Average Matoran/Toa/Turaga Lifespan

[Wordmeister]

Ok, we know they live for millenia, maybe even eons. However, they can't just live forever. They are part biological, after all. So I'm basically asking if there has been a set lifespan for the Matoran species.

 

However, there would be little proof in the BIONICLE story of this, due to the fact that the main story took place over the course of a year (or two) if I remember correctly (which I probably don't). Even if it was more than a year, it would still not be enough time to give us a clear lifespan. So the info would probably come from a serial or GregF answers thingy.

 

So this is my question:

 

What is the average lifespan of a Matoran?

[Dual Cee]

I would say infinite since they can regenerate the organic partsOh and Takua lived more than a 100 thousand years without a problem

Edited December 14, 2012 by Dual Matrix

[Wordmeister]

I would say infinite since they can regenerate the organic partsOh and Takua lived more than a 100 thousand years without a problem

 

That;s what I thought. It's the best answer we can come up with without more info, right?

[Taipu1]

Potentially infinite, I don't think Takua is a good example, as he became a Toa, and we don't know what affect that has on how organic he is, and his life span.

 

I tend to think of Helryx, who has really shown no sign of deterioration in physical strength or power, compared to other Toa. Death results from deterioration of health, if they're constantly at the same level, there should be no reason to die, unless there's some death phenomenon where they suddenly weaken rapidly. A healthy being wouldn't just drop dead afterall.

[Constructelf]

Yeah, it seems that MU sapient species don't have a Hayflick limit...

[Light]

As long as the red star works, infinite.Keep in mind Lewa getting aged by the ignika, though that wasn't well defined.

[Chro]

As long as the red star works, infinite.

But that isn't part of their lifespan- revival means new life after death. So if they die and are revived on the Star, that doesn't show anything about their lifespan.

[NorikSigma]

Potentially infinite is good, but death can result from battle or disease. There are germs in the MU, right?

Edited December 15, 2012 by Norik Astartes

[The Iron Toa]

Well there are protodites, which are like their equivalent of bacteria I guess. Maybe certain Makuta viruses can spread like real life viruses, too.

 

I was going to speculate if the MU inhabitants were actually designed to die out after about 100,000 years, once Mata Nui's mission was done. But we know that's not the case, because the Kingdom took place 10,000 years later (in its own universe due to time passing faster there) and Helyrx, Takanuva, and the Toa Mata haven't died of old age.

[BULiK]

From what I remember, this was answered on the original Bioniclestory.com website (The Mahri one) in the Greg Q&A thing. I'm just not sure how to find it, though.

[toa kopaka4372]

Incredibly long. They could possibly live to a million years or more. If Helryx could live for over 100,000 years full of battle and still be as agile and fit as any other Toa than they must have extremely strong bodies and health.

[Podu]

And, if the Red Star revival thing was functional, they could live pretty much eternally...

[bonesiii]

Just to be clear, Greg confirmed they do have maximum lifespans. So it's not just infinite.

 

Podu, that's an interesting point to consider. Would they normally, after living out their lifespan, be revived? Does the "clock" start over at zero at any revival?

 

 

Actually, if so, then it's possible Takua is NOT an example of the longest naturally lived guy, if there's any chance he was killed and revived long ago before the Sendback teleporter broke. (Probably not though.) And, since Greg confirmed he did die in MOL (and revived by a local system doing the same job as the RS) he may be nowhere near death now. Fascinating...

[Dual Cee]

Also we must not forget that the Agori and Glatiorian -who are fully organic- can live for more than 100 thousand years so the lifespan of a matoran must be waay bigger

[Wordmeister]

Also we must not forget that the Agori and Glatiorian -who are fully organic- can live for more than 100 thousand years so the lifespan of a matoran must be waay bigger

True, Ackar has been alive since before the Matoran, before Mata Nui. He's pretty old. However, since Glatorian are completely organic, they can't really be used as an example.The Mata were technically alive from the beginning, though they spent most of there time in a comatose state. Since we have no idea if this would stop the clock, it probably can't be used as proof of anything.

[Mersery]

I believe Greg was asked this question once, at least in the regards to lifespan of a Matoran. It was posed to him on the "Ask Greg" section of BIONICLEstory.com back in 2007. Here's the quote:

 

Question: On average, what is the approximate natural lifespan of a Matoran?

Greg's Answer: Hasn't been revealed, but we know there are some who are close to 100,000 years old if not older.

 

So unless Greg's given a definitive answer since then, I guess we don't really know the answer yet. I'm sure the new information regarding the Red Star could play a part in explaining their lifespans.

 

If you think about it, their lifespans could effectively be doubled, should a Matoran live their entire natural life (baring injuries and harmful strain) and die of natural causes, then be revived by the Star and have that lifespan 'restarted,' in a manner of speaking. As bonesii said earlier, fascinating....

Edited December 15, 2012 by Fezmaster

[bonesiii]

Also we must not forget that the Agori and Glatiorian -who are fully organic- can live for more than 100 thousand years so the lifespan of a matoran must be waay bigger

Do we know that's their natural minimum lifespan, though? What if the implants are partly responsible for that?

[Zidonaro]

I believe they have infinite lifespan since they were made to keep Mata Nui alive and things like that.

Edited December 15, 2012 by jalar

[bonesiii]

I believe they have infinite lifespan since they were made to keep Mata Nui alive and things like that.

But, besides the fact that Greg confirmed they do have maximum lifespans, Mata Nui can be kept maintained by new Matoran replacing old ones, similar to the current real-life system for humans. (And since the Red Star stopped teleporting people back, that's what's been in place in the cases of accidents and murders and the like.)

[Wordmeister]

 

I believe they have infinite lifespan since they were made to keep Mata Nui alive and things like that.

But, besides the fact that Greg confirmed they do have maximum lifespans, Mata Nui can be kept maintained by new Matoran replacing old ones, similar to the current real-life system for humans. (And since the Red Star stopped teleporting people back, that's what's been in place in the cases of accidents and murders and the like.)

 

Murderer wouldn't figure into the picture. The Matoran weren't supposed to be sentient

[Chro]

 

 

I believe they have infinite lifespan since they were made to keep Mata Nui alive and things like that.

But, besides the fact that Greg confirmed they do have maximum lifespans, Mata Nui can be kept maintained by new Matoran replacing old ones, similar to the current real-life system for humans. (And since the Red Star stopped teleporting people back, that's what's been in place in the cases of accidents and murders and the like.)

Murderer wouldn't figure into the picture. The Matoran weren't supposed to be sentient

There are certain sometimes-hostile species such as certain Rahi which could kill Matoran. Not technically murder, but you get the gist. Also, as currently being discussed in the "Ramifications of Velika Being a GB" topic, it's possible that he knew they'd become self-aware, or that he tampered with the system to cause that.

[CeeCee]

Some animals can live forever on Earth I believe. No reason my a Bionicle might not be able to

[Dual Cee]

Some animals can live forever on Earth I believe. No reason my a Bionicle might not be able to

 

No animals but the trees sequoya sempervirens and the taxus can.

[MaksDudekVA]

It has been stated by Greg that matoran do have set life spans, it's just that they are very VERY long. I thing he said it was about 10000000000000 years or so.

[Dual Cee]

We're missing a very inportant key element here, we don't know how long a year in the Bionicle universe is.

[MaksDudekVA]

I was talking in earth years.

[Dual Cee]

No greg always spoke in bio year, I could be wrong tough;

[bonesiii]

I believe they have infinite lifespan since they were made to keep Mata Nui alive and things like that.

But, besides the fact that Greg confirmed they do have maximum lifespans, Mata Nui can be kept maintained by new Matoran replacing old ones, similar to the current real-life system for humans. (And since the Red Star stopped teleporting people back, that's what's been in place in the cases of accidents and murders and the like.)

Murderer wouldn't figure into the picture. The Matoran weren't supposed to be sentient

Not sure what you mean; what picture? I only mentioned murders because they do happen and that's part of what new Matoran replace now that the RS is broken. Even if they didn't, there are still deadly accidents, so it doesn't matter.

 

But since you bring it up; "murder" would be possible even without sentience if a unit glitched to start "demolishing" fellow units. In fact IMO nearly anything bad that a sapient evil being can do, the GBs could also consider as a possibility for a glitching AI.

 

Some animals can live forever on Earth I believe. No reason my a Bionicle might not be able to

No animals but the trees sequoya sempervirens and the taxus can.

No lifeform at all lives forever in the current system. Even communal organisms like coral (not sure if that's accurate that it applies to any trees BTW) will eventually die out due to accumulating mutations. They live beyond individuals because the individuals are relatively small. Technically communities of animals, and humans, live similarly, so it's really just a play on words. Individuals die of old age mainly because (as far as we know right now) the "bookends" if you will on our DNA strands wears down over time, and when those disappear completely our DNA itself starts to unravel. New individuals get full-length bookends.

 

So, if there was a biological repair system for the bookends (as we may technologically accomplish in the future), our lifespans could be extended much longer. Just making longer bookends at the beginning would also lengthen them, but constant repair could enable us to live liflespans more similar to Agori.

 

So my guess is that Agori have such a biological system.

 

What would, then, kill off an individual Agori, if so, would be other deleterious mutations to their DNA (equivalent, if they don't use DNA), but other repair mechanisms could extend even this, until finally the wear and tear on the repair mechanisms themselves would spell the end.

 

 

We're missing a very inportant key element here, we don't know how long a year in the Bionicle universe is.

No, Greg confirmed a long time ago it's Earth years. What we don't know is how long the days are compared to us and thus how many of them there are in a year. But it's probably essentially the same IMO, with each day split up into more and shorter hours.

[Dual Cee]

 

I believe they have infinite lifespan since they were made to keep Mata Nui alive and things like that.

But, besides the fact that Greg confirmed they do have maximum lifespans, Mata Nui can be kept maintained by new Matoran replacing old ones, similar to the current real-life system for humans. (And since the Red Star stopped teleporting people back, that's what's been in place in the cases of accidents and murders and the like.)

Murderer wouldn't figure into the picture. The Matoran weren't supposed to be sentient

Not sure what you mean; what picture? I only mentioned murders because they do happen and that's part of what new Matoran replace now that the RS is broken. Even if they didn't, there are still deadly accidents, so it doesn't matter.

 

But since you bring it up; "murder" would be possible even without sentience if a unit glitched to start "demolishing" fellow units. In fact IMO nearly anything bad that a sapient evil being can do, the GBs could also consider as a possibility for a glitching AI.

 

Some animals can live forever on Earth I believe. No reason my a Bionicle might not be able to

No animals but the trees sequoya sempervirens and the taxus can.

No lifeform at all lives forever in the current system. Even communal organisms like coral (not sure if that's accurate that it applies to any trees BTW) will eventually die out due to accumulating mutations. They live beyond individuals because the individuals are relatively small. Technically communities of animals, and humans, live similarly, so it's really just a play on words. Individuals die of old age mainly because (as far as we know right now) the "bookends" if you will on our DNA strands wears down over time, and when those disappear completely our DNA itself starts to unravel. New individuals get full-length bookends.

 

So, if there was a biological repair system for the bookends (as we may technologically accomplish in the future), our lifespans could be extended much longer. Just making longer bookends at the beginning would also lengthen them, but constant repair could enable us to live liflespans more similar to Agori.

 

So my guess is that Agori have such a biological system.

 

What would, then, kill off an individual Agori, if so, would be other deleterious mutations to their DNA (equivalent, if they don't use DNA), but other repair mechanisms could extend even this, until finally the wear and tear on the repair mechanisms themselves would spell the end.

 

 

We're missing a very inportant key element here, we don't know how long a year in the Bionicle universe is.

No, Greg confirmed a long time ago it's Earth years. What we don't know is how long the days are compared to us and thus how many of them there are in a year. But it's probably essentially the same IMO, with each day split up into more and shorter hours.

 

 

The trees can regrow themselves when the are close to dieing(not counet cutting or lightning or forestfires) and the year stuff I remembered reading something in the first ask Greg stuff he wasn't shure how long a Bio year took but that could've changed over the years

[Constructelf]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutriculaHAIL THE IMMORTAL JELLYFISH!

[The Iron Toa]

Maybe the implants give Agori some sort of nanobot or miracle medicine that repairs the damage aging causes. As for the length of years, we know that the days are 36 hours long. If the years are the same length as Earth years, that could mean hours are shorter, but I thought it's more likely less days per year.

[Dual Cee]

They can recreate organic parts and if you can do this you are technically immortal but maybe after time the energy that is the spirit just faints away.Hail all the other immortal beings: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_immortality#section_2

[Rooster Nui]

I don't know if Matoran would have an infinite life span, but they do live for a pretty long time.

[Great Being Velika]

I remember reading that a matoran can live as long as 100000 years, and that is a long time!

[Voxumo]

Hmm i believe that matoran could potentially live for a long time but i also like to think that there has to be a deadline (no pun intended) i would assume they would not live longer than like 500,000 years given anything longer than that would be unreasonable. think about it could your sanity really hold up for longer than that?

 

so basically what i'm trying to say is i believe that if they lived past a certain time that they would die of mental degredation.