The idea of zero maintenance is appealing but out of reach in a lot of ways. I suppose you mean some kind of software system. From the perspective of the system

The idea of zero maintenance is appealing but out of reach in a lot of ways. I suppose you mean some kind of software system. From the perspective of the systems world the runtime dependencies are a moving target. Most platforms evolve and their interfaces change over time. The teams the develop these platforms (Java/Node.js/Ruby) have to balance support for old code branches with the development of new ones. Once the platform team leaves a code branch behind, the problems start to multiply. Zero day exploits are developed for zero day vulnerabilities. The underlying operating systems also evolve and leave the old versions of the platform behind as well. At some point you have to open your applications code base back up and update it for the updated platforms. If you don’t the application dies with its platform. Sort of like the ship that sinks of rust or building that collapses due to the accumulation of deferred maintenance.