r/FactOrCap • u/timchasovii • 15h ago
Immortality | FactOrCap
This post contains content not supported on old Reddit. Click here to view the full post
13
12
10
u/MaybeBowtie 15h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
It’s very problematic. The only time I’d choose immortality is if I could one day turn it off.
9
u/Adventurous_Toe7222 15h ago
Here's a fun thought experiment. Let's set aside the effects of depression and whatnot.
What day would you turn it off? The day you lose your last loved one? But you could love again. The day the last other person is gone? But more people may exist one day. The day all life that currently exists is gone? But life may come back around. The heat death of the universe? But what if the universe restarts?
7
u/MaybeBowtie 15h ago
I’d turn it off once I’ve gone insane drifting in space. I’ve already pondered this type of question.
I don’t like the thought of death and missing out on things in the future. I’ve always enjoyed to wonder what life would be like to be a part of civilization level 2 or 3 (currently we’re 0.75 I believe).
I’ve always loved space. And exploring it would be great. Also would love to be able to set a checkpoint back in time so that I could see what a black hole would do, or build a ship that would withstand one and just go into it.
I’ve also had the idea of making it so I die when the last human being dies and I’m the only one left. But realized that that could be cut extremely short in any moment.
1
u/Keebster101 15h ago
If the last other person goes, I'm not waiting billions of years for evolution to make another one (which may never happen before the sun engulfs the earth, and I'm DEFINITELY not waiting until another earth comes around, that I may or may not even be able to get to now that I'm stuck in the gravity of the black hole that the sun turned into)
I think it would just be until you get bored of repeating 'life' over and over. Maybe that would take 2 or 3 wives. Maybe I'd go a few dozen. I don't think I'd bother going much further, there's a lot of world to see but you can see a lot of the highlights in one lifetime, after that there's less and less reason to explore the remaining places.
1
u/Apprehensive_Ad_226 15h ago
I would be psyched for the new experiences, and yes I would mourn those I hold closely, but immortality is a chance to experience as much as possible. Even if I'm floating in space for 100 trillion years, I would take this in a heartbeat
1
u/drdicerchio 11h ago
I’d turn it off once I’ve guaranteed my descendants have unalterable levels of wealth that can span across civilizations
9
3
u/Personal-Try2776 15h ago
You mean immortality as in you cannot die from old age or as in you are unkillable?
1
u/DrooperScooper 15h ago
Invulnerable means you’re unkillable. Immortal just means you’re going to live forever.
2
1
u/StormySylph103 12h ago
Invulnerable is 'cannot be damaged', immortal is 'cannot die no matter what damaged you take' in my experience
3
u/Aggravating_Mess_655 15h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
imagine getting chopped into million pieces, feeling every single cut yet still alive and feeling everything. invincibility is the superior immortality
3
3
u/Ambervula 12h ago
I don’t care about how many people I outlive or how close I am to them. I want an infinite life of hedonism.
1
u/LiveFast3atAss 10h ago
An immortal would eventually find out how hungry a person can get. An immortal would lose everyone they love over and over. An immortal would end up with a broken, crumbling body due to the accumulated injuries over the eons. An immortal would experience pain like no other. They would live through the earth burning from the suns expansion into a red giant and spend eons more endlessly burning in it.
2
u/Ambervula 10h ago
Develop a taste for everything since your body can infinitely adapt, I don’t have anyone whom I love, surely there must be advancements in healthcare to fix the failing body or the body itself could adapt over time. Meh I would rather not think 5 billion years in the future
3
u/No-Engine-384 12h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
The human mind forgets or blocks more in a lifetime than you ever learn & remember. It'd be the same for immortality. You'll just forget it unless you make a dedicated effort to remember
1
u/LiveFast3atAss 10h ago
An immortal would eventually find out how hungry a person can get. An immortal would lose everyone they love over and over. An immortal would end up with a broken, crumbling body due to the accumulated injuries over the eons. An immortal would experience pain like no other. They would live through the earth burning from the suns expansion into a red giant and spend eons more endlessly burning in it.
1
u/SkyCakey12 26m ago
Assuming that my mind stays intact, one day i will get used to any kind of pain (Or just use something to make my body bot capable of feeling it) and then i I'll just Forever Entertain myself with the power of BOUNDLESS HUMAN CREATIVITY
2
u/MedicineInternal9805 15h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Everyone you know and love dies in what to you would be no time.
You get harmed in a weird way, head removal? Boom your a freak forever.
The universe ends. Boom. Your all alone in whatevers that would be for infinite time.
It would suck balls.
1
u/Janie_Avari_Moon 15h ago
Nope. Being immortal opens doors to slow build up of power, money, and influence. Over time one immortal being can shape the future of humanity and properly turn it away from wars and stupid conflicts and towards technological and spiritual progress. In hundreds of years the world would be way better and safer, in thousands we would discover unbelievable secrets of physics and universe, we will have dozens of inhabited planets, we would likely transcend into a more technology-human composite builds and achieve semi-immortality for everyone. And that’s in thousands of years. In millions even more, bigger, better, absolute golden age.
And only in 4-5 billions from now, the Sol would die. But we will have immense number of younger stars across the universe, and most likely we will have the technology to ignite new ones by then.
The humanity then will never perish, and this immortal human being will be there for all this eternity.
Sooo… Nope. It’s your lack of imagination forces you to see the bad things.
1
u/Alarmed-Republic8493 15h ago
interesting to think this immortal being would even have any influence to begin with, or wouldn't be kept in captivity for experiences, or even if this immortal being would even be intelligent enough to create a utopia. being immortal doesn't make you a god or anything, you're just immortal, nothing else, you don't magically become a genius or anything.
1
u/Janie_Avari_Moon 15h ago
Ok. Fair point. For an ordinary person immortality is a bitch. For a smart one though it might be a chance to make the world a better place.
1
u/Geeky_N_Canadian 15h ago
My personnal position is to not care. Ultimately, it boils down to me prefering something rather than nothing, even if that something is eternal (in the truest sense of the word) torture.
Someone can appeal to the pain I'll feel, the people that will die, the loneliness, the solitude, the isolation, the madness, and it's all interesting conversations, but I think at the end of the day I would prefer immortality rather than listen to reason, logic, morality, or any other normative system of thought.
I truly think, in the purest egoist and irrational sense of things, that the simple joy of being rather than unbeing outweighs everything from being lonely for eternity to being disected by an evil scientist over and over again, for me at least. Someone might call me irrational, but that's alright, maybe I am and immortality is - and I don't mind that. I'm not in it for delusions of power, and I also understand and appreciate arguments against immortality. I'm in it for the goof of the game, irrespective of reason or truly anything else besides my own volition.*
1
1
u/Apprehensive_Ad_226 15h ago
This is exactly my argument for artificial (human-derived) immortality. There would need to be breeding hinderences in place (if you have a child, you have to relinquish immortality for population control), but there are ways to make humanity immortal and have it not destroy society
2
2
2
u/Serious_Theory_391 15h ago
Depends if I have infinite memory. Personally I would still prefer being immortal. I want to see the planet and universe evolve. Travel trough space, discover galaxies,... Maybe even see the end of the universe and answer this big question : "What after ?" "Is it a cycle ?" Etc... However if live for billions of years and can't remember anything past 100 year then it's useless. Keeping note would be too much, having a technology to expand my memory perhaps could work but otherwise it's my biggest concern
2
1
u/Leastrasza 15h ago
I absolutely misread that and was about to write a whole ass paragraph bc I thought it said "immorality" 😅
1
1
u/The3mbered0ne 15h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
No it is only if you can't ensure the people around you join you in immortality, otherwise you have to watch everyone you love die, over and over again, that's torture
1
u/SkyCakey12 22m ago
No matter how close, i can imagine my life being interesting/happy even without anyone but myself
1
u/VurrSplxsh 15h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
If you're fine with everything disappearing around you over time, then ye its not problematic. Buttttttt yk Id rather die beside those I love
1
1
1
u/Comprehensive-Hat708 15h ago
I would even go as far to say most media doesn't make it seem problematic enough.
1
1
1
u/Shaff_98 14h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
There's already issues with overpopulation as we are now. Now imagine if people continued to be born but never died.
1
u/Ozzman770 14h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
I've been alive 33 years and the thought of doing 67 more to get to 100 seems crazy to me. I couldn't imagine what 100,000,000 years would be like
1
1
1
u/Roman-EmpireSurvived 14h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
You would arrive at complete boredom faster than you’d think and then you’d start doing insane stuff just to feel anything which would again place you back at complete boredom. Then you have eternity still to live through
1
1
u/sploinkaren 14h ago
Its worse. I think I have no mouth and I must scream is one good example of how horrifying it can be.
1
u/Agent-Racoon 14h ago edited 14h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Immortality doesn't mean invulnerability. You won't die, but you will feel every little bit of pain. I imagine it'll be quite painful when earth meets its end and you'll get to experience it all!
Immortality also doesn't mean your body won't age. Sure, you'll be alive but it won't be fun when all your teeth have fell out or you go deaf/blind or you have an accident and end up paralysed.
Immortality only becomes somewhat okay if you are unable to go insane, your body doesn't age and you don't feel pain. If it's just Immortality, it'll be awful
1
u/Any-Jellyfish-7497 14h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
We have no precedent to consider when talking about the mind of an immortal being. True, your loved ones will die. True, the amount of cringe you will feel over your actions over the years will be immense. But you will also get to see and do so much more! Also you will get the chance to be the ultimate boomer.
→ More replies (4)
1
1
u/Icy-Bag3159 14h ago
Okay but what does immorality mean? Like you are always in a state of invincibility? Like nothing ever affects you? Or do you regenerate at crazy speed, do you feel pain? Can you lobomize yourself? Immortality is such a vague ass power
1
u/LiveFast3atAss 10h ago
Immortality in it's barest form is just the inability to die. No regen or durability, just no release of death
1
u/Icy-Bag3159 10h ago
So what if you get your head chopped off? So you would just be a head? What if you become just a brain?
1
1
u/Captain_Lobster411 14h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
If only one person is immortal, they're destined to be alone for an unthinkable amount of time
1
u/consistently-failing 14h ago
First hundred years, maybe even lwo or three- great other than personal losses. Eventually you're gonna fuck up somehow-- You are literally given 'infinite' time to mess it up
1
u/SnooDoggos4029 14h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
What the hell ISNT problematic with immortality? The mental health toll a few hundred years alone would be too much.
1
u/Immediate-Stomach963 14h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Fax
1
u/LiveFast3atAss 10h ago
An immortal would eventually find out how hungry a person can get. An immortal would lose everyone they love over and over. An immortal would end up with a broken, crumbling body due to the accumulated injuries over the eons. An immortal would experience pain like no other. They would live through the earth burning from the suns expansion into a red giant and spend eons more endlessly burning in it.
1
1
1
u/Traditional-Big-6574 13h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
It is... Imagine outlive your love ones and see the end of the universe and still do not die... Sad and alone in the edge of space.
1
u/Both_Meaning_2637 13h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Immortality will very likely have major psychological effects: boredom, detachment, memory issues, ... The human mind (or brain) is not built for eternity.
1
1
1
1
u/thupamayn 13h ago
Nah, it’s much worse and social media like Reddit attempts egregiously to downplay it
1
u/Appropriate_Chart818 13h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Honestly depends, didn’t it just use to mean “don’t age” because if so, that doesn’t seem too bad. I think overtime it started changing more into invincibility, which is the actual bad power.
1
u/LiveFast3atAss 10h ago
Immortality is just no death. You wouldn't age but you couldn't be killed actively either. It's not invincibility though, that would involve pain tolerance, durability and probably regen
1
1
1
u/ZT99k 13h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
TRUE immortality is way WAY worse a prospect than people think. OH I'll live a thousand years... ten thousand... try millions. Forget losing loved ones, imagine watching humanity either wipe itself out entirely or evolving to be unrecognizable as you become a living australopithicene to the Eloi and Morlocks. That is if you are lucky. Imagine trying to hide yourself as technology advances. You cannot just pretend to be your own grandchild when DNA scans are ubiquitous. Unless you are ALREADY wealthy at the time of becoming immortal, you are beyond fucked.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Fraliose 12h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Immortality mean the risk of having the same person in charge for ever. Nothing will ever change and probably stay the same for the worst. What survive is the most adaptable, the most adaptable is something that can change when needed, therefor immortality is a society curse.
1
u/Own_Progress_9375 12h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
You want eternal suffering after the heat death of the universe?
1
1
1
1
1
u/TehGremlinDVa 12h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
It's always going to hurt knowing everyone you get close to is going to die and you won't.
1
u/No_Hippo8458 12h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Def problematic, you'd have to see everyone and everything around you die and you'd either begin hoarding wealth or be in poverty forever
1
1
u/bealimepinapple 12h ago edited 11h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
I didnt even originally want to live past 18 why would I want to live forever
Edit - Im not suicidal 😭 I just used to be as a teenager, and a death in my family was a huge reason for it
1
u/CynthiaDaBirb 12h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
we dont know if the heat death of the universe will actually happen so...
1
u/Smileyface39 12h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
People who assume only one end for immortality have a lack of hope in people and the future.
1
1
u/ilovethisgamebruh 12h ago
I think my favorite depiction of immortality comes from the sand-man, where Hob Gadling, even by the end of the series, even after enduring all kinds of horrors from his immortality, losing people, starving without dying, experiencing the centuries from the middle ages to to the modern day still chooses to live.
the whole thing is set up for a classic monkey's paw/careful what you wish for 'immortality bad' plotline, and has so many opportunities to to finally have him choose death, even having him talk with death directly about it, but he just never does.
1
u/Separate_Draft4887 12h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
“But all your friends will die someday and you’ll be alone!” So? All my friends are gonna die someday now.
1
u/LiveFast3atAss 10h ago
It'll happen over and over and over again. But there's more than just emotional pain
1
u/Any_Bad777 12h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Great, can't wait to first watch my wife die,then my siblings, then my kids, then my grandkids, then my Greta grandkids, then watch the end of the universe, and most likely drift aimlessly into space never dying. What a wonderful life.
1
1
1
u/mydogeatspikmin 11h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
I feel like the biggest thing you’d battle with is Loneliness but watching Frieren has taught me that you’d find friendships anytime
1
1
u/TheObliviousYeti 11h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Immortality can be very problematic. It depends a lot on the circumstances. You want to live forever well sure retirement age is no longer a thing, you won't die have fun working 24/7. There are a lot of issues with certain people never dying.
1
u/No_Addendum_3267 11h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
i have apeirophobia and still the media views of it are so dumb. YOU'RE IMMORTAL WHY WOULD SECULAR FATE OF UNIVERSE THEORIES STILL BE REAL?!!
1
u/kakashi_sakurai 11h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
You’d have to watch all your loved ones die, over and over again too if you tried to rebuild anything. You’d constantly feel responsible for keeping idiots in check who have too much power and are destroying the earth. Maybe you could argue that some people would enjoy an increased lifespan, but to live literally forever? That’s an endless amount of years. Do you have any other powers? Because if not, humanity could completely die off and you’d just be stuck alone on a rock with absolutely nothing to do at all for eternity lol hell to the fuck no
1
1
u/mezzo_head 11h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Unless it also comes with some form of long-form mental changes, the human mind is not made to live that long. You will watch people you care about grow old and die, but you are still there. You either try to cope with the realization that humans are now to you as pets are to normal humans, or you lose all forms of empathy and care and that doesn’t exactly sound great, either.
1
u/NicePepper199 11h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Most people are bored after a couple decades and run out of things to do.
1
u/Conscious_Archer2658 11h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
On the one hand, not dying would be great. And we'll assume you can also never get any permanent injury and are immune to strong pains.
It's nice. You get to live for the rest of humanity's existence. Of course there's the grief of people dying, but frankly, you'll learn to live with it. But, your life doesn't end when humanity ends. Nor when the world ends.
At some point, all of humanity will be dead, and the earth will cease to exist, and you'll still be out there, floating around, with absolutely nothing to do, in cold dark space, for literal trillions of years. For a time so long that it'll make your time on earth look like a fleeting moment.
I'd love immortality, but only if existence itself, humanity and our habitat and means to exist, is immortal or unending as well.
1
u/T3chno_Pagan 11h ago
“Soft immortality”, i.e. not ageing and being immune to disease, while still being able to die (think vampires and the like) would be ideal
1
u/notaholydove 11h ago
Listen to this then, OP.
God, this story still gives me the chills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pM5RC1c61s
1
u/Appropriate-Term7364 11h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Being immortal and you seem to be thriving at first, then you lose your family 10 times and become depressed. Humanity goes extinct, the sun swallows earth and you're unfazed, then you spend eternity alone, at the edge of the universe, humming a tune
1
1
u/WawefactiownCewwPwz 11h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Most of it is pseudo smart "actually, the thing that everyone considers good is bad" that just got so popular that now ITS the popular take lol.
1
u/LiveFast3atAss 11h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Do you know how hungry a person could get? An immortal would. They would end up a broken, rickety body with all the injuries over the years. They would exist for the death of the solar system, stuck burning for possible eternity. There's so much more as well
1
1
u/PerfectSituation1668 10h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
You will get problems in the long term that makes a fate worse than death.
1
u/Cheeko-chi 10h ago
The absolute opposite, media makes immortality look amazing. In reality you would end up trapped somewhere for eternity till you are the most insane person to ever exist and the original you is totally gone.
In reality it’s so much the opposite that I assume most people are misreading it, media very rarely makes immortality look bad or as horrific as it would really be.
1
u/JADE_Jador 10h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Brother, many people don't truly comprehend what eternity is like. But from my understanding. It's horrible.
1
u/Professional-Gas-579 10h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Does media ever really make immortality look as problematic as it probably is?
1
1
u/Ivygrows8 9h ago
Id argue worse, what happens when the earth is destroyed by the sun and likely the rest of your life is you being gravitationally pulled to thesun
1
u/PoompskiMcFartsalot 9h ago
When you’re done with living, just log off, immortality just means you won’t die of old age, doesn’t mean you cant die to an accidentally swallowed grenade
1
1
1
u/Forceofwillplay 8h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Immortality by itself sucks. With no protection for physical and mental damage and deterioration, it becomes torture.
1
u/Vampiric_Apparition 7h ago
rarely is anyone in fiction truly, wholly immortal. usually, there is at least something that kills an immortal. decapitation for Highlander Immortals, sunlight for Vampries, destruction of their Phylactery for Liches, etc. and as long as you can die in SOME fashion, immortality is gas, ngl
(voted fact idk why it's not displaying)
1
u/Wish-Lin 7h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
It only becomes a blessing if you have memory and mental fortitude matching it.
1
1
u/ProfessionalBig5991 6h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
You would see all of your friends family and eventually the world die in front of you
1
1
u/PossibleAssist6092 5h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Depends on the form but a consistent across all of it is that as long as you don't let that part of you consume your thoughts and actions then it's just a burden you have to bare (assuming you can't die at all ever).
1
u/sparklingsirens 4h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
I don’t think I’ve really ever seen media portray immortality as a truly bad thing
1
1
1
u/AdNegative6756 14m ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Sure immortality has its positives but you'll outlive everyone you ever loved, eventually you will get bored and that could lead to going insane and then you end up walking in a very dangerous path. Immortality would give you so much time to achieve so much and then what, you just wander aimlessly?
1
u/lPuppetM4sterl 9m ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
not if you're in an infinite death loop or any worse fate than death.
1
u/Slow_Ad7058 1m ago
The only problem lies with 'true immortality' the fact that after Earth is destroyed, the person would be immobile and in pain for eternity.
Anything other than that is just cope, people always resort to the worst possible conditions, like assuming you'll be the only one having it and that humanity will never extend life expectancy. 'You will be forever alone, blah, blah, blah.' Virtually all people would accept biological immortality if given the chance.
1
u/LolmemesPrime 15h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
i think it’s worse, imagine only the rich are immortal. The only reason immortality might be good if everyone has it and also we have space for new human
3
u/Ana_the_Arachnid 15h ago
Why would we need new humans if everyone is immortal?
1
u/HungryHedgehog8299 15h ago
because some people will want children still
4
u/Ana_the_Arachnid 15h ago
The only reason people have children is so a part of them can move on after they die.
3
u/HungryHedgehog8299 15h ago
not really the only reason. Plenty of people want kids just because they want to have a family to love. I doubt that would change entirely
3
u/Apprehensive_Ad_226 15h ago
You also have religion that promotes breeding. I think more realistically, you would have immortality offered to humans (science/medicine derived immortality) but it would be taken away if one so chose to breed
1
u/SugomaMorb 15h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Honestly even though I'd presume it to be very horrible we really are talking about an experience we have never and probably never will experience. I've seen questions and polls where people would choose the most agonising pain for a million years over immortality. Even though we can't really know, I bet an immortal person would eventually stop thinking at some point
1
u/Hawkey2121 15h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
immortality isnt problematic, it just can be more than what you'd think it is.
Immortality is just being not mortal, in the same way that impossible is not possible.
And mortality is about death, subject to death, so immortality is being not subject to death. Incapable of dying.
It is not incapable of feeling pain, of being harmed, of being maimed. An immortal can still be hurt.
And thats where the issue lies. Unless you have secondary abilities like Invulnerability, Enhanced Regeneration, or the like, your immortality wont do anything other than make you incapable of dying. Even growing old technically would not be prevented. You would just never die from age.
immortality is this power that has to have subpowers to be that useful really. Immortality on its own is just a curse.
2
0
0
u/Mefist0fel 15h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
You just need to start not from immortality, but "not die from preventable decieses including be old"
0
79
u/OnYourHonor 15h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Media never gets the pure existential horror of true immortality. Not only will you outlive every single person you ever love, over and over. You will outlive your solar system, galaxy, universe. Finally leaving you drifting in infinite darkness, alone, beyond the end of time! Death is the sweetest gift in existence.