The hydra, a tiny organism, is believed to be immortal, assuming good living conditions. Challenge: keep one alive for at least 5000 years, surpassing the oldest trees (of today).
This requires maintaining its environment to be conditions suitable for living, not losing track of it amongst its descendants (babies from buds probably need to be removed from its tank), and some way of periodically or continuously recording (probably photograph or video) the organism as proof that the organism at the end is the same as the organism which started. Create machines to make these tasks easier.
I think currently the oldest confirmed hydra is a decade or two old.
Because a hydra periodically replaces every cell, it is a biological ship of Theseus.
It's of course hard to imagine a human institution surviving 5000 years able to continuously care for a collection of hydras seeking the longevity record.
Will the 5000-year-old hydra be older than the oldest human alive at that date?
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