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From: Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Could there be a Gnarly Man in current times?
Date: Wed, 8 May 2024 10:21:34 -0400
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On 5/7/2024 3:39 PM, Tony Nance wrote:
> So I’m making my way through The Best of L Sprague de Camp, and I just 
> (re)read “The Gnarly Man”. It made me wonder ... well, first a quick 
> summary for context:
> 
> This story was written in 1939 and is set in 1956. It’s about an 
> immortal Neanderthal - basically he stopped aging around the age of 33. 
> He most definitely looks the part, and he’s intelligent, articulate, 
> knowledgable, knows dozens of languages, etc etc etc, A fundamental part 
> of his long-term survival has been to avoid attention - nothing high 
> profile or noteworthy, move on to a new place every 10-15 years (sooner 
> if necessary), etc.[1]
> 
> That said, throughout his 52,000 years, he has pretty consistently been 
> part of society, not some sort of loner hiding out in the wilds. Here, 
> we initially find him performing as an ape-man in a carnival show. 
> During the story he mentions he has also been a blacksmith, a maker of 
> false teeth (he says he invented them [2]), a wagon driver (transporting 
> goods), a professional wrestler, an archer in a Briton army (vs the 
> Romans), a cabbie, and he ran a sawmill. (I may have missed some.)
> 
> And this made me wonder:
> Given his obvious physical differences, and with modern technology and 
> communication being what it is, are there ways he could he stay a member 
> of modern society and also avoid attention?
> 
> Tony, having some initial thoughts, but curious about yours
> 
> [1] Poul Anderson revisits this mode of survival for immortals in The 
> Boat of A Million Years. Of course, in Poul’s book, the immortals are 
> modern-type humans who don’t look any different.
> 
> [2] He also invented soup, by necessity, since his teeth wore out and he 
> hadn’t invented false teeth yet.

PJ Plauger also explored this in 'Child of all Ages'.

There, the protagonist also has the problem of appearing to be an 10
year old girl. Thus she both lacked much agency, and couldn't go too
long before her lack of aging was noticed.

An adult immortal could become quite rich through the effects of
compound interest. However, staying under the government's radar
becomes increasingly difficult.

pt