I’ll start off with one, Being upset about a breakup that happened hundreds of years ago.
Edit 1:
- Heath death of the universe, Death of the sun, etc, does not count. I feel like focusing on this is an overused point.
Edit 2:
- Loneliness does not count. I feel like we all know immortality means you’ll miss people and lose them.
Getting trapped under something for a few thousand years.
The longer, the worse it is, not because of how bored you’d be, but the knowledge that you’d be more and more out of touch if ever found.
The eventual heat death of the universe would be painful
But would you survive?
If you remember your parka
Government Bureaucracy.
Renewing a driver’s licence or passport. The individual looking at your application will see the date of birth and raise a red flag.
immortality doesn’t guarantee perpetual health, you’re alive, but so broken and sick you wish you could die, but you can’t
This was the premise of the Greek myth of Tithonus
In short, Eos fell in love with Tithonus, a mortal prince, and begged Zeus to grant immortality to him (but forget to specify eternal youth and eternal health) so she was forced to watch him age until he shrunk into a raisin and was eaten
Brandon Sanderson wrote a novel about this.
“I have no mouth and I must scream” could end up being a plausible way to spend eternity.
Just listened to that recently. I could see this being a thing.
I also couldn’t believe how graphic it was for how old it is.
My knees hurt already. I can’t imagine living with constant aging forever until you’re just a crumpled pile on the ground and then it still goes on.
Yeah this answer.
Imagine being immortal and you get stuck somewhere.
Like in a giant land slide.
Alive, but stuck in nutty putty cave for eternity
Not eternity, just a few billion years until earth is vaporized by the sun going supernova.
Then you’re free - to drift through empty space forever.
Friends, family, and lovers dying before you.
The Sun will eventually fry all life on Earth and boil off the water & atmosphere. Eventually the Sun will die out completely, leaving you on a cold, dark rock.
I think I’d have enough time to build a rocket…
You’d have Musk-levels of wealth before long, so maybe.
With no atmosphere and the sun going nova, there’s a chance of the rock getting obliterated. With a nice boost you might fly off to another planet eventually. Might not be inhabited or even inhabitable, but hey.
Heat death of the universe though 🥶🥶🥶
Depends on the type of immorality. Do you continue to age? If no, what age do you stop? Eventually the universe will die. So what happens to you then?
It might be fun for a while. Maybe even a long while. But that fun will be gone in an instant compared to the trillions and trillions of years you will float in a dark dying universe of nothing.
Presumably you will advance along with humanity though, or failing that, just figure out the transcendence thing yourself with so much time?
I don’t think anyone would choose to stay ‘meatbag human’ for trillions of years.
Nothing forever will feel oh so fast when you lose any frame of reference.
Knowing the answer to some of history’s biggest mysteries, because you were there, but being unable to speak about them because, 1, that would expose you, 2, nobody would believe you either way because nobody expects you to be THAT old.
Also, it is already frustrating seeing kids being dismissive or denying events that you yourself have lived. Imagine being thousands of years old and seeing so much shit, but those events are rarely retold, forgotten, or straight up denied by conspiracies or future governments that won’t admit their fault on it.
Knowing my memory I’d forget it all very soon after it happened and need a history book to help me recall any of it and the stuff left out or distorted would end up warping that recollection enough that it’d be so unreliable I may as well believe the historians. I can scarcely remember the previous day as it is.
Knowing the answer to some of history’s biggest mysteries, because you were there, but being unable to speak about them because, 1, that would expose you, 2, nobody would believe you either way because nobody expects you to be THAT old.
IDK, I feel like researching for supporting evidence of a theory you already know is correct would be much easier than researching to try to piece together a theory from no information. I think you could put the truth out there as credible and well-regarded theories, even if there are incorrect alternative theories that people also have to consider.
being alive
Either humanity gradually grows to despise you for your ancient morals
or they don’t ever meaningfully surpass where we’re at today.
Does yer dick still work when you’re like 150?
Yes, in the oncoming capitalist hellscape, even white dudes named Richard will need to work
Boredom after some period of time, you will have some everything there is to do.
You get to pursue all of the really niche crafts. Things like clock making and random complicated stuff like that.
I don’t think one could ever be bored with enough curiosity, and the means to pursue it.
That’s really a valid point.
Not if you constantly invent new things to do
Based on your question, you might dig the book “Boat of a Million Years.” The author put quite a bit of thought into just that.
Given a long enough time frame, the vast majority of an immortal life would be spent buried beneath something or floating in the void of space. Think about it, you outlast planets and stars. When those go dark, but you don’t die…nothing to do but float in space.
You might counter that with, "well yeah, but eventually I’d find other sentient life forms and/or people again.” And sure, maybe, but that wouldn’t last as long as you…and then you’re just alone floating in space again, for the vast majority of your life. The only thing to look forward to, since you will outlast everything, is the end of time itself.
Think about it, you outlast planets and stars. When those go dark, but you don’t die…nothing to do but float in space.
LOL, that’s just the beginning – only on the order of 1012 - 1014 years. After that, you’re going to be waiting around for proton decay (1036 - 1043 years), all the way up to 10^10^120 years* for the final heat death of the universe.
(* Anybody know how to get Lemmy markdown to do nested superscripts?)
10^10^10
I think there is a clear difference between being immortal and being indestructible. I would think if your planet breaks apart you’d probably die with it being crushed or whatever. Also always unclear if being immortal means you don’t need to breathe air.
I think a good author makes it explicit.
Here’s a sci-fi web novel I read years ago, where a couple of the characters end up being immortal in different ways, and in one case they show exactly how far that can go (in the context of the story) even without invoking heat death.
Does your consciousness evolve to Godhood, and you reach back beyond time and create the universe which birthed you?
You join the Q Continuom.
The fantastic animated show, Pantheon explores that very idea at the very end of its second and final season.
On a long enough timeframe, even the strongest-willed will want to die eventually
