I remember reading a book around 1990 that was a first-in-series story in which the World Health Organization released a formula into the global food supply that resulted in every child who hadn't yet reached puberty being made effectively immortal. They still grew up, but never aged. I remember that the protagonist had a brother a year older or so who barely missed having the formula take effect on him. All of the affected children were gathered into communes for their own protection (jealous older people sometimes murdered them otherwise). Eventually the mortal population died off as the immortal generation worked to govern themselves. The implication at the end of the first book was that humanity was in trouble because immortality made people less interested in progress and enlightenment. Also, there was a child with strong sociopathic tendencies who was being set up as a future villain in the series. I think the author was a woman, but I can't recall her name, and I have no idea what the title was.
In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky a concept called the ' Interdict of Merlin ' appears: (all emphasis added) Chapter 23: His hand on the doorknob, Harry Potter already inside and waiting, wearing his cowled cloak. "The ancient first-year spells," Harry Potter said. "What did you find?" "They're no more powerful than the spells we use now." Harry Potter's fist struck a desk, hard. "Damn it. All right. My own experiment was a failure, Draco. There's something called the Interdict of Merlin -" Draco hit himself on the forehead, realizing. "- which stops anyone from getting knowledge of powerful spells out of books, even if you find and read a powerful wizard's notes they won't make sense to you, it has to go from one living mind to another. I couldn't find any powerful spells that we had the instructions for but couldn't cast. But if you can't get them out of old books,
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