What are the effects of having rejuvenation powers?

[Accelerator]

So let's say superheroes arrive. Let's ignore the question on things like suddenly having human nukes, or teleporters, or incredible science. Let's talk about age alteration. Or more accurately, being able to undo the act of aging.

Scenario 1: 100 people who can reverse aging. Each can carry out the equivalent of reversing 300 years in a day.

Scenario 2: 1000 people who can do it. Each can reverse 300 years in a day

Scenario 3: 10, 000 people who can each reerse 300 years in a day

[Ibrinar]

Each can keep 300*365=109500 people at a stable age (of course at the beginning much would be used to get people young again.) I will be lazy and round to 110000. Anyway 100 people could keep 11 mil young, they would most likely use that mainly on the rich and powerful. So we get an unaging ruler class, yay. (Not undying though, illnesses and accidents will get them at some point just much later on average.)

10000 could keep 1.1 billion at a stable age, some would spread it further but most would be busy in developed nations. Old age would make it obvious that someone is poor or comes from a poor country which will likely foster a feeling of superiority over anyone that ages. People would be much healthier so retirement at a set age would probably disappear in developed nations. Sport careers would last much longer though not necessarily their whole lives because some sports when done to the extreme do some damage to you.

[Traab]

With 10k its entirely possible we would end up with a situation like some fantasy elves where they enforce VERY strict population controls because they can only keep a billion eternally young. With a billion people living effectively forever it would cause insane overpopulation problems and probably all sorts of ethical concerns as well. But then, maybe not as the entire process hinges on those 10k age reversers themselves never dying to keep the system going that way. Or we would end up with eternal rich and powerful who have arranged to rule everything because they have forever to set it all up and entire nations that are basically powerless slums who only exist to feed the billion chosen ones. But they would still likely enforce strict population control just because nobody wants to see their kid grow old and die as they go on forever.

An alternate outcome is total anarchy and chaos as people refuse to stop having kids, want to ensure their newborn gets a slot, so they secretly assassinate one of the other eternals to open a spot. Just a never ending paranoid existence as the long lived want to stay that way and have it for their kids while worrying about being targeted themselves. Eventually the families that are the best at killing and getting away with it rise to the top. It wouldnt surprise me to see a One Piece setup of government where the age reversers live like the celestial dragons, isolated in their fabulous luxury and protected by the billion long lived who control the rest of the world.

[Accelerator]

A thing to note is that the people who get powers? Are also amongst many other superhumans, and are also people from all walks of life. The kind of people who would heal for free, the kind that will heal for a billion, and the kind of person who is willing to work 16 hours a day to do so. And the kind of guy who heals one billionaire a day.

[Fyraltari]

Untraceable murder.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I suspect the results would be typical of comic book plot lines: with any of those scenarios you’d get a number of scientists researching whatever chemical/energy/magic the regenerators use to cause the effect, and find a way to duplicate and bottle it. Failing that, or possibly alongside it depending their areas of expertise, more scientists would be trying to figure out a way to duplicate the regenerators - clone them, try to bake up more of the super soldier serum they were injected with, whatever.

Funding for all this would need to come from somewhere, but when the reward for succeeding is basically immortality I suspect someone would be willing to foot the bill. Maybe put it on Kickstarter.

[Mechalich]

If the de-agers are actual people, it's probably worth noting that their individual lives are going to be controlled extremely tightly, since they represent an extremely precious resource. They're probably confined to secure facilities specially constructed to minimize all chance of accidents and never allowed to do anything dangerous at all while suffering under a mandate to de-age as many people as they possibly can without impairing their own health. They'd likely be fairly pampered otherwise - as the government has an interest in keeping them happy - but in strictly limited ways. Lot's of fine food and digital entertainment, no driving, swimming, or use of sharp objects of any kind.

Various states and corporations would doubtless compete for control over these people and the access to de-aging they provide, though probably with a minimum of violence after a few incidents resulted in the deaths of irreplaceable de-agers.

[Tyndmyr]

Untraceable murder.

The victim is now a baby, and the cops are looking for an eighty year old dude? Yeah, fair.

Sure, optimally, you could keep a ton of people alive and healthy forever. Would humanity invariably use their powers for good? *eyeballs history cautiously* Probably not.

[Fyraltari]

The victim is now a baby, and the cops are looking for an eighty year old dude? Yeah, fair.

Please, the victim is now an egg and a sperm.

[tomandtish]

A LOT depends on where/when this happens. In the US, there are laws against forced servitude. Even in contracts, it's hard to legally force someone to do something (contracts tend to use monetary penalties) because of 13th amendment. For example, the government could not (legally) ORDER Willow to restore the soul of a vampire, or Superman to move a heavy load into space. So legally you probably could not force anyone to use their powers to rejuvenate someone.

In the Super Powered universe by Drew Hayes, the majority of healers who can do significant healing/rejuvenation make obscene amounts of money doing so.

As noted above, population control becomes a major issue. The CDC says that by 65 years old 88% of Americans have at least one chronic health condition that develops as a result of aging. Roughly 2 million people aged 65+ die every year. If half of them didn't, that's an additional increase of a million to the population each year, as well as any additional births.

If you only had a small number of them, I agree that you'd most likely end up with an elite group of rich people who never age, effectively eventually creating a ruling class.

[Hopeless]

Sorry when I read that opening I assumed posts about people asking,"Am I Ginger?" might be making an appearance!

Wouldn't that make more sense them gaining the ability to rejuvenate into a slightly different younger body than continuously remaining a younger version of themselves in a society where such things might lead to them being wrongly labelled as vampires?

Or rightly after all we don't know what form of rejuvenation they're using after all!

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Please, the victim is now an egg and a sperm.

Much better. A baby you can find and then get a DNA fingerprint off.

It might actually be kind of a good thing they can do this, that makes it a bit harder for powerful people to try and control these folks. One rogue super is a problem, but a rogue super/billionaire/politician extorting an army of supers, that's really bad.