The Talos Principle II has a segment where a character is frustrated with this. They complain that human fiction is extremely defeatist and hilariously memory-deprived. They do not realize that humanity had in fact, many times, kicked Death in the nuts and Death never made the ground back. They are convinced immortality MUST be a curse, and yet, our discovery of penicilin had already doubled everyone's lifespans. We were twice the humans our ancestors were, and yet we still listened to the fairy tales of those old farts, paraphrased.