Poul Anderson's Hanno is the oldest mutant immortal.
Robert
Heinlein's Lazarus Long, the Senior, or oldest member of the human
race, is a third generation Howard, bred for longevity, but also,
coincidentally and inexplicably, a mutant who lives much longer than any
other member of the Howard Families.
Edgar Rice
Burrough's (ERB's) John Carter claims to remember only an extended
adulthood without any childhood and to know nothing of his own origin
even though he has a great-grand-nephew and must surely therefore also
know his brother or sister and their parents? (ERB wrote glaring
inconsistencies.) Carter died on Earth but was astrally projected to
Mars where he still lives in a tangible undying body and speculated just
once that maybe he is the materialization of a long dead warrior.
Mysteries beyond mysteries. (SM Stirling, in his Martian novel, alludes
to the cave near which Carter was astrally projected.)
Might
Hanno and Long become like what Carter claims to be? Let me explain.
Most people have lived for less than 100 years. Whatever age you have
now reached, how much do you remember of your first two years? If you
were to live for 1000 years, how much would you remember of your first
20 years? If you were to live for 1,000,000 years, how much would you
remember of of your first 20,000 years? And so on. Hanno and his fellow
immortals agree to meet again in another million years and expect to
continue living after that.
Could there be an sf series as outlined below?
Vol I, set in One Billion AD: a man who seems to have lived forever remembers only the last ten millennia.
Vol
II, set in Two Billion AD: a man who seems to have lived forever is by
now known by a different name, has learned so much from experience that
he has completely changed his personality and remembers only the last
ten millennia.
Vol III, set in Three Billion AD...
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