This is best understood in the framework of commutative rings.
There's a functor $$F:\mathbf{CRing} \leftarrow \mathbf{CRing}$$ given as follows: $$F(R) = R[i]/(i^2 +1).$$ We can think of $F$ as adjoining an element $i$ with the property that $i^2+1=0$. Informally, $i = \sqrt{-1}$.
There's also functor $$G:\mathbf{CRing} \leftarrow \mathbf{CRing}$$ given as follows: $$G(R) = R[j]/(j \cdot 0 - 1).$$ We can think of $F$ as adjoining an element $j$ with the property that $j \cdot 0-1=0$. Informally, $j = \frac{1}{0}$.
However, it can be seen that $G(R)$ is always the trivial ring:
$$G(R) = R[j]/(j \cdot 0 - 1) = R[j]/(0-1) = R[j]/(-1) = R[j]/R[j] \cong 1$$
So we cannot get anything useful out of $G$.
From a slightly different vantage point, main the difference between $F$ and $G$ is this: there's an obvious morphism $f_R:F(R) \leftarrow R$, and an obvious morphism $g_R:G(R) \leftarrow R$. But, whereas the morphism $f_R$ is injective for all rings $R$, on the other hand, the morphism $g_R$ is never injective, unless $R$ is the trivial ring, because $G(R)$ is always the trivial ring. So in particular, whereas $\mathbb{C} = F(\mathbb{R})$ can be viewed as an extension of $\mathbb{R}$, on the other hand, we cannot view $G(\mathbb{R})$ as an extension of $\mathbb{R}$. In fact, we cannot get anything useful like this at all.