Would You Do a Peter Weyland?......

I would suggest that although Weyland Industries have their fingers in the "Health and Well-being" sector and lives can be extended, that Peter truly wants to live on through a mixture of astonishing achievements and possibly in some way through his line of androids...possibly decanting his memory and (if possible) consciousness (?) into one of them. I don't think he believes that he can find a way to physical human immortality through visiting the planet unless he has some strong evidence up front.... I do think there will be conversations about folly and morals when it becomes clear he wants to steal their technology though.... M

I'm just surprised that there isn't already immortality in the Alien/Prometheus universe. Humans have holograph technology, nano computing, and androids that are so lifelike, you wouldn't even know unless they were bleeding. The science of immortality is stopping pre-programmed cell death. You stop that by either turning it off on a genetic level, or replacing cells all together with a mechanical (or bio mechanical) part. Technically, the brain can live as long as it's supported. It dies because (unless of brain disease or injury) another body system shuts down. I would think in that universe, humans would be able to replace failing parts with bio mechanical ones. Another problem with immortality is insanity. The human brain is wired to perceive time and experiences... but even as we get older, we forget less important aspects of our past simply because of information overload. If a human were able to live 150, 200, 250 years it'd be safe to conclude that they wouldn't be a functional member of society. Aside from the emotional distress of losing everyone you ever connect with, there is no way a person would be able to function as the rest of humanity does. I would certainly say no, I wouldn't want to live forever. I wouldn't mind living 150 years (max) just to see how much we'd advance. But if that's the goal, why couldn't he just freeze himself and wake up every 20 years for a year or so?

I imagine if I was the head of a trillion-dollar company I'd reckon I could do whatever I liked! My interpretation of the character is that he has the forward thinking of a Steve Jobs with the vanity of a Donald Trump character (and better/more hair than both).

@orangecat I strongly oppose your hair theory....but concur on the other points.... ; ) I think there are some interesting concepts to discuss on this...do you for instance think that if you could live forever, and be able to fund any kind of eternal lifestyle, that you would become paranoid at the prospect of dying after all your investment in staying alive? I mean the statistical possibility of death by some form of accident (road / rail / murder / innocent bystander / disease / war ) would grow and might make you go mad with paranoia. M

"Another problem with immortality is insanity." This is an excellent point. The best literary description of this I have found to date has been the Nonmen in R. Scott Bakker's excellent Prince of Nothing/Aspect Emperor series. Worth a read if you are tired of waiting for GRR Martin to push out another book. The basic gist of it is that as these immortal beings accumulate memories over thousands of years, the only ones that stick are the traumatic ones. So after enough time, you find these "Erratics" who are ancient Nonmen who can't remember anything about their lives except the most violent and awful things that have happened to them. They aren't technically insane but their memories are so uniformly horrific that the only way they can relate to current events is through generating traumatic incidents that resonate with what they can remember. It's a pretty sad and scary interpretation of immortality. Just imagine not being able to remember the names of your friends but only the looks on their faces when they died.

@takka takka takka That book sounds absolutely amazing! I'm checking it out this weekend! A good literary example I've come across is Mark Z Danielewski (of House of Leaves fame)'s book, Only Revolutions. It's about a guy and girl, immortal, and their recollection of their history in the form of a centuries long "road trip". It's written from each of their points of view, in broken and confused language simply because they have lived since the beginning of time. It's cool because it tells the same stories from each person's point of view, you literally flip the book to read the other every 23 pages or so. It's a difficult read until you get used to it's prose, but totally worth it... especially if you're familiar with House of Leaves.

takka-takka-takka Many thanks for that book info.I'll Amazon it .Good books are so hard to find these days.Thanks again.