secrecy. The markets would be utterly ruined as everyone has infinite gold, tanking the jewlery business as a whole and wrecking Life Insurance since everyone's immortal anyway. With those two tanking, the stock market's liable to flip out like the touchy bitch it is and then everything goes to shit.

Even if it's not released to the Muggles, you have interesting questions... like, will the Muggles notice how some people don't age? Because they will, quite quickly. If you repeal the statute, then they ask why they can't have the magic rock of wealth and power^tm and you have a rebellion on your hands, or civil war if the wizards somehow became nice.

So while Immortality would need to get to the people ASAP, freely releasing it to the public wouldn't work. I wonder if drinking a small amount of it would prolong life? It'd be a good way to compromise between poverty and not having people die everywhere. It would help as a intermediary while Wizards work on a way to gain immortality without converting random household objects into precious metals. Or at least change it to Copper, we need more of that.

[Descan]

Regardless of whether my scenario of "everyone gets a stone" works, can we all agree that Wizards are dicks for not sharing with the muggles, and that they're dumb for not paying attention to mugglescience?

[Mephansteras]

Regardless of whether my scenario of "everyone gets a stone" works, can we all agree that Wizards are dicks for not sharing with the muggles, and that they're dumb for not paying attention to mugglescience?

Yes, yes we can.

[Karnewarrior]

Regardless of whether my scenario of "everyone gets a stone" works, can we all agree that Wizards are dicks for not sharing with the muggles, and that they're dumb for not paying attention to mugglescience?

They aren't dicks because they don't share with muggles, they're dicks because they lock up minor criminals with soul-eating eldritch abominations that take away your ability to feel any sort of happiness at all.

Wizards aren't oligarchs, they're Stalin.

[Descan]

That, too.

[Knight of Fools]

I think you have to keep drinking the juice too. Besides, the stone makes any metal into gold; releasing it to the muggles isn't an option even if you take away the Statute of Secrecy. The markets would be utterly ruined as everyone has infinite gold, tanking the jewlery business as a whole and wrecking Life Insurance since everyone's immortal anyway. With those two tanking, the stock market's liable to flip out like the touchy bitch it is and then everything goes to shit.

But imagine how awesome computers would get with hardware made of gold instead of copper!

[Lovechild]

No.147 is up.

[IronyOwl]

I'm mostly with Descan here. Can't stand when people get a hold of something powerful and lack the will and the vision to use it properly, study it, and make more of it, and instead figure they've gotta destroy it first because it's scary.

Weak-minded fools. I'll show them all!

I think you have to keep drinking the juice too. Besides, the stone makes any metal into gold; releasing it to the muggles isn't an option even if you take away the Statute of Secrecy. The markets would be utterly ruined as everyone has infinite gold, tanking the jewlery business as a whole and wrecking Life Insurance since everyone's immortal anyway. With those two tanking, the stock market's liable to flip out like the touchy bitch it is and then everything goes to shit.

I'm not sure why this'd be an issue; sure, there'd be some turmoil initially, but we've got plenty of stuff we've got a lot of and plenty of stuff we've got only a little of; I don't see why gold would be the tipping point between a fully functioning (er, mostly/usually functioning?) economy and complete anarchy. Or at least, anarchy that lasts long enough for immortality for everyone to be a no-go.

Even if it's not released to the Muggles, you have interesting questions... like, will the Muggles notice how some people don't age? Because they will, quite quickly. If you repeal the statute, then they ask why they can't have the magic rock of wealth and power^tm and you have a rebellion on your hands, or civil war if the wizards somehow became nice.

Aren't they living in a pocket dimension or magically walled off area a lot of the time anyway? And even for those on the outside, I wouldn't think having to change identities would be that much of a sticking point for an immortal wizard.

[Karnewarrior]

Regardless, while destroying the stone is a bad idea, trying to just hand it out would also be a bad idea. Like giving everyone on the planet their own IBCM. Sure, 99.99999% of people wouldn't use theirs, but there's always that one asshole who has nothing to do but nuke an Arbys.

[Lovechild]

No.148 is up.