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submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by doomsdayrs@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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.
(page 2) 50 comments
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[-] Sybilvane@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 day ago

Losing all of the skills you gain. No matter how good you get at something, after a few centuries you'll have lost your edge. You can also only practice so many things concurrently without giving something up. At some point, years down the line, you might try to ride a bike again and completely fail to do it, or try to sing and fail to hit all the notes that came easily before, or do gymnastics but the muscles you need are underused. It doesn't matter that you spent years mastering every skill, your abilities will degrade over time. You'll never really be able to feel sure about your own abilities except for whatever you've done most recently.

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[-] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 56 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

All the comments assume everybody else isn't also immortal. I forget the title and author but there's an old sci fi story (or novel?) about a future where everybody lives for centuries, and they've found that the brain only retains a certain amount of experience. They have long careers, get tired of doing whatever, re-educate and do something else, or even have multiple families they eventually forget about. A couple of the characters are surprised to find out they used to be married like a century earlier. To me that seems vaguely like reincarnation, and I kind of don't hate the idea. I really don't see any downside to that scenario, or even just going on forever.

People are focused on having regrets and negatives that last forever. But buck up li'l camper, you can learn to move on from stuff. And I say this as a dad whose daughter had cancer at age 10 (she survived). It was hell and I wouldn't want to live through that whole period again, but I don't consider it a reason not to want to live forever. The trick is to learn how to cope with these things and not let them outweigh the good experiences you have.

[-] underscore_@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 day ago
[-] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That could be it - many elements are familiar, although the title isn't at all, but I have read a lot of Fredrik Pohl. The plot synopsis also doesn't mention the characters finding out they had been married before. Maybe that's a small detail that just stands out more in my mind.

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[-] Dogiedog64@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

Cancer. So much goddamn cancer. It doesn't matter what kind of immortality you have, you WILL get cancer. Repeatedly. Over and over. Forever.

[-] weew@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That really depends on the type of immortality you get. Brain upload to a cyborg body doesn't get cancer.

[-] doomsdayrs@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

Immortality means you could, just keep ripping it out 🤣

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[-] Reil@beehaw.org 11 points 1 day ago

Cross the wrong people and you end up not dead, but irrecoverable. Cement shoes, buried alive kind of stuff. Cross a different set of wrong people and you become a labrat. To avoid either scenario, you'll be in a constant state of "undocumented" or false-documented which will keep you in a pretty consistent state of poverty.

[-] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 4 points 1 day ago

There's a book I heard about where the main character is immortal. Nevertheless at one point he pisses off some mafia dudes, and they nail him inside a barrel full of urine and throw him in the sea.

[-] mosscap@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 46 minutes ago)

Just a random thought, but it would take a lot of work (or institutional access to some portable toilets) to be able to get enough piss to fill an entire barrel

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[-] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 day ago
[-] mathemachristian@hexbear.net 4 points 1 day ago

If your immortal what's the motivation? Not like you have costs to maintain your laborforce .

[-] oo1@lemmings.world 7 points 1 day ago

Having to listen to that Queen song, forever.

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[-] pH3ra@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 day ago

The disappointment of experience winning lifetime supply of something but that would eventually turn into a lie

[-] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 85 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Being asked your birthdate in order to view a game on Steam, and the year dropdown not going back far enough.

[-] DdCno1@beehaw.org 6 points 2 days ago

Or not being able to play a board game, because it says "ages 9 - 99" on the box.

[-] markstos@lemmy.world 25 points 2 days ago

Date pickers that assume you have a 5 digit birth year.

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[-] superkret@feddit.org 21 points 2 days ago

At some point, our sun will go supernova and you will end up drifting through space.
And all your life before that point will be less than a blink of an eye compared to the time that follows:
Trillions and trillions of years until the heat death of the universe.
And even that time will be less than the blink of an eye compared to the eternity afterwards, when you drift through a black void without any stars.

[-] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 12 points 2 days ago

But no people around. So overall a win.

[-] Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

But can I take my Steam Deck with me?

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[-] paddirn@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Forgetfulness. Think how forgetful people get after having lived a normal lifespan, now go for a few thousand+ years and you’ve probably forgotten whole centuries of your life. This is actually the premise of a solo journaling game Thousand Year Old Vampire, you have to cross out and forget memories as you progress through the game, just forgetting whole parts of your life.

[-] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

There's a Doctor Who episode with that idea in it too, the Doctor saves a girl in Viking times but brings her back forever, and when he meets her in mediaeval times she has a whole library of books that are just her memories that she's written down over the years.

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[-] tetris11@lemmy.ml 26 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Life will pound you into an uncaring jaded disinterested unloveable husk of a being after too many emotional scars from losing loved ones, too much of seeing humanity make the same mistakes, and too much watching the knowledge you gained turned irrelevant.

Or, life will beat into you an uncanny ability to converse and relate to others, even if fleetingly.

Watch The Man from Earth.

[-] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

I've watched the Man From Earth a couple times. Can only recommend.

However it doesn't fit your description. Oldman says that his memory is basically limited. Just like any mortal's. Only the brightest, most impactful memories are retained and the rest is a blur. If you are forty plus, you barely have memories of your childhood today, unless you have recorded them as soon as you could and rehashed them frequently. Same for him. As such, he is constantly evolving with the world mentally (and physically apparently).

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[-] hperrin@lemmy.world 36 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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.

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[-] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

Btw if you were actually immortal, after a while you would just go into shock and enter a vegetative state from all the psychological stress.

[-] daggermoon@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

How can you be sure?

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago

And after a while you’d come out of that state

[-] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago

If you have epilepsy or Parkinson's or MS, you're just going to likely get worse forever.

[-] Octospider@lemm.ee 58 points 2 days ago

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.

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[-] nis@feddit.dk 11 points 2 days ago

If we're talking magical immortality, as in you can't die, at all. Then the fact that however much enjoyment and experiences you get while the universe still exist, it will be followed by an infinite stretch of nothing after the heat death of the universe.

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[-] Moah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 day ago

Family meals that take 3 restaurants No retirement

[-] doomsdayrs@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago
[-] abysmalpoptart@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I think they're saying this:

Family meals would comprise of three restaurants worth of people since they're all immortal

Separately, you can never retire since you will never hit retirement age

[-] Moah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago

If you're immortal, you get to see your family expand to the points that organizing a single family meal requires 3 restaurants to house everyone.

Since you (presumably, otherwise it's a shitty immortality) don't get old, you don't get to retire

[-] Macallan@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Retirement is a function of money/wealth, not age.

If you're immortal, you'd (not you specifically, just whoever in general) have to be a complete tool to go through hundreds/thousands of years without generating at least enough wealth to retire at some point.

[-] off_brand_@beehaw.org 12 points 2 days ago

Nobody is answering the prompt lol. Everyone says all of this shit all the time.

You live long enough to never feel at home. Sure the loneliness sucks or whatever, but who do you root for at the football game?

Having to buy new shoes for the rest of eternity. You know how much work I've literally just put into finding shoes that 1) don't suck and 2) aren't made with slave labor? It's impossible. Drives me insane. I'd found my own shoe company once I become immortal rich just to fix that problem alone. Maybe other stuff too we'll get there

I suppose on that note: it seems like a really bad idea to become a public figure after a while. Like you obviously don't want your immortality found out. You have to have like illuminati power before that point though, but it could happen at any time. Like if something happens and you become a news item (i.e. helping someone out and a video goes viral online). Not saying everyone is all that close to going viral, but over a sufficiently long lifespan you're effectively rolling that dice a lot.

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[-] HipsterTenZero@dormi.zone 33 points 2 days ago

That old person feeling of no longer being with "it", and what's "it" now being strange and scary probably compounds over the centuries.

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[-] shoulderoforion@fedia.io 44 points 2 days ago

immortality doesn't guarantee perpetual health, you're alive, but so broken and sick you wish you could die, but you can't

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[-] FryHyde@lemmy.zip 17 points 2 days ago

Discovering the upper limits to what the human mind can retain and just constantly forgetting all the shit you used to find important.

[-] apotheotic@beehaw.org 11 points 2 days ago

A lot of ways to die are excruciatingly painful, but you die, so you don't live with the pain. If you end up in one of those situations and don't die (because you are immortal), I imagine the psychological impact of the pain without immediate release could be enough to completely break you, mentally.

[-] PhAzE@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

If it's just you being immortal, loss of all family, and friends, and loss of new friends, rinse repeat forever. Eventualdieyoull watch society collapse and regrow (possibly), and the planet will die. Immortality is forever after all. Then you're left alone on a deserted dead planet. Electronics you have will eventually break and fade away to time. The sun will grow and die off, and it'll burn because you're immortal but still stuck on a planet that'll get enveloped, eventually. Living forever would be terrible unless it was forever until you died of something physical, just not age and illness.

[-] Belly_Beanis@hexbear.net 13 points 2 days ago

Time gets shorter. I've already experienced this going from my teens to my twenties and into my thirties. I can remember entire weeks of my childhood. By the time I was in my mid twenties, days and weeks blurred together. Now it's like months go by and I don't even notice.

People talk about it more as they get older. Eventually when you enter your 80s and 90s, it's like entire decades can come and go. So imagine when you're immortal. If you've been alive for 100,000 years, that's longer than writing has been around. Entire civilizations will have come and went.

But from your perspective, it's all a blur. Entire genealogies were experienced, yet those people barely registered in your mind. If you had a favorite food, maybe the recipe disappears when you went four centuries without eating it. Jokes and fashions you're familiar with are completely alien to everyone else. Are you even capable of noticing when things change at that point?

There's also the question of how human are you? Everything and everyone would seem inconsequential. Would you even be able to socialize with others, or would you be completely sociopathic? That's if you don't hurt anyone and get tossed in a jail cell. What happens if you spend a few centuries in prison? Fight in multiple wars? Would you even feel the slightest discomfort when you kill someone?

[-] vis4valentine@lemmy.ml 25 points 2 days ago

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.

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[-] ypanocayo@mujico.org 6 points 2 days ago

If the ultra rich find you out, you can expect lab-rat life, at least until all modern systems collapse. Death is the only thing those suckers fear, because regardless of their net worth, it comes for all, even if late. They would do anything to find out your trick

[-] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml 20 points 2 days ago

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.

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[-] Nytixus@kbin.melroy.org 10 points 2 days ago

If you're injured and you survive with the scarring from said injuries. Well, good luck because you're now going to wear those and wish you had died from them. If you're incapacitated or amputated? Gotta live with that for years and years.

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this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
189 points (97.5% liked)

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