How would really old people think or act?

A lot of fictional works contain people who are well over 100 years old, some 200, some 1000s of years old. The Emperor Of Mankind for example is over 10,000 years old. Colin from Highlander is over 2000 years old.

Realistically, how would these people think and act? How would they act or think differently from ordinary young people, assuming that their physical bodies do not age (e.g remain the body of a 30-year-old)?

My guess is firstly that they would know lots of facts, but not necessarily in depth as they may not have had the time or resources to conduct research into these areas. They might have a very well developed philosophy, taking some axioms as far as you can go by pure logical reasoning. Their decisions might be more logical and they might be faster to make decisions, so that they might be more perfect Bayesians. However, given that their brains are still only human (or slightly superhuman), they would still just be boundedly rational agents. Would they be rid of all addictions and bad habits, including bad mental habits? Would they have conquered procrastination? Would they reach the limit of expertise, or somehow go beyond it?

More importantly, how would they speak, act, and make decisions? Would they sound like otherworldly beings, or just like an ordinary friendly guy who seems trustworthy and knowledgeable? Would having so many years of experience and learning give them some unique insights not available to normal humans?

EDIT: You can take Colin MacLeod from Highlander as an example. Regular human given the gift of immortality who lives through normal human history as a regular human being (not a slave but not a king either, perhaps ordinary citizen).

posted over 9 years ago

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