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The Exact Day You Die

Dragonfly

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If you could be told the exact date you would die, but not how or why, would you want to know?

Would you want to know how much time you have left, or is ignorance of that specific date truly bliss?

If you'd explain your reasoning that'd be great too. Hopefully not just a simple yes/no answer.
 
Is this the morning anxiety thread. ;)

I think I would pray incessantly if I knew the time of my death.
 
In purely philosophical terms, if we knew exactly how and/or exactly when we were going to die then ultimately that information would change how we live. That creates a conundrum on that information being a motivator to live differently enough to change the outcome.

Which speaks to choices becoming the determination of destiny, not necessarily a mystical force that determines outcome like a puppet master. Even if you do not buy into that notion, and side with things being a matter of chance (or randomness) then any information you are given changes all of those chances (or, impacts how randomness plays out) as the condition is different.

So, no I would not want to know this information as there is no real certainty that the information stays "true" simply because I found out somehow. All you have really changed with that information is a condition to avoid, which changes how you live. And by extension changing all those outcomes from that decision which are not all about self.
 
If you could be told the exact date you would die, but not how or why, would you want to know?

Would you want to know how much time you have left, or is ignorance of that specific date truly bliss?

If you'd explain your reasoning that'd be great too. Hopefully not just a simple yes/no answer.

What Gray actually said was "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."

Alexander Pope answers your question in his "Essay on Man" in Epistle I. I hope you'll read this provocative argument for not knowing.

Pope says, "The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find)/ Is not to act or think beyond mankind;/ No pow'rs of body or of soul to share, But what his nature and his state can bear."

His advice is to know your limits:

Cease then, nor order imperfection name:

Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.

Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree

Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.

Submit.—In this, or any other sphere,

Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear:

Safe in the hand of one disposing pow'r,

Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;

All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;

All discord, harmony, not understood;

All partial evil, universal good:

And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,

One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right. An Essay on Man: Epistle I by Alexander Pope : The Poetry Foundation
 
In purely philosophical terms, if we knew exactly how and/or exactly when we were going to die then ultimately that information would change how we live.

Not if that's all taken into consideration by whatever mechanism/being/thing can determine the actual day you die.

Hit by a train, heart attack, lightning strike, murder victim, drowning, or freak accident can all be taken into consideration. Simply staying in bed the day that is your "death day" wouldn't work. Your heater could explode, or your roof caves in, or an artery in your neck bursts for no known cause.....
 
If you could be told the exact date you would die, but not how or why, would you want to know?

Would you want to know how much time you have left, or is ignorance of that specific date truly bliss?

If you'd explain your reasoning that'd be great too. Hopefully not just a simple yes/no answer.

God knows - I don't want to know.

Twice I went through knowing when I was going ot go into labor because of the need to induce - **** that stress for DYING. I do not handle impending trauma very well.
 
I think I would pray incessantly if I knew the time of my death.

You wouldn't have as much sex as possible???? With as many women as possible???? :doh:2wave::lamo


Priorities man.....priorities
 
It would make it easier to plan your retirement. Not having any assets on the day you die. In fact you could die in massive debt as long as the bills dont affect your lifestyle until the day after your death.
 
You wouldn't have as much sex as possible???? With as many women as possible???? :doh:2wave::lamo


Priorities man.....priorities

Its not the quantity but the quality that counts.
 
Not if that's all taken into consideration by whatever mechanism/being/thing can determine the actual day you die.

Hit by a train, heart attack, lightning strike, murder victim, drowning, or freak accident can all be taken into consideration. Simply staying in bed the day that is your "death day" wouldn't work. Your heater could explode, or your roof caves in, or an artery in your neck bursts for no known cause.....

There is a real point being made I am concerned that you missed. Even if you were only told when you would die but not how you would die, there are still decisions made based on that information. Odds are based on fear about the time you have left, and there is no real assumption that one method of death would be replaced with an alternate method of death to occur at the same time just because of decisions made.

The issue at hand is the assumption of destiny, that something will happen regardless. Since we have no real evidence (even thought exercise) to support the idea then we do not really know what our decisions do and do not effect. Therefor it makes more sense to answer no, any yes answer just means making a different set of decisions based on information that ultimately we do not have anyway.
 
If you could be told the exact date you would die, but not how or why, would you want to know?

Would you want to know how much time you have left, or is ignorance of that specific date truly bliss?

If you'd explain your reasoning that'd be great too. Hopefully not just a simple yes/no answer.

I don't think people are meant to know the exact day they will die. That is not how our psyche is built.

Outside of sudden or violent death, I do think people know when that day has arrived.
 
There is a real point being made I am concerned that you missed. Even if you were only told when you would die but not how you would die, there are still decisions made based on that information. Odds are based on fear about the time you have left, and there is no real assumption that one method of death would be replaced with an alternate method of death to occur at the same time just because of decisions made.

The issue at hand is the assumption of destiny, that something will happen regardless. Since we have no real evidence (even thought exercise) to support the idea then we do not really know what our decisions do and do not effect. Therefor it makes more sense to answer no, any yes answer just means making a different set of decisions based on information that ultimately we do not have anyway.

You don't play these games very well do you? :roll:
 
#1) That might depend on how many days you'd have left....
#2) Is that really true for "most guys"?

:lamo

1. A marathon session with the love of your life lasting 7 days is better than picking up 7 different women of loose moral value but large gravitational force over the same period. Of course in either case that may be the reason you die in 7 days.
2. Its true for any guy who has actually made love instead of just had sex. I will assume you are the latter (were you alone at the time?)

;)
 
If you could be told the exact date you would die, but not how or why, would you want to know?

Would you want to know how much time you have left, or is ignorance of that specific date truly bliss?

If you'd explain your reasoning that'd be great too. Hopefully not just a simple yes/no answer.

Absolutely.

Then I would be able to adequately plan out my inheritance, retirement (if I get one), my bucket list activities, and such. I would certainly be taking out the biggest possible insurance policy before its time to go so the kids can have something.

Knowing how to schedule what is important to me would help me live a more successful life.
 
No, I have enough anxiety that it makes no sense to add more. I'm older than most on this forum so I'm not expecting a lot of time anyway. When it comes, it will come.
 
I wouldn't want to know, it would have too much of an effect on the way I live my life and too much effect on me and those around me as my day of death gets nearer. But if someone handed me an envelope with that information in it, I doubt I could resist the curiosity.

Having said that, I think if this were a technology that we discovered, it could be a tremendously positive advance. As a society, we could adapt to integrate that information into the way we do life and help us get the most "bang for our buck" out of life. If this became the norm in society, it would affect our approach to death and the emotions associated with it. At a societal level, I think it would be a net positive after a generation or two adjustment period. I could imagine a world where every child knows exactly how long he has to live and their life is structured accordingly in order to maximize their value. People who will die as children, teenagers, or early adults probably don't need to be thinking of college, for example. If you will die at 22, marrying your sweetheart at 16 is probably not a bad idea. If you will live into your 90s, then you need to plan your retirement savings to last you for that long. Knowing how long you and your loved ones will live could help you make better decisions about how important career advancement is to you and what sacrifices you will or won't make for your career. It would also help you to know who you should marry. Society could quickly adapt to make the best use of this information. But as someone growing up in a society where no one knows when they will die, I don't think that information would be good for me.
 
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I don't want to know, simply because the answer might be next month and if there is nothing I can do about it, I don't want to know.
 
I'd stress so hard that I would commit suicide the day before.
 
I was dead once (I got better). Didn't really know about it until after. I actually have less problem with death now after that than I did before.

I would want to know.
 
If you could be told the exact date you would die, but not how or why, would you want to know? Would you want to know how much time you have left, or is ignorance of that specific date truly bliss? If you'd explain your reasoning that'd be great too. Hopefully not just a simple yes/no answer.
I've said for years I would rather have cancer than a heart attack. Not quite the same as knowing the exact moment, but one reason for me thinking, "yeah, I'd like that," is the same. I'd like time to plan and do whatever I hadn't done yet, if feasible, make sure I've made peace with anyone important I might be feuding with, stuff like that. If I knew the exact moment, I'd know when it might be too late.
 
We must all pass away, everyone, and within the next 70 years or so every person you know will be gone. The whole community replaced by new persons. The memory of who we are and our works fades away. We are waves on a beach.

Therefore fear not that you should die before your time has come, but that you never lived in the time you have.
 
In purely philosophical terms, if we knew exactly how and/or exactly when we were going to die then ultimately that information would change how we live. That creates a conundrum on that information being a motivator to live differently enough to change the outcome.

Which speaks to choices becoming the determination of destiny, not necessarily a mystical force that determines outcome like a puppet master. Even if you do not buy into that notion, and side with things being a matter of chance (or randomness) then any information you are given changes all of those chances (or, impacts how randomness plays out) as the condition is different.

So, no I would not want to know this information as there is no real certainty that the information stays "true" simply because I found out somehow. All you have really changed with that information is a condition to avoid, which changes how you live. And by extension changing all those outcomes from that decision which are not all about self.

What would happen is... you would be given the date of your death that already takes into account what choices you would make, if you knew the time of that death. Which would be interesting... because if you were a particularly stubborn human being, you could choose to die by suicide, but it would have already known that... but the condition for your suicide could intentionally not fall on the date you are given, then this all-knowing information would have quite a problem on its hands...like a quantum effect the all-knowing information would have to give you multiple results with conditions, which are all true at the same time.

Suicide isn't the only life-choice you can make, in spite of the results... but it is the only one that is not predictable. Let's say you are projected to live to 100, so you eat and do everything unhealthy... the all-knowing thing would know that despite all your unheathly choices you still live to 100. If you could live to 100, but giving you the information of your death, your life expectancy would decrease, then it would not give you that 100 figure, it would settle for a age younger that would perfectly balance the health reaction you get from the news.
-This would mean there may actual be multiple ages in which you could die that would still be true , based on what the all knowing thing says, so your life is literally in its hands, but I assume it would always choose the age that would give you the longest life.
 
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