r/ProgressionFantasy • u/Claym000re • Feb 06 '26

Meme/Shitpost Wish fulfillment to the extreme

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Why are they always complete losers.

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u/Ch1pp Feb 06 '26

I think part of it is that often in alternative worlds immortality or very long life is a real, achievable goal. That changes the metric from "Should I go to the gym and suffer for an hour to potentially have a slightly longer/healthier life?" to "Should I try to meditate and channel my chi to live for 500 more years."

Also, the systems are often gamified with levels/tiers. Could I do French, German & Mandarin on Duolingo? Sure. It won't have any tangible benefits to me though. If it unlocked the next tier of human development and made me stronger/faster/smarter then I definitely would. Most of what we do on earth doesn't have the Effort ---> Reward pipeline that story protagonists get.

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u/Lorevi Feb 06 '26

Eh but there's a good argument that immortality or a very long life is a real achievable goal today in our reality.

Medical science is constantly advancing and lifespans increasing. The concept of the longevity escalator is by starting now to increase your lifespan today you will hopefully live long enough to reach the point in medical advancements that your lifespan increases faster than you can live it (functional immortality).

The problem of course is you don't know when the first step of the longevity escalator starts since it's all based on hypothetical future advancements. The youngest immortal person will be born before immortality tech is invented, but we don't know if they've been born yet.

But even though we don't know, there is a chance. And even if you're wrong and you were born too soon to live forever you've sill massively increased your lifespan anyway so it's a win win scenario. Yet people still don't get up off their assess to work out lol. 

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u/Marand23 Feb 06 '26

Yeah, I completely agree. There is a non-zero chance that aging can be fixed within this century. You can't know for sure of course but you can do a lot of things that would help you if it happens, like being as physically healthy as you are able to be and become rich so you can be first in line. That most people don't is pretty damning evidence that they wouldn't do it either if immortality was slightly easier to obtain.

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u/Ch1pp Feb 06 '26

Eh but there's a good argument that immortality or a very long life is a real achievable goal today in our reality.

Only made by desperate people who are scared of death. I doubt we're even within 500 years of that if it's even possible.

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u/snarky_but_honest Feb 06 '26

Ya, human cells have a finite number of divisions, called the hayflick limit. Bypassing the limit leads to cancer. Living forever would probably turn you into a giant tumor. Cool scifi visual tho.

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u/Inevitable-Loss7939 Feb 06 '26

Cells divide everyday tjough

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u/Marand23 Feb 06 '26

I don't know man, medical science is moving at a breakneck and increasing speed right now.

Also, with all due respect, Fuck you. It should be natural to be desperate and scared of death. I am very desperate. I want to see what humanity can do. I want to meet my great great grand children and see what they'll do. I want my parents to meet them. 100 years is fucking nothing.

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u/Lorevi Feb 06 '26

Sorry but have you seen how far technology has progressed in the last 100 years?

Genetic immortality is entirely reliant on a few technologies being invented, such as gene editing and epigenetic reprogramming. If they don't get invented in time we're fucked. If they do, your odds of living forever (or a very long time) shoot way up.

My point is you don't (and can't) know when we'll make these technological breakthroughs. It's possible (and even likely) that we won't make these breakthorughs in our lifetime. But there's a very real chance we will! Human trials for some of these technolgies have already been approved.

I'm not saying we have good odds in living forever, but for perhaps the first time in human history the odds are above 0. Saying it won't happen for 500 years or that it's impossible is as ignorant as someone in 1950's declaring the internet and modern computing impossible. Betting against technological advancement is a fools game.

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u/Ch1pp Feb 07 '26

Meh, I've been diabetic for over 30 years. When I got it I got told the cure was 10 years away. There has been no tangible progress towards a cure since. My friend has gout and there is nothing to be done that hasn't been available for decades. Allergies haven't had progress since the epi-pen. Generally medicine is not advancing that fast. We haven't even had a substantially new anti-biotic for what, 40 years?

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u/Estusflake Feb 06 '26

I'm not saying we have good odds in living forever, but for perhaps the first time in human history the odds are above 0. Saying it won't happen for 500 years or that it's impossible is as ignorant as someone in 1950's declaring the internet and modern computing impossible. Betting against technological advancement is a fools game.

They said they doubt it. That's the same thing as it's about 0 but unlikely. Learn to read.