Effects of not growing up?
Let's say I have a bunch of pre-pubescent children (circa 8-12 years old). Let's also say I subjected them to some drug/process/whatever that caused them to stop growing. In particular:
- Whatever height they are when exposed to the process, that is how tall they will be. Same with proportions.
- Visible effects of aging are retarded, at least for a while. Several decades later (assuming they've "kept in shape" in such a way that their fat/muscle mass hasn't changed significantly, and excluding deliberate cosmetic alterations), their appearance is remarkably similar to when they underwent the process.
- The process involves physical/genetic changes, but isn't itself ongoing. (IOW, it might create organs or alter stuff, but doesn't involve a permanent nanite colony or ongoing magic, nor does the process need to be repeated/refreshed periodically.)
Is it plausible that these are the only effects? Or is the appearance of not aging unrealistic/unbelievable unless it also brings along biological immortality and/or some sort of super healing factor? (If they can still die "of old age", does the appearance of age ever "catch up" to these "children"?)
1 answer
This can't be answered because it depends greatly on the details of
some drug/process/whatever that caused them to stop growing
You made this up. Only you can say what the long term effects are.
Stop growing is way too vague, and can imply many different mechanisms, with many different long term results.
Put another way, you could plausibly (within the scope of this happening at all) claim any number of long term outcomes based on what you have told us so far.
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