What are some downsides to immortality that most don't think of?
What are some downsides to immortality that most don't think of?
I'll start off with one, Being upset about a breakup that happened hundreds of years ago.
Basically all of the time you’re alive will be after the heat death of the universe, where you will be floating in space, with nothing to do, nothing to see, nothing to experience. Complete darkness, complete silence, in a complete vacuum, for eternity. Every other particle in the universe is forever out of your reach. You know that you will have nothing forever. You will never see, hear, or touch anything again, for all of time, which will never end. The trillions of years that preceded your float through the void fade into a distant memory as you outlive twice as much time, four times as much, a trillion-trillion times as much, and infinitely more.
So just my normal day?
I wrote a story that features such an entity and what was interesting about it to me was how even the slightest glimmer of life beyond their void would lead to an all-consuming desire to experience "living" again.
You know how the curse of pet ownership is that you will almost certainly outlive them?
That, but with everyone you love
One of my books features an immortal protagonist and I've as such thought about this quite a bit. More than the answers already provided here, what I found interesting as a writer was the balance I needed to find between making an immortal detached from mortal values while still being engaging to mortal readers.
Said as a pithy question, if you can outlive everyone's decisions and mistakes, what would it take to make you do anything at all?
Having to keep track of that evil snail.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/5ipinn/you_and_a_super_intelligent_snail_both_get_1/
Being eaten by sea anemones, tuna, sharks, swordfish, sea turtles, penguins, and other jellyfish.
If other people are also immortal, the awkwardness of all of them eventually becoming your exes
That old person feeling of no longer being with "it", and what's "it" now being strange and scary probably compounds over the centuries.
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.
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.
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
Not being able to kill yourself.
Having to constantly find new hiding places for the blood chalice, and keeping up with all the latest scanning methods so you can develop countermeasures. Your secret is never truly safe.
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.
Getting imprisoned for thousands of years unable to get out.
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.
immortality doesn't guarantee perpetual health, you're alive, but so broken and sick you wish you could die, but you can't
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.
"I have no mouth and I must scream" could end up being a plausible way to spend eternity.
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
Just depression in general. I don't want to live one lifetime, let alone never being able to die.
If you're immortal in a body that isn't broken then that might be a different story, but you'd still grow to love people only to have to lose them and go through that pain over and over.
being alive
The eventual heat death of the universe would be painful
But would you survive?
If you remember your parka
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.
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.
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.
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.
As we get older, our perception of time speeds up. An immortal would easily lose track of time after just two human lifetimes, causing an immortal to suffer from dementia-like symptoms where they expect one date but find themselves habitually late. And since time doesn't mean the same thing as us to an immortal, they would eventually become disconnected from the world around them and be unable to reintegrate. They wouldn't be able to maintain friendships, relationships, mortgages, payments, etc. They would be surrounded by people but forever alone.
Either humanity gradually grows to despise you for your ancient morals
or they don't ever meaningfully surpass where we're at today.
Friends, family, and lovers dying before you.
Read this on the largest number every used in a mathematical proof.
Then ask yourself, if you think you could handle this number in microseconds let alone an eternity
Man, you took it too real too quick
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
Watching history repeat itself.