Burying someone alive. Or trapping their feet in cement shoes and throwing them into the ocean.
This question implies death is the worst that could happen to you.
Personally, I don’t see it that way. There’s a lot more hurtful things than death.
Death is one occurrence, with no pain in the death itself, and “only” secondary pain in those left behind.
There’s a lot more hurtful and lasting pain you can inflict, physically and psychologically, and without a definite endpoint.
Fundamentally, the basis for thinking death is the “worst” is that so long as you’re alive you can still experience good things, regardless of your past, and you retain the capacity to heal in different ways.
Death is the one thing you’re not coming back from to find a new way to live.
Not putting your shopping carts back.
This one gets more complicated the longer I think about it.
My first pass was to imagine humans just as we are aside from the ability to die. Many things about how humans are don’t make sense without death though. Pain, for example likely evolved to cause organisms to avoid stimuli that could lead to their death. Fear largely derives from the anticipation of pain. Would true immortals have either? I imagine the psychology of such creatures would be vastly different from our own.
There’s also the question of what form the immortality takes. If it’s possible to destroy someone’s physical body, but their soul can immediately manifest a new one, and pain doesn’t exist, then doing so is just an inconvenience. If bodies are impervious to any damage or alteration, a large category of crimes vanishes.
It would probably come down to some sort of long-term imposition on the freedom of others, but it’s really hard to guess what that would look like.
Kidnapping, I say, in a world where killing a death is simply not a concept, being kidnapped for any reason could lead to millennia of torment
Stealing from musk.
No death? As in you can’t die from old age or you can’t die no matter what happens to you e.g you’re throw into the sun, you don’t die? Or your physical body can die but that just means your game is over in one universe and you can move into the next, and so on?
If being thrown into the sun can’t kill you, then you’re invulnerable and torture can’t be a thing. You could be tossed into deep space and not hit anything for a million years, but you could learn how to cope after a few years and make your brain a retreat of imagination.
If it’s just games all the way up into eternity, being the game creator and making pain exist is an unforgiveable crime.
If being thrown into the sun can’t kill you, then you’re invulnerable and torture can’t be a thing.
I disagree. there several forms of torture that don’t involve killing you
How do you hurt somebody who is invulnerable and doesn’t need to breathe? How do you torture somebody who can survive being crushed by the sun? Tickles?
I don’t think any of those mean they don’t feel pain. Or do we assume that instead of flash and bones they are made of steel or another metal?
op didn’t mention invulnerability, though, just that they couldn’t die. if we agree that the question is about a human, we know there are several ways to torture without causing physical harm (e. g. waterboarding, or doing something with those who you care for), but physical harm also does not mean death in many cases
if we don’t agree that the personis a human, or even that they are not a living being, I don’t know what to say but I think the point of the question was lost
The question posits that there is no death. If there is no death, then being thrown into the sun doesn’t kill a human. If you can come up with an explanation for that that doesn’t involve invulnerability, be my guest.
Because they get their invulnerability from rapid regeneration.
Their flesh still burns, their bones still break, but they heal quickly, just to be burned and broken again.
Any sex related crime.
Why?
Edit: why would it be worse than when death is a thing? And why would it the “most” unforgivable?
Becauae that shit stays with you… and if you can’t die, you have to live with it for an eternity.
You don’t think after 1000 years it’ll still be with you? After 1 million? 1 billion?
Maybe? You’re thinking about it as a lone singular event and not the trauma that stays with you and causes worse decisions. Maybe it’s a million years downward spiral that you can resolve.
The person could forget it after 1k years. They could go to therapy for a 100k years and recover. They could enact vengeance and see it as closing the chapter on it. You can’t claim to know as you haven’t and probably won’t live 1k years or more.
Okay. A couple things. I didn’t “claim to know.” I guessed. That’s what that “Maybe?” was for. I know we are talking about it in theory. You have a theory that after a set number years, let’s say 1k, that a person would be able to recognize that they need help and get it. Just because you live for a long time doesn’t mean you grow as a person.
I did laugh when you stated that I can’t know “as you haven’t and probably won’t live 1k years or more.” 😂 Do you not see how you are claiming to know what will happen even though you also haven’t and probably won’t live 1k years or more?
My theory is that they could forget, not would.
How does “probably” translate to “I know” for you?
Unforgiveable implies that there can be no mistake about the negative side effects for even the dumbest among us before committing the act. Torture is about as intentionally cruel as it gets.
Some other suggestions here are frequently used under the umbrella of torture, for example, by the IDF.
Permanent mutilation
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It’ll still be rape.
Yeah, almost put it in the question too, but felt that would be rude
Yeah that was probably a good call, even I hovered for a second before posting, but rape has always felt worse in my book, like killing someone is a horrible thing to do to someone, but they don’t have to deal with it for life, the other one is a life long thing that could be argued is worse than death.
I might have some news for you about rape statistics - they’re pretty high. That’s telling a lot of people their experiences were worse than death, suggesting life isn’t worth living after rape. That’s a pretty brutal opinion to post on a public forum.
I didn’t say life wasn’t worth living after it, I just see a way where it could be seen worse than death, having to have that in your memory forever because some psychopath decided they can do what they want to you.
It’s a life long issue these people have to unfortunately suffer, one that they never ever should have had to experienced.
A brutal opinion would be, I think we should publicly execute rapists the slow way, that’s a brutal opinion to post on a public forum.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re probably younger than 25. I don’t think you’ve lived very long if you think one traumatic incident, or even a series of them, can ruin a life.
Suggesting someone’s life may not be worth living because of their trauma can be re-victimizing. Since rape and violence are often about power and control, statements like those give abusers more power than they deserve and do nothing to support the victims.
Looking at people brainstorm the worst things you can do to someone, they’re all just different ways to take away someone’s reason to live. And rape itself doesn’t take away someone’s will to live - but being considered a victim, saying they may be defined by someone else’s actions, forever - that’s the kind of thing that kills hope.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re probably younger than 25.
I don’t see how this is relevant but you’re wrong.
Suggesting someone’s life may not be worth living because of their trauma can be re-victimizing.
I never said they’re lives aren’t worth living.
Also, I’ve based my opinion of this subject on my own personal situation that was done to me and I have to deal with that memory all the time.
So yeah.
I’m also basing my opinion on personal experiences, as well as therapy and study on how trauma affects us.
However, like you said, not everyone has the same experience.
Forgive me for assuming that something being “Worse than death” means that death is the superior outcome.
Torture. The main thing about torture is to make sure they don’t die while suffering the pain.
I cant imagine what would be the most heinous torture in a world like this. Maybe casually, “accidentally”, stepping on the same person’s toe ever other day for like one or two million years.
Torture, kidnapping.
Assuming that immortality only applies to humans, environmental destruction would be a big one.
People care more about pollution and climate change when they know they’ll be around to face the consequences.
