The Age Question

[ManyWorlds]

RA, you are awesome.

Wait... who in your comic is 14?

Uh. According to history, my vampire. I really should have done my research first. And uh, the necessary maths. Presently I am planning to just let this fact sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide and hope no one else can do maths either.

Even if Habib was 14 when he was turned, wouldn't he still fall into the "really old" category?

[Faub]

My characters range from age 3 to older than 50. The greatest bulk of characters are between 13 and 15, though, or at least they appear to be.

I even have a character that falls under "older than time but looks young" category.

[Soap Committee]

Oif. In DP, ages vary like crazy, from young teen to young adult to thirties.

In Miss Whore, EVERYONE IS 18 AND LEGAL

[Dr Legostar]

In Miss Whore, EVERYONE IS 18 AND LEGAL

Really? I didn't get that distinct impression from reading the comic...

[McDuffies]

My main characters always seem to be in their twenties, like me. "mcDuffies" characters seem to be in early twenties, if they're on college than they should be in late teens, but college falls a bit later here.
However, main characters of LWK are 15. I set that age because I wanted them to still be kids and a bit reckless, because in that tame, 15 was the last age you could've find someone unmarried and because I think that a girl could pass as a boy only if the boy is of that age.

[Blackaby]

RA, you are awesome.

Wait... who in your comic is 14?

Uh. According to history, my vampire. I really should have done my research first. And uh, the necessary maths. Presently I am planning to just let this fact sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide and hope no one else can do maths either.

Even if Habib was 14 when he was turned, wouldn't he still fall into the "really old" category?

This makes it No Less Wrong, but a Heck of a Lot creepier.

[Toxic]

RA, you are awesome.
Uh. According to history, my vampire. I really should have done my research first. And uh, the necessary maths. Presently I am planning to just let this fact sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide and hope no one else can do maths either.

Even if Habib was 14 when he was turned, wouldn't he still fall into the "really old" category?

This makes it No Less Wrong, but a Heck of a Lot creepier.

Vampires are undead, so technically they don't age.

[Jackhass]

Good question...my characters are animals, and thus live animal-like lifespans. For instance one character I have is a guinea pig and it's been stated he's only 2 years old.

That said, these are animals with human like personalities...this 2 year old guinea pig character plays a father-figure in the comic. Basically if he was human, he acts like someone in their mid-30s at least.

So yeah...it' hard to say...they range all over, both in their real ages and the age the act.

[Jim North]

Vampires are undead, so technically they don't age.

As long as time keeps moving forward, everything ages. Unless you mean in a "don't physically change as time passes" sort of "don't age".

Of course, there's also the thought that nothing really ages, since we're all the exact same matter that existed from the beginning of the universe, just recycled into different forms. Or does that mean that our actual ages can be calculated as being exactly as long as the universe's existence?





Hey, Jimmy Kimmel's on TV!

[Blackaby]

Even if Habib was 14 when he was turned, wouldn't he still fall into the "really old" category?

This makes it No Less Wrong, but a Heck of a Lot creepier.

Vampires are undead, so technically they don't age.

The Eternal Jailbait

[Toxic]

This makes it No Less Wrong, but a Heck of a Lot creepier.

Vampires are undead, so technically they don't age.

The Eternal Jailbait

We must pray that RA never becomes a vampire. If she does, she'll tease us for all eternity.

[McDuffies]

This makes it No Less Wrong, but a Heck of a Lot creepier.

Vampires are undead, so technically they don't age.

The Eternal Jailbait

More like The Eternal Creepy Old Guy Hanging In Schoolyard.

[Noise Monkey]

Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused?

[Jim North]

"That's what I love about these vampire girls, man . . . I get older, they stay the same age."

[RemusShepherd]

Of course, there's also the thought that nothing really ages, since we're all the exact same matter that existed from the beginning of the universe, just recycled into different forms.

But atomic matter does age, because every atom has a chance to decay, with new atoms being made in stars. And in any event it's possible that neutrons and protons have a (very long) decay lifespan, which means they have an age and an expiration date...

Unless you're talking about leptonic matter like electrons. But then there's all that evidence that there is really only one electron in the universe, and all the copies of electrons we see are caused by that one jumping forward and backward in time, which really plays hell with our definition of 'aging'...

Nevermind. I think marking our age by the first time a doctor smacked us on the ass is the best policy.

[Jim North]

But atomic matter does age, because every atom has a chance to decay, with new atoms being made in stars. And in any event it's possible that neutrons and protons have a (very long) decay lifespan, which means they have an age and an expiration date...

But those atoms are still made up of the same stuff that makes up the rest of the universe . . . laws of thermodynamics and the inability to truly create or destroy and all. Regardless of their change in form, be it molding into something new or decaying away from being old, the basic stuff that makes up everything is still there underneath.

Unless, of course, there truly are openings into other universes, in which case bits of matter and energy from there could mingle with matter and energy from here, and those bits might have a different age than our bits and still conserve the thermodynamics hoopla . . .

Where's Sir Kolter to slap me down with the righteous hand of science?

[RemusShepherd]

Where's Sir Kolter to slap me down with the righteous hand of science?

I can do it in his stead.

But those atoms are still made up of the same stuff that makes up the rest of the universe . . . laws of thermodynamics and the inability to truly create or destroy and all. Regardless of their change in form, be it molding into something new or decaying away from being old, the basic stuff that makes up everything is still there underneath.

Well, if by stuff you mean matter, it all eventually falls apart into energy, and eventually all energy decays into heat energy from which there is no return. The first law of thermodynamics says that nothing can be destroyed or created, but the second law says that you can make it useless, and that eventually it'll become that way on its own.

So the stuff that we are made of should be expected to eventually fall apart. Except that the halflife of a proton is rumored to be longer than the age of the universe. So while it's a measure of age, it's just not a very good one.

[Wp]

Even considering breakdown of particles into energy, you can still consider heat as "stuff," so that particular "no aging" theory still holds. All mass is energy of some kind (E = mc^2), so again, it is merely a changing of forms. The closer something becomes to "useless" doesn't define age.

[Pimpette]

Vampires are undead, so technically they don't age.

The Eternal Jailbait

We must pray that RA never becomes a vampire. If she does, she'll tease us for all eternity.

Pah.
She's legal in Canada.

[Rkolter]

The Eternal Hand of Science Slaps Down (by request)

But atomic matter does age, because every atom has a chance to decay And in any event it's possible that neutrons and protons have a (very long) decay lifespan, which means they have an age and an expiration date...

This is a very accurate statement. Neutrons decay into protons and electrons. Protons decay into a mishmash of atomic particles that eventually decay into photons.

Unless you're talking about leptonic matter like electrons. But then there's all that evidence that there is really only one electron in the universe, and all the copies of electrons we see are caused by that one jumping forward and backward in time,

Leptonic matter doesn't appear to decay - true.

Only one electron in the universe - there's no "all that evidence" about it. As a concept, it's more of a joke than anything else. Electrons have mass, and that mass has been measured in two different places at the same time. Additionally, electrons need to be present to cancel the positive charge of protons in an atom, and are a component of all the neutrons in the universe. For a single electron to skip around to every single atom and every single neutron in the universe, and stay around long enough so the net charge of each atom or each neutron register's the negative charge of the electron, is just a joke.

But those atoms are still made up of the same stuff that makes up the rest of the universe . . . laws of thermodynamics and the inability to truly create or destroy and all. Regardless of their change in form, be it molding into something new or decaying away from being old, the basic stuff that makes up everything is still there underneath.

Matter and energy are the same thing. Matter is more ordered than energy, and matter will decay into energy given time. Energy will continue to degrade to lower and lower levels until such time as the universe is nothing but heat. Very, very low levels of heat. It's the heat death of the universe.

Except that the halflife of a proton is rumored to be longer than the age of the universe. So while it's a measure of age, it's just not a very good one.

Not rumored. The universe isn't all that old... 1.37x10^10 years or so.

Universe: 13,700,000,000 years old.

Half life of a proton is expected to be about 10^32 years.

Proton: 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 year half-life

About 7,300,000,000,000,000,000,000 times longer than the age of the universe.