# Lifespan of a Human



## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

There's been enough threads about the lifespan of space marines (and yet there's always a vocal group that thinks 'immortal' is the right answer, no matter how many times the texts prove them wrong).

My question is how long can a relatively normal Imperial human live if not slain in combat? I've been reading Caiphas Cain recently and he talks about being 'into his second century' quite a bit, though they never seem to nail down his exact age (at least not yet, haven't read them all)

So with imperial medtech and cyb, how long do you think a regular human can live without being reduced to organs in a jar being hauled around by a servitor? My guess is somewhere near 120 or 150, roughly double the current life expectancy, but only a couple decades ahead of the longest lived people currently on record


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## Arcane (Feb 17, 2009)

Then in that case it may not be unreasonable to assume that a normal human could live to be even 200 under exceptional circumstances.


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## HIz (Jan 31, 2009)

i would say the common lifespan of a non high ranking official is probably still around 80 years if not less. There has been a significant breakdown in the fluff of tech and kind of a backtrack to the middle ages of sort. So even tho they have some better medicine and medical technology then now i would say unless you have money your pretty much screwed and will die from disease, robbed at gunpoint and shot, or other terrible way of dieing. With the overpopulation the average person is almost of no concern to anyone so they can be born and die at will.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

It's hard to say exactly for the Imperium as a whole. Look at the diversity on this one planet.

Now planets in 40K each have their own Economical climates. Usually, MEDC (more Economically developed countries, usually Northern Hemisphere countries, with the notable exceptions of Oceania) have higher Age Demographics, and the opposite is true for the LEDC's.

On one planet, that's a range from places such as Zimbabwe (34-37), to Kenya (54-56), Egypt (65-67), and Italy (78-80) (Notice, this is nearly following a line of longitude). This is linked to how well developed the country is - usually this comes with Capitalism, and Trading with existing MEDC's - as most countries by now, if they have not already done so, lack the raw materials to either barter or increase. Kenya has Tourism - hence the increase in it's LE compared to Zimbabwe. It has since gone on to increase it's Tourism potential, drawing more people in, but has now turned towards helping it's people. Egypt has Tourism, Leisure, None-Fossil Fuel Power Supplies, all of which has come from it's natural potential - tourism, archaeology (archaeology usually being a subsect of the former), trade (Suez Canal and the Mediterranean), as well as being the only Land Route available from Europe and Asia into or from Africa. This gives it more access to goods, and the World Economies. Italy has everything already mentioned, as well, and is far longer developed, due to it's existing resources.

What this very long, and seemingly pointless ramble is trying to say, is that in 2000 miles, there is nearly a doubling of Life Expectancy.

Then let's look at the progression through time. The UK has gone from the average life expectancy of 43 (in the 1850's - which considering was a time of Revolution in Engineering, meant that the labour force lived shorter lives, compared to the upper classes - i.e. Queen Victoria, although this was later on), to 150 years later of 78-80. 35 years increase in 150 years.

If we take it literally, for a planet to follow the typeset of Britain, you're looking at a rather high Life expectancy.

150 years is (call it) 30 years LE increase. So 1 year is a 2.4 month LE increase. 40000-2000 = 38000. 38000/5 = 7400 years increase. So our average life expectancy is 7478 years in 41st Millenium. However, think about it in reverse - in the 1700's, the Britains would just about be having having a 1 year life expectancy. Before that, there were no British. Which as we know wasn't true. This means it was an exponential growth. Which would suggest the the 7000+ year lifespan is going to be far higher.

However, it's also unlikely that there is going to be as much Industrial upheaval in that time - those planets with Low Life Expectancies are going to be Feral Worlds, the Lower Hive Worlds, Death Worlds, and Forge Worlds (or the working caste will be). The upper classes, with their access to life prolonging drugs, true bionics, better health care, I see no reason as to why the upper classes can't, or shouldn't reach a few millenia old.

However, there is also the case that maybe our bodies can't cope with that - the organs inside might die, or fail. Alzheimers, (despite being a physical disease of the brain, despite it affecting mental health), Strokes, and similar diseases are likely all still present in the 41st Millenium - it's currently the brain is the only irreplaceable organ. Or is it? We are able to grow our own Organs now. Who's to say that with the Tutelary engines present in that time period, that the Space Wolves have access to, and I'm assuming many other sections of the Imperium do - Inquisitors namely, planetary governors might - particularly places such as Armageddon, Cadia, and the Worlds "blockading" the Maelstrom, or Eastern Fringe - and Military commanders. What's to say that such influential members could not use that information, or at least the screened part, can be used.

Sorry - I enjoy demographics


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## Captain Galus (Jan 2, 2008)

The thing about this kind of prediction is that you can't really express it in solid figures, as Vaz pointed out. The average life expectancy of a human being has grown quite a bit over the last few centuries, but that's more because of the advances in the medical sciences (or at least, sciences with medical applications).

One wouldn't have to look hard to see the Imperium's official stand on "science," although some planets within its boundaries are rather advanced, considering. Honestly, I'd say that the average life expectancy of a human being in the 41st millenium is lower than the life expectancy of a one in the 21st century. Perhaps, before the Dark Age of Technology, humanity possessed the technology to prolong their lifespans by decades, centuries, or even millenia (excluding the Space Marines).


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## Kendares (Sep 9, 2008)

i think its the rehuvation tech that has increased. because in the last chancers novel schaffer has been in the service in of the emporer for over 300 years. thats a long time! but he has many repacments to his body to keep him young.


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## tony161 (Jan 27, 2009)

If u think of a humen cell having loads of strings inside it, and every time these cells devide, thses strings get shorter which auses aging. Turtles have a slower decrease in these strings so live longer before there cells become usless, this is what also causes a higher rate of ancer i people over 70. Also if you have a bad diet, or smoke cells are more likly to deform, meaning they age faster as new cells must be made at a faster rate, making the strings get shorter faster. With the age wrold record being 136 (i think), where she lived in an unpolluted, low medical tech area. So if you can slow down this breakdown of the strings, lived in an unpolluted area and have good medical care, and you are black (not being racist, but they live longer, have better teeth and have denser bones), you could live for 140+.


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## Wachaza (Mar 20, 2008)

The very rich in the 40k universe will have access to anagathic treatmetns which will postpone the aging process by repairing accumulated damage. It's not inconceivable that with the right attention from the Adeptus Mechanicu Biologis could keep people alive for a very long time. Hundreds of years could be attainable. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch for the technology to keep someone very important alive indefinitely unless disease or violence got them. Whether they'd still ahve all their marbles intact after a few hundred years would be another matter.


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## cafel (Dec 21, 2008)

I remember in one of th Eisenhorn novels a noble dies and the inquisitor remarks on his tragic young death at age 89. I'd say a few centuries at least for the upper class, and about the same as now or less for common folk, just because most hive worlds are so polluted that the air is slightly corrosive and the death worlds kind of have their life expectancy in their names.


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## killmaimburn (Mar 19, 2008)

Following up on the eisenhorn novels, when he is hunting down the roque inquisitor Quixos, Quixos is believed dead becuase he has not been seen in around 100 years but when they calculate his age it is 347 to which eisenhorn remarks "that's no age at all, given rejuvanat drugs or sorcery"


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## whatwhat (Oct 7, 2008)

Well Eisenhorn is described as old by the end of the BL series and in the inquisitor rulebook and by the dates he is around 160. So I'd take that as average. Obviously bionics change things and Eisenhorn has a lot of his own at that age.



Galahad said:


> There's been enough threads about the lifespan of space marines (and yet there's always a vocal group that thinks 'immortal' is the right answer, no matter how many times the texts prove them wrong).


or right.
http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showpost.php?p=302817&postcount=27


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

whatwhat;312541
or right.
[url said:


> http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showpost.php?p=302817&postcount=27[/url]


I'll take several quotes from different SM codices over one offhand remark from a BL book any day. Not saying BL books don't count, just that they don't trump the established fluff, especially when multiple codices make mention of members of their chapter being very old (and visibly aged, as if, say 'withered' by 'time' ;-) ), and some chapters are stated as having lifespans several times longer than others. But that's a subject for another thread.

It's interesting to see how many different answers and examples there seem to be. Perhaps the answer to "how long can a human live?" is "Depends on who's writing the book"

But it is clear that the better off/more important you are the more likely you are to have a lifespan measured in centuries. Whether that's through cloned bodies, disfiguring cybernetics, or just being doomed to be really, really old for a couple of centuries.

We've got Dante at 1200 as the longest lived (loyal, non-dreadnought) marine, who do we have as the longest lived human?


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## Captain Galus (Jan 2, 2008)

Col. Schafer of the Last Chancers is, according to Word of God, over 300 years old and he's a goddamn Guardsman; I'm sure rich people can live pretty long if we go by that model.


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## whatwhat (Oct 7, 2008)

Galahad said:


> I'll take several quotes from different SM codices over one offhand remark from a BL book any day. Not saying BL books don't count, just that they don't trump the established fluff, especially when multiple codices make mention of members of their chapter being very old (and visibly aged, as if, say 'withered' by 'time' ;-) ), and some chapters are stated as having lifespans several times longer than others. But that's a subject for another thread.


As has been established in the thread I linked to, aging does not contradict immortality. And by saying BL doesn't trump the "established fluff" you are indeed saying BL doesn't count. Perhaps you'd like to swing by the BL forums and try that one. But yes that's a subject for another thread, lol.



> We've got Dante at 1200 as the longest lived (loyal, non-dreadnought) marine, who do we have as the longest lived human?


It'd be quixos but since he turned to chaos he won't really count.

Anyone know what date Macharius died, I'm sure I read somewhere about him reaching a high age.


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

whatwhat said:


> As has been established in the thread I linked to, aging does not contradict immortality. And by saying BL doesn't trump the "established fluff" you are indeed saying BL doesn't count. Perhaps you'd like to swing by the BL forums and try that one. But yes that's a subject for another thread, lol.


No, I'm saying they have equal weight, one doesn't trump the other. But when multiple different codices mention space marines growing old and having limited lifespans, I take the side with the most sources.

I'll accept that a marine could, theoretically, live forever, just getting more and more decrepit, and perhaps it's the speed at which that decrepitude sets in that determines a chapter's 'age limit' since a geriatric marine is going to get killed in combat or entombed in a dread before he becomes so aged that he has to stay at the old folks home.

But the idea that marines age contradicts the piece of BL text you quoited saying that they are not withered by time. So while aging doesn't contradict immortality, aging does contradict the bit of BL text you quoted. 



> It'd be quixos but since he turned to chaos he won't really count.
> 
> Anyone know what date Macharius died, I'm sure I read somewhere about him reaching a high age.


Indeed, anyone resorting to sorcery would have to be excluded since the question is about the state of imperial medtech, as applied to normal humans.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

What about Commissar Yarrick? I know he was retirement age when Ghazkul invaded first, and there was only fifty years between the first and second Armageddon wars, so without help he'd be about 120 0r so, but wouldn't a Commissar have access to some form of juvenant treatments?


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## whatwhat (Oct 7, 2008)

Yarrick is a very good shout.



Galahad said:


> But the idea that marines age contradicts the piece of BL text you quoited saying that they are not withered by time. So while aging doesn't contradict immortality, aging does contradict the bit of BL text you quoted.


That part of the quote doesn't neceraily mean what you think it does thoug, as in the same book Qruze is described as old and visibly aged.


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## lomaxxdurang (Jun 24, 2008)

I thought i read in mechanicum some of the tech priests were over a thousand. I wouldnt be surprised by age of the priests getting up there. Then again their age lends to them going insane. I would venture a guess that average top out with juvenant treatments and not major bionics would be 450-500 years if they have the money.


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## Lupercal's Chosen (May 8, 2008)

Theres a lot of WH fluff that says average humans are forced to work in terrible working environments and that most of the time they are literally worked to death so probaly mid 50s if your lucky. Unless of course your a guardsman in which case your life expectancy is probally your 1st mission lol. Most of the important humes in the WH world are augmented so they're life spans are greatly extended!!! Saying that thats only on imperial worlds Humes on other planets now that could be interesting.

"You can reginise the foul taint of chaos by the spikes and other adornments they tend to wear" Imperial guard primer!!! (well that and the fact you just had your legs biiten of by a khorne possesed cultist


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Macharius died at a relatively early age- I don't think he even made it to 50, he's based on Alexander the Great after all- both did so much, in such a small amount of time at such a young age but both also died at a young age.

Without the correct treatments I don't that even the Imperium's nobility would live much past 90-100, but with regular Juvenat treatments you could extend this number past 300 years potentially.


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## Primarch Lord CAG (Dec 5, 2007)

Im back !:laugh:
anywhoo the body stops aging once it reaches a pre set genetic point usually at a point that you'll be to weak and fragile to survive in the wild 
also medical science didn't up lifespans much good diets had a bigger affect romans lived 70's-90's if they weren't murdered:alcoholic:


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## Red Orc (Jun 14, 2007)

It's true that various people in history have been recorded as living beyond 80. Whether these were always very accurate is a bit more debateable, but again it often comes down to an estimation of how rich you were. Now again there's a problem with the poor not being recorded in history, but if some Roman senatorial families produced some very long-lived people, the assumption must be that were lucky in having good diets, the best health-care that there was at the time, and no murderous relatives. The millions of people who didn't have these advantages must skew the averages slightly though.

It's been suggested that the first person to live to 200 has already been born, really in our world, right here and now. Man will they have some stories to tell the great-great-great-great-great grandchildren.

For what it's worth, baring accidents and war, I'd guess most people would live to 180-250 given reasonable access to what the Imperium has to offer in terms of medical technology. Hunch, nothing more. The actual life expectancy of most people would be more like 70 though I figure. Forgeworlds etc are the industrial revolution gone mad, and in Leeds in the mid 1800s the average life expectancy for working class families was 19 years. That's a 40% infant mortality rate or something, which I'm expecting wouldn't be as bad in the Imperium. But occupational diseases (Promethian Lung, for instance, which I've just made up but I'm sure is nasty) would be rife I reckon.

:cyclops rowntree:


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## Micklez (Nov 22, 2008)

Red Orc said:


> Promethian Lung, for instance


Think i feel a little of that coming on at the moment, o wait thats just the the black county air (for those in the UK)

As for the life expetency, i guess you cant get an average for the Imperium because of the varied enviroment, although i guess we can assume that there is a greater range of years then what we currently have (ie. they have the possibly of growing beyone 200 years)


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## Primarch Lord CAG (Dec 5, 2007)

I think in a 40k book somebody was 1k+ dont remeber which book:scare:


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