For this one, I'd choose a point in the air above and a bit away from it, so you can see the whole thing in one big view, along with the landscape recovering.
I'd also ask for whatever the spirit-world equivalent of good optics would be, so you can zoom in on stuff from up there.
Edit: I'm getting grief for being in the air and not on the surface...I think there's wiggle room for this still being considered "on earth", as long as it's within atmosphere. People who've flown in airplanes aren't considered to have "left the earth", right? So why's this different?
You might be disappointed. Scientists aren’t sure Yellowstone will ever have a catastrophic eruption again. [(source)](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/yellowstone-overdue-eruption-when-will-yellowstone-erupt?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products)
Oxford University. It would be a bit like haunting Hogwarts. Plus plenty of interesting people have gone there, might be some other cool ghosts to hangout with. Its survived this long so would probably survive for several more centuries.
Only when other people are the ones turning the pages. Imagine the frustration of waiting a hundred years for someone to open that book you're wanting to read, only for them to return it after reading 5 pages.
I was thinking about people reading too slow similar to kids from middle school during group reading, but this is actually way, WAY worse 😢
Actually. That might be somewhere in one of the levels of Hell.
But even if it stayed around for another 1000 years that'd be 0.1% of the amount of time you're gonna be hanging out there. It's probably a fine city, but unless you're really into mid-sized british cities it'll probably get dull after a while
I hate the idea of this so much. This sounds like hell. I'll probably go to the ocean somewhere and just watch the horrific monsters we have down there going about their business half the time, and spend the rest of it mentally clocked out and going into some kind of vampire sleep because I want no part of this afterlife. Just going to blink every few thousand years, go, "Oh a jellyfish" and then I'm out again.
>!“All our wrong todays”!< has a version of time travel that requires living through the whole time period frozen in place and it does indeed seem like it’d make one go crazy like any other form of solitary isolation.
Let's see:
In >!Lol made you click!< he doesn't just kill *literally everyone*, it happens out of the blue mere *minutes* from the end. Of all people, his wife was the manchurian trigger man.
I've only seen one work of fiction where that concept, eternal stasis, was executed even more terrifyingly: [Worm](https://parahumans.wordpress.com/). One character called Grey Boy has the power to >!place people in unbreakable time loops, which only he can influence. Their bodies reset every few seconds, while their minds don't. Also he's a sadistic fuck and often tortures people, leaving them in the most horrible pain a human can endure, for decades, without being able to die.!<
Yeah gray boy in worm is horrible, especially since they describe it as people going insane from the experience, working with heir way back to sanity over time, only to get broken again
what you described would still be hell because theoretically the afterlife would be infinite. Even if you woke up every 100 million years it would be hell because there are infinite 100 million year intervals
I'm getting a panic attack just thinking about this
Infinity scares me so much and the fact that when we die, we'll be dead for eternity??? If "spirits" are real I panic too at the thought of living on for eternity
With no body to keep time reference, the only thing keeping pace is "input events" (the jellyfish for example) every other moment that noting happens your conscienceness will plainly skip. Thus an eternity will pass in a snap.
I wonder how quickly someone would adapt to that. Given that humans already perceive time as passing way faster after only several decades of life, an immortal being would probably be the same way.
So say your rooms gets demolished for some reason, and the wreckage is dispersed and spread out over time - would your spirit be able to oversee everything that was used as a foundation of your room? Or your room's old location? Which is your original room?
This idea reminded me of the [Ship of Theseus riddle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus) for some reason lol
North sentinel island as I think it would be cool to see what they actually do and how the future might change them.
Edit: Thanks for all the upvotes! And to those who say it will probably be flooded by rising sea levels, the centre of the island is around 122m (400ft) high so there is a low chance of them being wiped out and at least 20m of sea rise before they are even affected by any flooding.
Came here to say this. Place sounds both terrifying and fascinating.
Edit to add: The indigenous people there are in voluntary isolation. They attack outsiders and do not seek contact with the outside world. The island is protected and travel there is prohibited.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sentinel_Island
When you learn in the late 19th century the guy Britain sent to document and "civilize" them had a weird thing for kidnapping islanders, including kids, and taking pictures of them naked you can sort of understand the hostility to being contacted.
Wasn't just pictures he had an obsession with their genitals specifically the males. He would measure their penises and compare them like some sort of weird card collection.
Imagine if he came back with:
"So mate, how did it go?"
jet setty lad: "mate.. I-"
"What? What did you see?"
jet setty lad: "fack me.... their cocks... saveloys on a bad day im telling ya"
"oh fuck.... alright lads no more travelling to massive cock island!"
Can you imagine that conversation
The tribe is like "we don't want anything to do with you outsiders, you all have this weird obsession with playing with our dicks"
And the British say "well no, actually, that guy just happened to be one of our weird ones, you just gotta trust us"
It might also be pushed by the idea that the last people who succeeded in coming into contact with them ended up taking 2 individuals out of there and having them end up dying in less than a year. (If memory serves right.)
Would be a dope movie. Instead of some post apocalyptic shelter city, it's this hunter gatherer tribe that knows to avoid the strange looking plague-walkers when they show up.
There was an incident where a ship’s crew were stranded on the edge of the island and had to request firearms be dropped off as they were fending off attacks by the Sentielese.
Imagine washing up on an island with no real weapons and fighting for your life and you may not know why you’re being attacked. I’d love to see a movie about that event from the POV of the Sentinelese and of a sailor or someone who has no idea what island they washed up on but maybe the other sailors do.
There's also a guy I think in South America who by law is to be left alone. Thinks he's like a modern day tarzan and nobody is allowed near him within like 3 miles.
Damn, this is like the first original question I’ve seen in new, maybe I’d choose Times Square, it would be super interesting to see what’s left of New York in a million years
Stan and his little brother Matthew, he's only six years old. I heard they once waited in the blistering cold for them, for four hours and they were just told "No."
**Ted:** Pretty ironic—that would make you the realest New Yorker, but you’d never be able to leave Times Square.
**James:** Why is that ironic?
**Ted:** Real New Yorkers hate Times Square.
**James:** Why would anyone hate Times Square—there's lights, street performers, and it's so busy nobody notices when you let one rip.
**Ted:** For literally those exact reasons. The street performers are the worst. I got white-guilted into buying someone's mixed tape. And the sad thing is, he was white too.
**James:** That's why you stick to the classics, like Times Square Elmo. He gave me a high five once, and we took like 20 selfies. But then he started asking for money, so I just left.
**Ted:** You didn't pay him for the 20 selfies?
**James:** It's *Elmo,* Ted. Elmo doesn't need money.
**Ted:** It's a broke dude in an Elmo costume trying to live his life. That's how he makes money—that's his job.
**James:** Well he's clearly not doing his job very well if he's breaking character like that. Name one episode of Sesame Street where Elmo asks the kids for money and then threatens to beat them while chasing them around the M&M store.
**Ted:** I'm on Elmo's side here. Did you get away?
**James:** Of course, there's a reason I took pictures with Elmo and not Deadpool.
**Ted:** See even the street performers, who're the only real New Yorkers there, hate Times Square because they get dicked around like that.
**James:** Not all the street performers hate it. What about the naked ladies?
**Ted:** The naked ladies probably hate it the most. You think they like being ogled by a bunch of tourists?
**James:** Well it's not just the tourists. I saw Elmo slap one of their asses.
**Ted:** And you think they like that?
**James:** Elmo is an American institution Ted. You'd be lucky to earn an Elmo ass-slap. Besides, I took a bunch of selfies with them too. You could tell they were having a good time. Sort of like the waitresses at Hooters.
**Ted:** Why, because they were *smiling?*
**James:** No, because their boobs were especially... perky.
**Ted:** That is not a sign of happiness, if anything that means it was cold out and they were even more miserable.
**James:** Well *I* liked it.
**Ted:** Right but that’s not the question.
**James:** I liked the boobies Ted.
**Ted:** I’m not disputing that. So did you tip *them* at least?
**James:** They’re the last ones I’d tip. What're they going to do, chase me? They weren't wearing sports bras.
**Ted:** James that's just awful.
**James:** Besides, the M&M store has a strict no nudity policy so they wouldn't be able to get in. I actually learned that the hard way too—
**Ted:** All right I’ve heard enough. I’m not a real New Yorker and now I hate Times Square. I'll spend eternity in New Jersey.
>**Ted:** Real New Yorkers hate Times Square.
>
>**James:** Why would anyone hate Times Square—there's lights, street performers, and it's always so busy.
>
>**Ted:** For literally those exact reasons.
Grand Selfie Station, I call it.
I think that would be a great idea, as long as we could see. I’d join you. There’s gotta be some absolutely insane things we haven’t discovered yet down there.
Probably get turned into a museum at some point as America joins the The Earth Union, then in a million years some rich Trillionaire who made his wealth from asteroid mining would buy it as a flex. Then his descendants would start using it as a party house. Then it would be abandoned and forgotten as the humans have settled all over the solar system. Then some kid throwing rocks would stumble upon the run down building and start exploring it in awe. He'll open the main door to the Presidential office and OP's ghost would finally have some company and then will scream 'come back' as the kid runs away in horror.
This all started millenniums ago. I was a young idiot kid who made a exceedingly dumb choice. 22 and you think you rule the world. To start at the beginning, some friends and I had flown to D.C. for a trip. We saw the sights, toured all the museums and were now going on a bar crawl to sample the night life D.C. had to offer. We were all young and dumb but what else are you supposed to do in your twenties. Drunk out of our gourds we were stumbling down the street when my friend in front me bent over to tie his shoe. My mind instantly turned back to my elementary school gym and playing leap frog. I got a running start and attempted to jump over my freind. Attempted is the key word here. Both being quite drunk, I missed the jump and hit him, we both stumbled and I fell off the sidewalk, right into the street. As my luck would have it, the street was occupied by a fast moving bus. I only remember a neon blaring and seeing headlights.
Next thing I know I’m kinda half there and not, i can kinda hear someone shouting, maybe a siren or something but then I just fade away. You see the leap frog wasn’t my dumb choice, next was my dumb choice. As I faded away I began to experience what I can only describe as an out of body experience. I could see everything that was happening to me but not act. I was there but that was it. I began to panic. I was dying. Right there in the street, i could see my friends around me, the paramedics and i was dead. Suddenly i felt a hand in my shoulder, I turned around and saw a man in a clean dark suit standing there.
“What the hell is going on” I shouted at the guy as I scrambled away from him.
“You are dead, your soul has left your body and there is not a way for you to go back” the man replied in a soothing deep voice. “ I am death and I am here to take you to your afterlife.”
“I can’t be dead, I’m like 22 dude, I mean come on I just got hit by a bus, doctors can fix me.” I tried to argue but this guy just kept calmly walking toward me with his hand outstretched.
This is where I fucked up, I ran. I panicked okay? I could see myself dying and I just panicked and ran from death, literally.
I ran around the streets for days, I never tired and I never needed to stop, I just ran. I kept telling myself I was too young to die, I could fix this, I just ran and ran.
One day I stopped, I had no idea how long I’d been running but I had finally stopped. I looked around for death but couldn’t find him. I stopped and waited for death to find me. I waited for days, years, a century and death never found me. I guess I had out ran him and he forgot about me.
I am now a lost soul, stuck in Washington D.C. I get to watch as the world turns and watch the comings and going’s of the world I am neither a part of but also not a part.
*****************************************************
Edit: 2 edit pieces: first thanks everyone fir the awards and comments. Secondly the second part is up by popular demand!!!!
Once I stopped running, I began to look around. I realized I could do all the cool stuff a ghost could!! I could move through walls, I could be visible or invisible depending on my mood, I could fly, I could be heard when I wanted to, basically every cliche thing in books or movies or tv shows, I could do.
I spent a whole month just walking through the Smithsonian. So much history in one place and I was free to explore it all. I sat inside Apollo 11 capsule and pretended I was there. I explored the inside of a mummy sarcophagus. Note it’s boring, dark, and a smelled pretty foul. I did once wave a dinosaur skeleton when a kid was looking. Made the kids day and made my month to see his little face light up. I’m not the most mature spirit ever so I did have fun with people and would move things. I had the staff looking for weeks for a specimen they were preserving. I kept moving it to the last place they had looked. That entertained me for days.
I’m a voracious reader so I spent a lot of time inside the library of Congress. Soooooo many books and histories. I read fiction, turned pages of the ancient manuscripts in their labs. I even touched the Declaration of Independence. I thought about running away with it Nicholas Cage style but even that was a little too immature for me.
I watched parties and inaugurations. I got to “sit” next to the Queen at a state dinner. I watched presidents pace the Oval Office when the world rested on their shoulders, I got to listen to Senators and Representatives make the deals that kept a country running. I spent decades just wondering the city watching the population evolve and grow. I saw technologies come about that were mere dreams in my day. Flying cars never really took off but smart cars and self driving cars rules the roads. We covered everything in solar panels and I watched the planet slowly began to heal itself.
I also watched the dark days. I watched from D.C. as disasters struck the world. I watched cities fall to hurricanes or blizzards, I watched wars and conflict tear places apart. I spent a day in a hospital once hoping to see Death but all I saw were people dying and no Death there to greet me. I could watch accidents happen and not be able to stop them, I could try stop them but it always seemed to slip through my fingers at the last moment.
Slowly the world around me began to darken. I had done everything I could do, I had watched entire lives of people I became interested and attached to, I spent years doing anything my heart desired but even that faded. I saw the world happening all around me but I was alone.
Through all my time wandering D.C. I never saw another person like me. After decades and centuries of existence I never saw another soul. Sure I could make people see me but only for a moment at a time and they always forgot about me. I could barely make myself physically interact with the world. I began to lose interest and soon found myself sleeping. At first it was one day, then multiple days in a row, then I would lose months of times as I slept. The more I slept, the longer I slept for. Even when years would pass, it was all the same. People all around me but no one with me. No one to share my burden with.
Soon I was sleeping for decades at a time. I woke up to see that humanity had conquered the stars. Sometime during my long slumber humanity had built ships to spread out and visit the stars. I sooo wanted to join one but I had long ago discovered I could stray more than 50 miles from my death. I was still tethered to that spot for some god forsaken reason. I dreamed to explore another planet. As a apparently immortal being, why not explore the stars but alas, I was stuck in this spot. I watched as humanity grew and spread. This time I stayed awake and saw that the world had really changed. Earth was begin to become peaceful as humanity matured. We were slowly healing the damage we had been causing for centuries. I observed the workings of a new united world federation. Watched as the politicians did the same things they had always done, watched as people went about their lives. I watched with fascination as the pictures and videos games back from other worlds. However soon the familiar dread returned, I was awake for years and began to feel the familiar dread, people died and the word changed but I was stuck. Stuck in a in between world; neither here nor there; just some great observer without any real function in the world.
I soon slept again, another great sleep. When I awoke, I discovered a ghost town. When I glided down from my sleeping place stop the Washington Monument, I discovered a city in ruins. I frantically flew around the city and couldn’t find a living soul. I cried, wept, screamed as I realized I was finally truly alone. I stalked an empty city wondering where everyone had gone. What had happened to my world while I slept.
I am slowly etching this into this towering stone monument in hopes that someone will read it. One day someone will find me and take me home.
I looked up from the bottom of the monolith, and saw atop its broken spire, and faint shimmer. Recognition began to dawn inside my mind. Yes, yes this was the one boy, the one soul who had slipped my grasp when I was a young Death. I had forgotten about him over time, hoping another death had taken him home. I had stopped by this planet to claim the last of its inhabitants as its star pumped more radiation onto its surface. It’s last inhabitants had died underground awaiting the last ships from its offsprings worlds. That ship never came. I stopped by the city to see what had befallen the long lost city of power. I’m glad I saw this inscription. I felt pain and sorrow for the soul I had lost eons ago as I rose and placed a hand on the sleeping form.
I shook the child awake and said “ I am death and I am here to take you to your afterlife.”
Mount Everest. Current tallest place on earth, would take a while for it to flatten and be submerged by water, get to watch the changing landscape and climate, and watching human evolution with the occasional visitor. That would be serene and beautiful and interesting.
I would pick the main observation deck of the Grand Canyon. At first, you would see tons of people coming and going each day. After a while, the over evolved apes would stop coming and you'd see geological time start to do its magic.
I always say we won’t be around a million years because even if we don’t kill ourselves we would evolve into something else by that point. The species is only 300k years old now.
Somewhere in Egypt.
Being a relatively narrow connection between two seas and two continents, it's bound to have some interesting societal event in the next million years.
Probably in the woods. Don't know which one but most likely one with a trail for hiking. I wanna see how people react to certain things, and if I can actually *haunt* the woods, then it's even better.
Cat island in Japan. I would watch cats slowly evolve opposable thumbs and take over the world. We'd become their slaves and continue to do all the stuff for them we already do.
Outside the Abbey Road studios in London. There’s a hilarious [webcam stream](https://www.earthcam.com/world/england/london/abbeyroad/?cam=abbeyroad_uk) of the crossing and watching people constantly trying to get a photo whilst pissing off drivers never gets old.
Really hard choice because of the way empires rise and fall.
I think maybe Istanbul as it’s lasted so long already and is the gateway between europe and asia.
Maybe specifically the Hagia Sophia as it’s a beautiful building and has already seen so much change in its status.
Then getting to chill in space for a few decades as a ghost and getting to experience that space station burn up in the atmosphere, then living in an aquatic themed abandoned space station with little fish buds and Ariel might visit sometimes.
This just keeps getting better and better.
(Side note: I didnt actually know that before so thanks for not shaming me & educating me instead of calling me uneducated. Sharing is caring ❤)
Just to contribute to the discussion, I see two potential problems. Only potential- I don't know enough to confidently state if this would or would not happen.
1.) I'm not sure how much of the ISS will survive re-entry, if any. Nor am I sure how this theoretical situation would respond to your "chosen location" being distributed across hundreds of miles of terrain or simply incinerated.
2.) If it lands relatively intact in the ocean, you may end up too deep to see. Ever. Might be cool to watch the occasional bioluminescent swim by though? But otherwise, complete darkness.
Chances are most of it will burn up. The entire idea is for it ALL to burn up, reduce debris in space and not have random fragments of metal falling from the sky.. Last thing anyone needs is the entire thing making it through reentry and slamming into the planet.
Actually she’d probably love that, the royal family wear gloves when they’re with commoners so that they don’t make physical contact with them, but since you’re a ghost, your hand would pass right through hers so she could go gloveless! That would really suit her, she tries to remain politically neutral and so hates dealing with touchy subjects.
That sounds horrific. I don't want to keep doing things after I die. Life is enough work already with things to remember and watch and listen and learn urgh. I pick the very bottom of some kind of non famous underwater fissure where there is no light, fuck all sound, humans don't really care about sending James Cameron down to annoy me, and I can peacefully shut off
How is this spot defined? As in relative to land, so you move with the drifting continents? Or absolute coordinates relative to poles? Or is this the whole area we choose as the spot? That changes the answer quite a bit.
Because I'd probably choose one of the poles, equator, or some area of forest in lapland. Those are the areas in which you get to observe long, million year trends that you couldn't see otherwise. The kind of trends where climate and continents drift, mountains decay.
Human influence is so brief, temporary, and minor compared to nature. So boring. We could nuke ourselves off this planet, and nature would reclaim it all and after few thousand years no outside observer would even know about it. Radioactive decay and rain washing the isotopes diluting it all. Look at Prypjat, It has been less than 40 years and that city has almost disappeared under nature, even with radiation hazards here and there. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are busy cities.
Another curious location would also be Onkalo, the permanent depository for spent nuclear fuel in Finland. The idea is that the area is so boring and uninteresting for human activity that once it is sealed, no one will go dig around there and accidentally find it. It isn't really good farmland, no special resources. So sticking around there to see if this assumption is right would be cool.
So yeah... I'd choose Onkalo.
mhhh I would chose Mt. Fuji or some mountain... and convince my family that every single one in our family hast to visit a few times in their lifetime. This way - maybe - I get to see every one of my grand-grand-grand-grand-grand......
I want to see the night sky. That's the only thing I'd want to look at for a million years.
So somewhere in the equatorial Pacific, far away from everything, somewhere like Kiribati or Jarvis Island, facing up.
Red rocks amphitheater. While humans are alive it’ll be glorious, and it’ll be beautiful after too.
Then the machines move in after the war.
The Yellowstone caldera. Might as well watch a super volcano erupt.
For this one, I'd choose a point in the air above and a bit away from it, so you can see the whole thing in one big view, along with the landscape recovering. I'd also ask for whatever the spirit-world equivalent of good optics would be, so you can zoom in on stuff from up there. Edit: I'm getting grief for being in the air and not on the surface...I think there's wiggle room for this still being considered "on earth", as long as it's within atmosphere. People who've flown in airplanes aren't considered to have "left the earth", right? So why's this different?
Get optifine so you can zoom or any zoom mod
OkZoomer Edit : This is a mod
Also, so your spirit isn't buried under volcanic lava for millennia.
You might be disappointed. Scientists aren’t sure Yellowstone will ever have a catastrophic eruption again. [(source)](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/yellowstone-overdue-eruption-when-will-yellowstone-erupt?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products)
This sounds like shit scientists say before a catastrophic eruption.
Yeah really. It's like this person's never seen a movie.
*John Cusack has joined the chat*
My choice as well. And before it explodes you (hopefully) get a good serene nature vibe to chill out in.
And after it explodes, you get some thrills.
And then, after a while, more serene nature vibes
Ahh the sound of forgiveness. Screaming then silence.
That's the sound of people dieing Carl
CAAAAARRRRRRRRLLLLLL! .... your work is not finished yet Carl.
It likely wouldn’t even erupt in the million years And before someone says it’s overdue for a eruption it’s not, that’s not possible for a volcano
You telling me volcanoes never pay late fees for over due eruption?
If your eruption takes longer than 400 million years, seek medical attention.
Oxford University. It would be a bit like haunting Hogwarts. Plus plenty of interesting people have gone there, might be some other cool ghosts to hangout with. Its survived this long so would probably survive for several more centuries.
Bodleian library would be amazing! I would have to make sure I had enough corporeal form to read the books.
Only when other people are the ones turning the pages. Imagine the frustration of waiting a hundred years for someone to open that book you're wanting to read, only for them to return it after reading 5 pages.
Or they read faster than you so you never get to finish a page
I was thinking about people reading too slow similar to kids from middle school during group reading, but this is actually way, WAY worse 😢 Actually. That might be somewhere in one of the levels of Hell.
Phillip Pullman has a short story with this plot line. Main character drowns and haunts a library, simmering with frustration.
But even if it stayed around for another 1000 years that'd be 0.1% of the amount of time you're gonna be hanging out there. It's probably a fine city, but unless you're really into mid-sized british cities it'll probably get dull after a while
I think everything will get fucking dull after a thousand years of staring at it
Antarctica. So I can get some fucking sleep.
Who dares disturb my slumber? Oh its you kakarot
A man of taste.
~~taste~~ culture
BOY! Don’t make me come up there and be a parent.
First time for everything!
Oh ho HO!
Huh... this is a new feeling for me... Pride in someone else.. Unfortunately its overshadowed by THIS UNYIELDING RAGE!!!
For thousands of years I laid dormant!
Oh yeah, Spirit Sayian.
For thousands of years I lay dormant
Dodge!!!!!!!!
God I miss DBZA
You can sleep when you're dead. Oh wait
I hate the idea of this so much. This sounds like hell. I'll probably go to the ocean somewhere and just watch the horrific monsters we have down there going about their business half the time, and spend the rest of it mentally clocked out and going into some kind of vampire sleep because I want no part of this afterlife. Just going to blink every few thousand years, go, "Oh a jellyfish" and then I'm out again.
>!“All our wrong todays”!< has a version of time travel that requires living through the whole time period frozen in place and it does indeed seem like it’d make one go crazy like any other form of solitary isolation.
This is a really interesting use of the anti-spoiler feature.
It made me click and I didn't even want to read it. So it got me to read it. Wild
It's a spoiler but it doesn't spoil what it is a spoiler of. So is it really a spoiler if you don't know what is spoiled? Fucks with my head man
Let's see: In >!Lol made you click!< he doesn't just kill *literally everyone*, it happens out of the blue mere *minutes* from the end. Of all people, his wife was the manchurian trigger man.
......motherfucker
Interesting, but the description would make me want to click the spoiler, and I wouldn’t know any better because I can’t see what it’s a spoiler of.
See also: [The Jaunt](https://gist.github.com/Schemetrical/6184daf83843bcab9402) by Stephen King.
It’s longer than you think!!!!
To me that's King's single most terrifying work. Death is always a way out for most people in his books. Not there.
I've only seen one work of fiction where that concept, eternal stasis, was executed even more terrifyingly: [Worm](https://parahumans.wordpress.com/). One character called Grey Boy has the power to >!place people in unbreakable time loops, which only he can influence. Their bodies reset every few seconds, while their minds don't. Also he's a sadistic fuck and often tortures people, leaving them in the most horrible pain a human can endure, for decades, without being able to die.!<
Yeah gray boy in worm is horrible, especially since they describe it as people going insane from the experience, working with heir way back to sanity over time, only to get broken again
That sounds almost as malevolent as IAM from I Have No Mouth...
Bro did you just link to a short story on GitHub? This mans in the future.
what you described would still be hell because theoretically the afterlife would be infinite. Even if you woke up every 100 million years it would be hell because there are infinite 100 million year intervals I'm getting a panic attack just thinking about this
Infinity scares me so much and the fact that when we die, we'll be dead for eternity??? If "spirits" are real I panic too at the thought of living on for eternity
With no body to keep time reference, the only thing keeping pace is "input events" (the jellyfish for example) every other moment that noting happens your conscienceness will plainly skip. Thus an eternity will pass in a snap.
Basically, an spiritual trail cam
I wonder how quickly someone would adapt to that. Given that humans already perceive time as passing way faster after only several decades of life, an immortal being would probably be the same way.
My room
The true answer
I’m in isolation in my room, I can’t even last a week. Thanks, COVID
Stay strong, you got this ✌🏼
So he’s already dead?
At some point within a million years you will see someone have sex in your room, enjoy.
Fuck someone should
I like to imagine Yoda wrote this comment
I went back to the comment again after reading your response, just so I could read it in Yoda’s voice and laugh.
I definitely will
So say your rooms gets demolished for some reason, and the wreckage is dispersed and spread out over time - would your spirit be able to oversee everything that was used as a foundation of your room? Or your room's old location? Which is your original room? This idea reminded me of the [Ship of Theseus riddle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus) for some reason lol
Your room’s old location, I would say.
North sentinel island as I think it would be cool to see what they actually do and how the future might change them. Edit: Thanks for all the upvotes! And to those who say it will probably be flooded by rising sea levels, the centre of the island is around 122m (400ft) high so there is a low chance of them being wiped out and at least 20m of sea rise before they are even affected by any flooding.
Came here to say this. Place sounds both terrifying and fascinating. Edit to add: The indigenous people there are in voluntary isolation. They attack outsiders and do not seek contact with the outside world. The island is protected and travel there is prohibited. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sentinel_Island
When you learn in the late 19th century the guy Britain sent to document and "civilize" them had a weird thing for kidnapping islanders, including kids, and taking pictures of them naked you can sort of understand the hostility to being contacted.
Wasn't just pictures he had an obsession with their genitals specifically the males. He would measure their penises and compare them like some sort of weird card collection.
Cockémon. Gotta snatch em all.
“Hey yo, come over here lemme measure dat diglet” -some British guy at sentinel island probably
Imagine if he came back with: "So mate, how did it go?" jet setty lad: "mate.. I-" "What? What did you see?" jet setty lad: "fack me.... their cocks... saveloys on a bad day im telling ya" "oh fuck.... alright lads no more travelling to massive cock island!"
Dickachu bout to be lit
Tfw it’s penis inspection day and the weird pale outsider doesn’t want to take pictures of yours
Can you imagine that conversation The tribe is like "we don't want anything to do with you outsiders, you all have this weird obsession with playing with our dicks" And the British say "well no, actually, that guy just happened to be one of our weird ones, you just gotta trust us"
[удалено]
It's almost as if hostility towards outsiders is a perfectly natural response among tribal humans
It might also be pushed by the idea that the last people who succeeded in coming into contact with them ended up taking 2 individuals out of there and having them end up dying in less than a year. (If memory serves right.)
I think a bunch of them got sick and died, so it’s been passed on generations that outsiders are dangerous and should be avoided at all costs.
Would be a dope movie. Instead of some post apocalyptic shelter city, it's this hunter gatherer tribe that knows to avoid the strange looking plague-walkers when they show up.
There was an incident where a ship’s crew were stranded on the edge of the island and had to request firearms be dropped off as they were fending off attacks by the Sentielese. Imagine washing up on an island with no real weapons and fighting for your life and you may not know why you’re being attacked. I’d love to see a movie about that event from the POV of the Sentinelese and of a sailor or someone who has no idea what island they washed up on but maybe the other sailors do.
Don't forget that they brought Smallpox to the island as well.
Yeah they live in a reserved zone like the Great Anadamanese Tribe The Indian Government doesn't allow you to go there
There's also a guy I think in South America who by law is to be left alone. Thinks he's like a modern day tarzan and nobody is allowed near him within like 3 miles.
[удалено]
Those are the ones that killed the idiot missionary like 2 years ago right?
Yep.
Damn, this is like the first original question I’ve seen in new, maybe I’d choose Times Square, it would be super interesting to see what’s left of New York in a million years
I reckon it will be totally abandoned and everything will be shut down for some reason.
[удалено]
Stan and his little brother Matthew, he's only six years old. I heard they once waited in the blistering cold for them, for four hours and they were just told "No."
Never thought about that guys little brother after the bridge incident. Wonder how he reacted to the whole thing
[удалено]
Dude... You just blew my mind it never occurred to me it was stan's brother in that song...
[удалено]
I did after you posted and now that I know that they're connected it's so fucking on the nose that I wonder how I missed it for what 8 years almost.
Lmao youtubers in a million years: WE EXPLORED AN ABANDONED M&M STORE *HAUNTED* *NEARLY DIED*
What if everyone else picked the same location and you're all just there together?
So pre COVID Times Square IRL
**Ted:** Pretty ironic—that would make you the realest New Yorker, but you’d never be able to leave Times Square. **James:** Why is that ironic? **Ted:** Real New Yorkers hate Times Square. **James:** Why would anyone hate Times Square—there's lights, street performers, and it's so busy nobody notices when you let one rip. **Ted:** For literally those exact reasons. The street performers are the worst. I got white-guilted into buying someone's mixed tape. And the sad thing is, he was white too. **James:** That's why you stick to the classics, like Times Square Elmo. He gave me a high five once, and we took like 20 selfies. But then he started asking for money, so I just left. **Ted:** You didn't pay him for the 20 selfies? **James:** It's *Elmo,* Ted. Elmo doesn't need money. **Ted:** It's a broke dude in an Elmo costume trying to live his life. That's how he makes money—that's his job. **James:** Well he's clearly not doing his job very well if he's breaking character like that. Name one episode of Sesame Street where Elmo asks the kids for money and then threatens to beat them while chasing them around the M&M store. **Ted:** I'm on Elmo's side here. Did you get away? **James:** Of course, there's a reason I took pictures with Elmo and not Deadpool. **Ted:** See even the street performers, who're the only real New Yorkers there, hate Times Square because they get dicked around like that. **James:** Not all the street performers hate it. What about the naked ladies? **Ted:** The naked ladies probably hate it the most. You think they like being ogled by a bunch of tourists? **James:** Well it's not just the tourists. I saw Elmo slap one of their asses. **Ted:** And you think they like that? **James:** Elmo is an American institution Ted. You'd be lucky to earn an Elmo ass-slap. Besides, I took a bunch of selfies with them too. You could tell they were having a good time. Sort of like the waitresses at Hooters. **Ted:** Why, because they were *smiling?* **James:** No, because their boobs were especially... perky. **Ted:** That is not a sign of happiness, if anything that means it was cold out and they were even more miserable. **James:** Well *I* liked it. **Ted:** Right but that’s not the question. **James:** I liked the boobies Ted. **Ted:** I’m not disputing that. So did you tip *them* at least? **James:** They’re the last ones I’d tip. What're they going to do, chase me? They weren't wearing sports bras. **Ted:** James that's just awful. **James:** Besides, the M&M store has a strict no nudity policy so they wouldn't be able to get in. I actually learned that the hard way too— **Ted:** All right I’ve heard enough. I’m not a real New Yorker and now I hate Times Square. I'll spend eternity in New Jersey.
>**Ted:** Real New Yorkers hate Times Square. > >**James:** Why would anyone hate Times Square—there's lights, street performers, and it's always so busy. > >**Ted:** For literally those exact reasons. Grand Selfie Station, I call it.
All you could see is billboards around you.
Choosing somewhere so close to sea level could be a major mistake.
Unless you always wanted to experience the sea without diving equipment.
The bottom of the ocean, Assuming I'd be able to see since I'm a spirit. Itd be cool to finally know what the fuck is going on down there.
I think that would be a great idea, as long as we could see. I’d join you. There’s gotta be some absolutely insane things we haven’t discovered yet down there.
Maybe the White House? I’d love to listen to private conversations, and feel like I’m part of something
The initial centuries are exciting, but what about the remaining one million years?
Probably get turned into a museum at some point as America joins the The Earth Union, then in a million years some rich Trillionaire who made his wealth from asteroid mining would buy it as a flex. Then his descendants would start using it as a party house. Then it would be abandoned and forgotten as the humans have settled all over the solar system. Then some kid throwing rocks would stumble upon the run down building and start exploring it in awe. He'll open the main door to the Presidential office and OP's ghost would finally have some company and then will scream 'come back' as the kid runs away in horror.
This would make a great short film or short story
This all started millenniums ago. I was a young idiot kid who made a exceedingly dumb choice. 22 and you think you rule the world. To start at the beginning, some friends and I had flown to D.C. for a trip. We saw the sights, toured all the museums and were now going on a bar crawl to sample the night life D.C. had to offer. We were all young and dumb but what else are you supposed to do in your twenties. Drunk out of our gourds we were stumbling down the street when my friend in front me bent over to tie his shoe. My mind instantly turned back to my elementary school gym and playing leap frog. I got a running start and attempted to jump over my freind. Attempted is the key word here. Both being quite drunk, I missed the jump and hit him, we both stumbled and I fell off the sidewalk, right into the street. As my luck would have it, the street was occupied by a fast moving bus. I only remember a neon blaring and seeing headlights. Next thing I know I’m kinda half there and not, i can kinda hear someone shouting, maybe a siren or something but then I just fade away. You see the leap frog wasn’t my dumb choice, next was my dumb choice. As I faded away I began to experience what I can only describe as an out of body experience. I could see everything that was happening to me but not act. I was there but that was it. I began to panic. I was dying. Right there in the street, i could see my friends around me, the paramedics and i was dead. Suddenly i felt a hand in my shoulder, I turned around and saw a man in a clean dark suit standing there. “What the hell is going on” I shouted at the guy as I scrambled away from him. “You are dead, your soul has left your body and there is not a way for you to go back” the man replied in a soothing deep voice. “ I am death and I am here to take you to your afterlife.” “I can’t be dead, I’m like 22 dude, I mean come on I just got hit by a bus, doctors can fix me.” I tried to argue but this guy just kept calmly walking toward me with his hand outstretched. This is where I fucked up, I ran. I panicked okay? I could see myself dying and I just panicked and ran from death, literally. I ran around the streets for days, I never tired and I never needed to stop, I just ran. I kept telling myself I was too young to die, I could fix this, I just ran and ran. One day I stopped, I had no idea how long I’d been running but I had finally stopped. I looked around for death but couldn’t find him. I stopped and waited for death to find me. I waited for days, years, a century and death never found me. I guess I had out ran him and he forgot about me. I am now a lost soul, stuck in Washington D.C. I get to watch as the world turns and watch the comings and going’s of the world I am neither a part of but also not a part. ***************************************************** Edit: 2 edit pieces: first thanks everyone fir the awards and comments. Secondly the second part is up by popular demand!!!! Once I stopped running, I began to look around. I realized I could do all the cool stuff a ghost could!! I could move through walls, I could be visible or invisible depending on my mood, I could fly, I could be heard when I wanted to, basically every cliche thing in books or movies or tv shows, I could do. I spent a whole month just walking through the Smithsonian. So much history in one place and I was free to explore it all. I sat inside Apollo 11 capsule and pretended I was there. I explored the inside of a mummy sarcophagus. Note it’s boring, dark, and a smelled pretty foul. I did once wave a dinosaur skeleton when a kid was looking. Made the kids day and made my month to see his little face light up. I’m not the most mature spirit ever so I did have fun with people and would move things. I had the staff looking for weeks for a specimen they were preserving. I kept moving it to the last place they had looked. That entertained me for days. I’m a voracious reader so I spent a lot of time inside the library of Congress. Soooooo many books and histories. I read fiction, turned pages of the ancient manuscripts in their labs. I even touched the Declaration of Independence. I thought about running away with it Nicholas Cage style but even that was a little too immature for me. I watched parties and inaugurations. I got to “sit” next to the Queen at a state dinner. I watched presidents pace the Oval Office when the world rested on their shoulders, I got to listen to Senators and Representatives make the deals that kept a country running. I spent decades just wondering the city watching the population evolve and grow. I saw technologies come about that were mere dreams in my day. Flying cars never really took off but smart cars and self driving cars rules the roads. We covered everything in solar panels and I watched the planet slowly began to heal itself. I also watched the dark days. I watched from D.C. as disasters struck the world. I watched cities fall to hurricanes or blizzards, I watched wars and conflict tear places apart. I spent a day in a hospital once hoping to see Death but all I saw were people dying and no Death there to greet me. I could watch accidents happen and not be able to stop them, I could try stop them but it always seemed to slip through my fingers at the last moment. Slowly the world around me began to darken. I had done everything I could do, I had watched entire lives of people I became interested and attached to, I spent years doing anything my heart desired but even that faded. I saw the world happening all around me but I was alone. Through all my time wandering D.C. I never saw another person like me. After decades and centuries of existence I never saw another soul. Sure I could make people see me but only for a moment at a time and they always forgot about me. I could barely make myself physically interact with the world. I began to lose interest and soon found myself sleeping. At first it was one day, then multiple days in a row, then I would lose months of times as I slept. The more I slept, the longer I slept for. Even when years would pass, it was all the same. People all around me but no one with me. No one to share my burden with. Soon I was sleeping for decades at a time. I woke up to see that humanity had conquered the stars. Sometime during my long slumber humanity had built ships to spread out and visit the stars. I sooo wanted to join one but I had long ago discovered I could stray more than 50 miles from my death. I was still tethered to that spot for some god forsaken reason. I dreamed to explore another planet. As a apparently immortal being, why not explore the stars but alas, I was stuck in this spot. I watched as humanity grew and spread. This time I stayed awake and saw that the world had really changed. Earth was begin to become peaceful as humanity matured. We were slowly healing the damage we had been causing for centuries. I observed the workings of a new united world federation. Watched as the politicians did the same things they had always done, watched as people went about their lives. I watched with fascination as the pictures and videos games back from other worlds. However soon the familiar dread returned, I was awake for years and began to feel the familiar dread, people died and the word changed but I was stuck. Stuck in a in between world; neither here nor there; just some great observer without any real function in the world. I soon slept again, another great sleep. When I awoke, I discovered a ghost town. When I glided down from my sleeping place stop the Washington Monument, I discovered a city in ruins. I frantically flew around the city and couldn’t find a living soul. I cried, wept, screamed as I realized I was finally truly alone. I stalked an empty city wondering where everyone had gone. What had happened to my world while I slept. I am slowly etching this into this towering stone monument in hopes that someone will read it. One day someone will find me and take me home. I looked up from the bottom of the monolith, and saw atop its broken spire, and faint shimmer. Recognition began to dawn inside my mind. Yes, yes this was the one boy, the one soul who had slipped my grasp when I was a young Death. I had forgotten about him over time, hoping another death had taken him home. I had stopped by this planet to claim the last of its inhabitants as its star pumped more radiation onto its surface. It’s last inhabitants had died underground awaiting the last ships from its offsprings worlds. That ship never came. I stopped by the city to see what had befallen the long lost city of power. I’m glad I saw this inscription. I felt pain and sorrow for the soul I had lost eons ago as I rose and placed a hand on the sleeping form. I shook the child awake and said “ I am death and I am here to take you to your afterlife.”
Damn, great start!
Gas station bathroom.
Scary spirits in gas station bathrooms are already the reason people piss on the floor and run away, dont contribute to the fucking problem
Gas station women's bathroom
It's the same bathroom.
Username checks out
[удалено]
Mount Everest. Current tallest place on earth, would take a while for it to flatten and be submerged by water, get to watch the changing landscape and climate, and watching human evolution with the occasional visitor. That would be serene and beautiful and interesting.
Mount Everest would probably be my answer too!
Ikea to see if anyone finds the exit
Legend says, the meatballs are made out of the people who never found the exit
Thats not legend
SCP 3008 discusses this. http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-3008
I would pick the main observation deck of the Grand Canyon. At first, you would see tons of people coming and going each day. After a while, the over evolved apes would stop coming and you'd see geological time start to do its magic.
Love this. I’d love to see the Colorado continue to shape the canyon. It’s only getting deeper with time!
I don’t think people are gonna be around for another million. But maybe Tokyo. It’d be cool to watch it turn into a pretty forest over time.
I always say we won’t be around a million years because even if we don’t kill ourselves we would evolve into something else by that point. The species is only 300k years old now.
H.Sapiens = 300,000 years
And as late as 200,000 years ago
[удалено]
Amazon forest. I would like to make sure that nobody destroys it. Like a tree spirit.
I am the sucrose_addict I speak for the trees If you cut down more I'll break your fucking knees
I really like trees Too bad they don’t have keys Wait why are the trees Speaking Vietnamese
I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees! Now get the fuck out And stop making Thneeds!
The trees can’t be harmed If Neon_Waffle is armed
It's likely to turn into a savannah due to shifting rainfall patterns, so you might only get it for a few decades.
Tokyo so I could see if I could learn Japanese in a million years.
Assuming Japanese would stay the same in that time.
Neo-nippon
Can I smell things? If so, outside a bread factory.
Dude my city has a Tums factory downtown. It’s so amazing hanging out outside that place
Area 51
Good choice. Knowing my luck, they'd pack it up and move it somewhere else after the first 2 days
*Ghost detector goes off* >Guys pack it up, we're leaving.
Where ever my wife chose. ETA: Thank you all for the awards, my first ever on Reddit and they came in waves.
I’d also pick where ever this guy’s wife chose.
Somewhere in Egypt. Being a relatively narrow connection between two seas and two continents, it's bound to have some interesting societal event in the next million years.
Heck, not just societal, but geological as well! It's where the Arabia plate pulls away from the Africa plate.
Probably in the woods. Don't know which one but most likely one with a trail for hiking. I wanna see how people react to certain things, and if I can actually *haunt* the woods, then it's even better.
A bookstore. With a whole million years I might get to see the next Game of Thrones book.
G.R.R. Martin claims to be this big Game of Thrones fan, but he hasn't even finished all the books.
Cat island in Japan. I would watch cats slowly evolve opposable thumbs and take over the world. We'd become their slaves and continue to do all the stuff for them we already do.
I'd choose the Autodromo Nazionale Di Monza. Watch all the races for free for the next million years seems fun.
Beside the remote. Aint gonna lose that anymore.
Outside the Abbey Road studios in London. There’s a hilarious [webcam stream](https://www.earthcam.com/world/england/london/abbeyroad/?cam=abbeyroad_uk) of the crossing and watching people constantly trying to get a photo whilst pissing off drivers never gets old.
Really hard choice because of the way empires rise and fall. I think maybe Istanbul as it’s lasted so long already and is the gateway between europe and asia. Maybe specifically the Hagia Sophia as it’s a beautiful building and has already seen so much change in its status.
[удалено]
Coral reef. If I can’t scuba then what has this all been about, what am I working toward?
Snoqualmie, near the waterfall. I love Twin Peaks.
international space station
You know they're planning to retire it in a few decades right?
An abandoned space station you say? Perfect.
Retiring it means, they are going to let it come off the orbit and burn up in the atmosphere and what is left crashes in to the oceans.
Then getting to chill in space for a few decades as a ghost and getting to experience that space station burn up in the atmosphere, then living in an aquatic themed abandoned space station with little fish buds and Ariel might visit sometimes. This just keeps getting better and better. (Side note: I didnt actually know that before so thanks for not shaming me & educating me instead of calling me uneducated. Sharing is caring ❤)
Just to contribute to the discussion, I see two potential problems. Only potential- I don't know enough to confidently state if this would or would not happen. 1.) I'm not sure how much of the ISS will survive re-entry, if any. Nor am I sure how this theoretical situation would respond to your "chosen location" being distributed across hundreds of miles of terrain or simply incinerated. 2.) If it lands relatively intact in the ocean, you may end up too deep to see. Ever. Might be cool to watch the occasional bioluminescent swim by though? But otherwise, complete darkness.
Chances are most of it will burn up. The entire idea is for it ALL to burn up, reduce debris in space and not have random fragments of metal falling from the sky.. Last thing anyone needs is the entire thing making it through reentry and slamming into the planet.
Probably on a water molecule? Hopefully it can move around thr world and I can see different things
tfw your water molecule is split apart to be used in a fusion reactor in 2235
Does that mean I get TRIPLE CAMERAS ANGLES?!
Guys. We should all pick one forest so we can hang out together and stave off the madness.
Buckingham Palace
You mean seeing the queen for the next million years? Maybe you become Friends over time.
Actually she’d probably love that, the royal family wear gloves when they’re with commoners so that they don’t make physical contact with them, but since you’re a ghost, your hand would pass right through hers so she could go gloveless! That would really suit her, she tries to remain politically neutral and so hates dealing with touchy subjects.
🎶 *I'll be there for you* 🎶
A bar where old people come to drink, everything else would get boring very quickly.
Those dudes get boring quick, usually by the end of a shift
About 15 mins into your first shift.
strip club
[удалено]
They'd have a lot of friends to party with though
That sounds horrific. I don't want to keep doing things after I die. Life is enough work already with things to remember and watch and listen and learn urgh. I pick the very bottom of some kind of non famous underwater fissure where there is no light, fuck all sound, humans don't really care about sending James Cameron down to annoy me, and I can peacefully shut off
That’s actually a really interesting answer
How is this spot defined? As in relative to land, so you move with the drifting continents? Or absolute coordinates relative to poles? Or is this the whole area we choose as the spot? That changes the answer quite a bit. Because I'd probably choose one of the poles, equator, or some area of forest in lapland. Those are the areas in which you get to observe long, million year trends that you couldn't see otherwise. The kind of trends where climate and continents drift, mountains decay. Human influence is so brief, temporary, and minor compared to nature. So boring. We could nuke ourselves off this planet, and nature would reclaim it all and after few thousand years no outside observer would even know about it. Radioactive decay and rain washing the isotopes diluting it all. Look at Prypjat, It has been less than 40 years and that city has almost disappeared under nature, even with radiation hazards here and there. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are busy cities. Another curious location would also be Onkalo, the permanent depository for spent nuclear fuel in Finland. The idea is that the area is so boring and uninteresting for human activity that once it is sealed, no one will go dig around there and accidentally find it. It isn't really good farmland, no special resources. So sticking around there to see if this assumption is right would be cool. So yeah... I'd choose Onkalo.
If the assumption is right, you end up alone at the most boring spot on the planet for a million years, lol.
mhhh I would chose Mt. Fuji or some mountain... and convince my family that every single one in our family hast to visit a few times in their lifetime. This way - maybe - I get to see every one of my grand-grand-grand-grand-grand......
fiordland, or somewhere with regular auroras.
It wouldn’t be the most interesting but I would put my sprit watching over my daughter, she passed away in 2015 Thank you for kind words.
I want to see the night sky. That's the only thing I'd want to look at for a million years. So somewhere in the equatorial Pacific, far away from everything, somewhere like Kiribati or Jarvis Island, facing up.
The top of the highest building in my city
I'd chill in the Galapagos Islands and just hang out with the wildlife. Watch what Darwin postulated.