So I was thinking about Mr. House, when you see his physical body, it is severly deteriorated and shriveled, and I can't help but wonder, is he merely on extended life support as opposed to immortal? I mean, if he were truly immortal in the cryochamber would his body not still be perfect and unaged?

Also, don't waste your time going 'LOLOLOLOL NOT WHEN I KILLED HIM'. I'm asking an actual thought hoping for non-trollish answers. :rolleyes:

No, he would die eventually. He's simply managed to slow the aging process down significantly.

He might have 100 years left he might have a decade, but from talks with him I got the impression he felt like he had a good bit of time left.

Well, judging by how long it has taken his body to decay, I'd say it'd take another 200+ years give or take.

Well...House was 57 when the bombs fell and looked like he did in his House Estate portrait. He looks around 90+ now. So what, about 40 "aged" years in 205 "real time" years? Id give him maybe another 75 to 100 or so years at most. By then there wont be much left. This is implying that people that were born in 2020 or so live for around 105 years, with medical advancements and such.

Well there are two major possibilities of how he stayed alive that long.

If it were A, Cryogenics, then yes he will be immortal so long as the power doesn't run out. Cryogenics, at least in the future, is thought of to allow cells to stop the aging process indefinitely making a human practically immortal. Although this is less likely as the brain would also be stopped and neurological functions would be minimal, making Mr. House suspended in time.

If it were B, an unknown technology mixed in with sterilization. Then no. Sterilization can keep anything from rotting but the brain chemistry will run out eventually and it would never come back. Humans aren't meant to live longer than 50-60. But House is over 200 years old meaning the brain chemistry would run out. But Mr. House is also very smart so he'll live at least another 200 years judging from his dialogue about launching people into space. Unless his calculations are false.

In the end all he needs is his brain... there happens to be another genius who survived the war, albeit a bit incomplete.

Realistically immortality can be achieved to a certain extent by finding and removing part or all of the TERC gene/aging gene. Genetic alterations=the future of man. This kind of tech is a few hundred years away though. :sadvaultboy:

As it stands we know how to do this, unfortunately we don't know how for some reason our genes recognize this and continue to age.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6959575/ns/technology_and_science-science

make that twenty

We dont know how to manipulate the TERC gene.

If you're referring to who I think you're referring to. I'm glad I smashed his tank, the traitorous weasel :stare:

@Xarnac- If I were rich, I would fund research on this, the longevity of genius and human intelligence is vital, especially do to some personal feelings that may be better for me to keep quiet, lest I start a debate :bonk:

That dude seemed a little "Obsessed"..So Im not sure I can rely on his estimate that in twenty years we will have nano robots cleaning our blood. I think he "hopes" it happens in twenty years so he doesnt have to die.

Oh no doubt that guy was a genius, but I agree. He is getting a bit wild with his predictions. (even though all of his predictions so far have come true)

That's true, although if his body is not completely immune to the effects of aging, I'm not certain his brain would be. Although when speaking to him, he doesn't exactly give me the impression as someone whose brain has been hit by the negative effects growing old can have in that area. And in any case, he does at least sound confident that he still has enough time to carry out his plans.



To be fair, in the Fallout setting, prewar scientists were evidently able to engineer FEV and create some seemingly unlikely creatures through gene splicing, so I could see the technology to do something like that being developed in Fallout. However, prewar scientists seemed more interested in using their knowledge of genetics to find new ways to kill people than anything, and in any case, the nuclear war that largely obliterated prewar civilization turned out to be a slight setback in scientific development, so unless such technologies already existed before the war, I can't see Mr, House using it to extend his life span any more than he already has, and if he did have such technology, I'd say he would have used it instead of cryogenically freezing himself.

I was just talking about the real world.

Hes not immortal, just aging slower.

If I was rich I would too... but for purely selfish reasons :drool: .

As for is Mr. House truly immortal... Well he is one smart tomato even if he trusts the wrong people.
Odds are if he thought he was any where near running out of 'time' he would start working on new ways of preserving his life.
He got that far with what 50 years... How far can he get with a few hundred...

If he is not immortal yet, he will be.

He'll probably figure out a way to extend his life more by researching ghouls and super mutants.

No? I'm thinking of the aging function of chromosomes, though to be fair my senior year biology teacher was a crackpot.

His body has clearly eroded away, but I kind of got the impression that he had been able to completely intergrate his mind with the Lucky 38's computers. Even if his body were to die, his mind would likely live on, albeit without his personality as he explains minds tend to lose without the original bodies. But honestly, as far as him being immortal goes...

I don't think House could live on forever in his current state, but if he got a chance to research something new, he might be able to extend his life indefinitely.

I don't think he'd be able to pull off his vision of the future though. He had no charisma and getting things done in society requires charisma. Pushing people around with robots and buying people off only goes so far.

That's true to an extent, though Mr. House is a master of planning and projecting all possible outcomes* and likely could make things turn out his way without needing charisma.

*Except that he can somehow be killed by the courier. Necessary for the plot, but the largest facepalm moment in a game of awesome writing for me.

when u had a conversation with him,and your medical skill was low,he said that brain itself would not be able to have its own personality.

Yeah, I guess he'd die in time, how long he would last is anyones guess. I think "The Brain" from Point Lookout had the right idea for immortality.

Using real world physics, from the evidence i saw in game, he appears to be aging.

Brain activity is reliant on chemical neurotransmitters to process info.
One cannot retain mental function while in cryonic suspension, as molecular activity approaches zero as one approaches 0 Kelvin, so I would rule cryonics out.

Mr. House does not appear to operating like a cylon avatar would, a digital replica of himself, though it surprises me he did not try this.

His linkage to the net seems to be more like how Rex the Cyberdog is set up, though it is more sophisticated.
Given enough time, his brain would cease to function, as this too is subject to aging.