this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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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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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

You'd procrastinate things for 100s of years, until at one point you're simply no longer able to do it. Wanted to domesticate a saber-tooth cat some day? Too bad, they're extinct now. Wanted to visit the baths in ancient Rome? Well, it is not the same Rome anymore, and all the baths' floors are cold.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Science fiction is going to age poorly. A lot of it is already hilariously dated. Look at most of Star Trek. They're flying at FTL speeds through space with artificial gravity, teleportation, lifelike androids, and replicator technology, but their screens absolutely suck. More and more of those inconsistencies are going to add up over the centuries and make things ridiculous after a while.

The number of new things that people enjoy dwindles with age. Just about everyone agrees that the music that was being made when they were teenagers is the epitome of the art. Are you going to be able to enjoy anything when you're 2563 years old?

The older you get, the faster time apparently moves. Having grown up in the 80s and 90s, on some days, even "The year 2000!!" still feels like it should be the future to me. I can't imagine what even a few centuries would do to this phenomenon, let alone a millennium or megaannum (I had to look that word up.)

On the upside, presuming I'm the only immortal, I'll be the only person currently alive to see if they actually finish that performance of Organ^2^/ASLSP in Halberstadt.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

People, corporations, and other entities would over time gather more data about you. There's always some kind of information footprint that you leave behind. And you'd stand out from other humans by the way you talk (i.e. using slang from 200 years ago, and speaking about historic stuff with details that the general public is not aware of) and other traits, which makes you traceable.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I had a really nice washing machine. Then it broke. The manufacturer was dissolved 25 years ago.

I had a really nice cast iron pan. Then it fractured. Modern cast iron pans aren't smooth.

I had a really nice car. Then a part broke. Replacement parts haven't been available for 50 years.

I had a really nice flip phone. It was made by Nokia so it still works. People think it's weird that I use a flip phone.

I had a really nice peace and quiet. Then someone invented ambulances. Now I cower in the corner of my bedroom hiding from manmade horrors beyond my comprehension.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

Based on your question, you might dig the book β€œBoat of a Million Years.” The author put quite a bit of thought into just that.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boat_of_a_Million_Years

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

If other people are also immortal, the awkwardness of all of them eventually becoming your exes

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Either "Boredom: After some time you have seen basically everything." or "Can't keep up: The world changes so fast, and I'm, stuck in a mindset I acquired in 1543".

And: Bureaucratic nightmare. "We have you on file as being born in 1924, but you don't really look like a centennial. Can I see your passport instead of that of your great-grandfather, please?"

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Not being able to kill yourself.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The amount of shitting and wiping I d imagine you’d have to do, hemorrhoids would likely be unbearable overtime

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Having potentially thousands of years of embarassing moments of social awkwardness to think about. And, over the aeons, being relieved when the people you know and love die because they won't remember the things you're so ashamed of.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Nobody:

Your brain: remember that time you said the wrong word in 1374?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

On one hand, you have eternity to come to grips with everything you've done. On the other hand, it might take eternity to come to grips with everything you've done.

Seeing all of your friends and family die, knowing you'll never stop missing them.

Having the perspective of centuries. Seeing society make the same mistakes over and over again because they forget, but you never do. It would drive me mad. Already does, considering I have the ability to, and have, read history. I just imagine living it over and over to be tedious.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Family meals that take 3 restaurants No retirement

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Getting imprisoned for thousands of years unable to get out.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

You'll be perpetually behind the times. People tend to get set in their ways even by their 30s. You'll constantly lag behind the trends, language, and tastes of the younger generation...

If you were the first to be immortal, you may not have the best version of immortality and it may render you incompatible with better, future types of immortality. Like magical regeneration that prevents you from getting a personality upload to a cyberbrain that is a million times faster and smarter than the squishy biological brain.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

Friends, family, and lovers dying before you.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

Being eaten by sea anemones, tuna, sharks, swordfish, sea turtles, penguins, and other jellyfish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrnii#Predation

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Having to listen to that Queen song, forever.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I don’t think you’d remember a break up from hundreds of years ago, let alone be upset about it.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

On a long enough timeframe, even the strongest-willed will want to die eventually

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Either humanity gradually grows to despise you for your ancient morals

or they don't ever meaningfully surpass where we're at today.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

How can you be sure?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks 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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

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?

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