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.
  • hperrin@lemmy.world
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    6 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.

  • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I think you’re undervaluing loneliness. Loneliness isn’t just missing some one. Loneliness means there’s no point in connecting with people because they will just die. Loneliness means that no one knows the depth of your condition because it isn’t available to them. It means that as they change and face new obstacles, you’ll be oblivious to all of that. You’ll not only see them die, you’ll see the vitality deep out of their pores as they age. All the while you’ll never know what that means personally or feel that slow slipping.

    Also, super weird that your example is a breakup and people dying is something not worth registering.

    • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      I kinda disagree with you. Why would it be different from now? We know that people will die.

      I’ve had good friends pass away at different times, and it hurts but eventually, I move on.

      My only exception, with the knowledge I have today, is that I wouldn’t have any kids. That attachment is straight up reptilian brain and that would be way too hard. Otherwise, it would be okay.

      • Kache@lemm.ee
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        4 days ago

        It’s the difference between knowing you’ll grow and graduate together with your classmates vs knowing you’re only going to see them for that one month before you move away.

  • Moonworm [any]@hexbear.net
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    6 days ago

    I wonder if it might engender an advanced sort of solipsism and callousness towards other people. After thousands of years of the world coming and going around you while you remain, would you even recognize other people as real or meaningful?

  • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Without getting into the heat death of the universe and all that, I can think of something that happens much, much sooner. I’m only middle aged and I already don’t like where the world is going. Can you imagine being centuries, or eons past the era you identified with? Can you imagine how insufferable young people and old people alike would seem when you have centuries worth of life experience and wisdom? Can you imagine a horde of little edge lords on the internet confidently yet incorrectly telling you about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, when you were there when it was signed?

  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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    6 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.

    • No1@aussie.zone
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      6 days ago

      A scifi short story I read was set in a somewhat idyllic future.

      Robots did everything. Everyone was given housing, food etc. Health was covered and people lived virtually forever. Nobody worked, and you could travel and do anything you wanted.

      The most prized thing, that everyone was desperate for, was having an original thought.

      • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Reminds me another story about an idyllic world where almost nobody worked and everything was provided. At one point a crew showed up to repair a house, and everybody gathered around to watch, marveling at their work clothes and tools. One guy yearned to use tools so he started making little craft items at home, and trading them to people for worthless little tiddly wink tokens they used for friendly bets on sports. Then his neighbors started doing the same thing and they got a little economy going, using the tokens as currency, until the government got wind of it and squashed the whole thing because commerce was illegal.

      • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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        6 days 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.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    5 days ago

    If it’s the realistic kind where you just don’t age, the statistical certainty that you’ll eventually die in an accident, or to war or murder. Your odds of getting to the heat death of the universe without making backups is pretty slim.

    If it’s the kind where you’re indestructible, you’re highly likely to encounter someone who tries to bury you alive in a subduction zone eventually, because humans are like that, and then you get to spend eternity slowly moving into the scorching mantle.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        4 days ago

        It would be an obsession of mine, if I was cursed with the inability to die under any level of duress.

        I’m not saying it’s common, but punishment by live burial is a thing, and billions of years is an awful lot of human history.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      The death of the sun will then eventually set you free into the gravity well of the sun where you’ll live burning hot untill heat death of the universe. What to do after that is anyone’s guess

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        5 days ago

        Well, depends. The Earth is actually right near the edge of where the sun will expand to, so there’s a chance the scorched glob that used to be Earth will stay in orbit. Either way, it will still be hot for a while, and you’re ultimately stuck in something solid - be it a dead planet or a white dwarf.

        There is such a thing as merciful death; it would not be good to be cut off from it.

  • Count Regal Inkwell@pawb.social
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    6 days ago

    People are commenting ‘fates worse than death’ and ‘being made into a labrat by the 1%’, but really, if you have infinite time to just do stuff and you can’t be killed – And you don’t somehow squirrel your way into a position of power then what are you even doing with your time and immortality, oomfie?

    The loneliness part is also questionable. I know OP said it’s overly done, but I also think it’s just wrong. If you’re an adult you’ve had people in your life die before. It sucks. You miss them. But then you move on. And you meet other people. You’ll still go “:(” when you think about the person and such… But life goes on.

    And that’s just life. It doesn’t get any worse if you extend it longer – If anything it gets better. You might have lost your beloved today, but you have another dozen lifetimes to heal your wounds and meet someone else and fall in love again and (…)

    So here’s some lower-stakes, frustrating inconveniences of being immortal:

    • Your favourite fashion? It’s not just out of fashion. It’s so out of fashion it is now considered ‘historical costuming’. You can no longer find any articles like it at all. Because the only people even trying to recreate the techniques are costuming nerds and theater people who always exaggerate stuff
    • You got a song stuck in your head. It is either from before recording was invented, or any recordings of it that existed are too old to be reliably listenable. You have a song stuck in your head.
    • You used to really enjoy a job you did. That entire career path is now obsolete. As per the first paragraph of my post, if you’re immortal you have probably snuck your way into the upper echelons of society at some point during your infinite time… But like. You’re bored. You loved being a Court Jester, now there are no Court Jesters.
    • Actually tedium just in general. Sooner or later you’ll run out of new things to try, because you’ll have done everything that even remotely caught your eye already. So what the fuck will you do with your time? You’ll eventually just get depressed and not do anything.
  • Dogiedog64@lemmy.world
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    6 days 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.

  • hedge_lord@lemmy.world
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    5 days 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.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    5 days 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.

    • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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      5 days 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.

  • ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml
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    5 days ago

    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.

  • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.org
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    6 days ago

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

    • booty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      6 days ago

      I once entered an extremely far back yet technically plausible birthday there and steam just wouldn’t accept it. I remember thinking “what if Kane Tanaka wanted to check out this steam game, you just wouldn’t let her?” (RIP by the way, she was the last oldest person whose name I learned. They change too often)

    • DdCno1@beehaw.org
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      6 days ago

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

    • No1@aussie.zone
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      6 days ago

      Worse still, no manual entry of the birth date, so it takes ages to scroll down and select the year.

  • Octospider@lemm.ee
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    6 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.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      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.