It cost Jiri six years and a toe to build a perfect model of Iyranlenil Forest. His mage-bolt turned it into slag, but the scrap of lizard-skin at the center stayed pristine. "The strength of our magic is irrelevant," the old scholar pleaded with his king. "It won't die." "We have to try." ## ANALYSIS Immortality shows up a lot in science fiction and fantasy. It's a popular topic on [industry blogs](https://www.tor.com/2008/08/14/on-immortality/), and was a core theme of the first science fiction novel ever written, [Mary Shelley's](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/frankenstein-published) _[Frankenstein](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/frankenstein-published)_. Characters that can (theoretically) live forever and have thus experienced eons of history abound in fiction, from the vampires that litter paranormal romance to Rick Riordan's Greek gods. My personal favorite immortal character is Roland from Ilona Andrews' [Kate Daniels series](https://www.ilona-andrews.com/kate-daniels-series/), mostly because he actually _feels_ like a guy who came of age in Mesopotamia. Some science fiction — like Heinlein's _[Time Enough for Love](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/291501/time-enough-for-love-by-robert-a-heinlein/)_  — chalks longevity up to some combination of "good genes" and "science that needs maintenance." Modesitt's _[The Forever Hero](https://www.lemodesittjr.com/the-books/forever-hero/forever-hero/)_ leans more toward the former situation, while stuff like _[Altered Carbon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon_(TV_series))_ makes it clear that science (and therefore money) is required. The quest for immortality has fascinated authors and alchemists for [thousands of years](https://steemit.com/history/@donkeypong/the-history-of-immortality-searching-for-eternal-life-part-i-ancient-world), and I'm not really any different: I've written about a character offered the chance to live forever before. [The Offer](https://eleanorkonik.com/the-offer/) %% ( [[2021-08-18 The Offer (DRAFT)]] ) %% was actually the first story I ever earned money from, so it holds a special place in my heart. Scientists like David Sinclair (author of [Lifespan](https://www.amazon.com/Lifespan-Revolutionary-Science-Ageand-Dont)) think that it's just a matter of time before we conquer aging. People like Scott Alexander think [this is probably good](https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-lifespan); people who have read a bunch of dystopian novels generally think [this is bad](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2179903-why-wouldnt-you-want-to-live-forever-new-scientist-editors-debate/). One thing I _haven't_ seen many people discuss, though, is immortal _animals._ Scientists study animals like axolotls and other animals whose genes might help us "unlock the secrets of immortality," but I haven't seen much discussion about the impact of immortality (or infinite regeneration, or anti-aging capabilities) on real world ecosystems. Surzi is a thought experiment in that direction. This particular story is a microcosm of my feelings about the phrase "we have to try." Taken in isolation, this story could be considered inspiring; a tale of human grit and determination. There are all kinds of [studies out there about the value of a growth mindset](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5836039/) and motivational speeches about how [the best thing you can do is not give up](https://www.idoinspire.com/blog/bid/43449/never-give-up-on-your-dream-success-is-around-the-corner). The cultural pressure to "just keep going, you'll get there eventually" really gets to me, honestly. Last month, I set myself the goal of writing 50,000 words. I did not meet that goal, and I genuinely believe that I made the right choice by "quitting" when I did. I was starting to burn out, writing was making me actively unhappy, I was staring at a blank screen for a long time, unable to write, unable to let myself do anything else that would have been productive and made me happy. I'm glad I gave up. I'm a better person because I sometimes say "no, I can't do this, sorry" instead of putting myself and my family through weeks of misery. But that's a low stakes thing. What about high stakes things? After college, I went to law school. My whole life, people told me that since I liked arguing, I should be a lawyer. I don't, actually, I just have trouble letting people be obviously wrong in my presence, but as a child and as a teenager I didn't have the vocabulary to distinguish between those things. Anyway, I had a pretty serious suicide attempt after my 1L year, and as much as I enjoyed learning about constitutional law and as easy as I found the exams, it swiftly became clear that most of the actual _work_ of law — entrepreneurship, trying desperately to help people being crushed by the horrors of our bureaucracy — was something I was emotionally ill-suited to. I wanted to quit. I was encouraged not to, so I put myself through another two years of expensive education that was ultimately insufficient to land me a job; I graduated in 2011 without any family or business connections to places that were hiring, in the middle of a nasty recession. I'd been too young to drink my first year, and missed out on all those networking opportunities, and besides — white-collar office work had nearly killed me once. I should have quit the summer of my 1L year. If I had, maybe I wouldn't have wasted 2 years of my life on a terrible boyfriend, and could have started teaching (a job I love, even though it's even more emotionally challenging in its own way) two years sooner. But enough about me; what about the big stuff, like government-level stuff? How about eliminating illness? My mind always goes back to the example of antibiotic resistance. To how trying excessively hard to keep kids from getting sick or dirty can lead to weakened immune systems later in life. Specifically, how taking too many antibiotics can lead to antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria that we have _no_ defenses against — potentially leaving us worse off than we started. "We had to try!" is not always true. Sometimes, _not trying_ is the right choice. It's a genuinely hard choice because it's easy to convince ourselves that if we don't do a thing, someone else will. [Genetic engineering](https://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Bioe/BioeHay2.htm) is one example, maybe the pursuit of immortality is another, and putting [machine learning algorithms in charge of almost literally anything](https://www.makeuseof.com/is-ai-dangerous-5-immediate-risks-of-artificial-intelligence/) is definitely something I'm leery of. There are huge potential payoffs, and those payoffs are tempting. The people who live adjacent to Surzi's territory stand to gain a lot if Surzi is destroyed or removed, too. They don't see any significant downsides, and they probably grew up on the same Achilles-esque narratives I did, where all the people who turn aside from potential greatness don't get lauded by the stories we tell, and neither do the people who fail. It's a particularly persnickety form of survivorship bias, and one that frustrates me immensely, because sometimes the only way to win is to choose not to play. But those situations rarely make for compelling storytelling; we get warnings and we get wins, but we don't get a lot of "I was warned not to do this, so I didn't, and that was probably the right choice" examples. They're anticlimactic or something. Ursula Vernon's [Bluebeard's Wife](http://www.redwombatstudio.com/bluebeards-wife/) is one of the few I can think of, which is why it's one of my favorites. Over here in real life, though, I can't stop thinking of that Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." ## Further Reading - I wrote an article about folkloric examples of people refusing to leave well enough alone despite warnings. If you haven't come across [Curious Disasters: Failed Marriages in Folklore](https://eleanorkonik.com/failed-marriages-folklore/) %% ( [[2024-02-10 Curious Disasters Failed Marriages in Folklore]] ) %% yet, you might enjoy it. - If you missed it, last months' analysis for [Contract](https://eleanorkonik.com/contract/) %% ( [[2021-11-17 Contract (MF) (DRAFT)]] ) %% discusses why "good parenting" doesn't show up in stories very often, either.