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Would you want to know the date of your death?

If you could know the exact date and time of your death, would you want to know?

  • Yes, I'm an E

    Votes: 7 15.9%
  • Yes, I'm an I

    Votes: 12 27.3%
  • Yes, I'm an S

    Votes: 4 9.1%
  • Yes, I'm an N

    Votes: 15 34.1%
  • Yes, I'm a T

    Votes: 13 29.5%
  • Yes, I'm a F

    Votes: 7 15.9%
  • Yes, I'm a J

    Votes: 9 20.5%
  • Yes, I'm a P

    Votes: 9 20.5%
  • No, I'm a E

    Votes: 6 13.6%
  • No, I'm a I

    Votes: 14 31.8%
  • No, I'm a S

    Votes: 5 11.4%
  • No, I'm a N

    Votes: 15 34.1%
  • No, I'm a T

    Votes: 11 25.0%
  • No, I'm a F

    Votes: 9 20.5%
  • No, I'm a J

    Votes: 6 13.6%
  • No, I'm a P

    Votes: 14 31.8%

  • Total voters
    44

Such Irony

Honor Thy Inferior
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I'm interested in seeing if there is a type correlation here. Suppose you had the option of knowing exactly when you were going to die. Would you want to know? Why or why not?

Personally, I would not want to know.

But I could see how knowing would be advantageous. You could plan for your death and ensure loose ends are tied up. You could also inform your family members and loved ones and insure that all business between them was taken care of (assuming of course your date of death is far enough away to give you sufficient time to do that). Let's say you come down with cancer at age 50 but you knew you weren't due to expire at 80. You could breathe a big sigh of relief, knowing that you would survive it. If you knew you would live to old age, you wouldn't have to worry about being so careful all the time, when younger. You could indulge in fatty food, smoke, drive fast, take up extreme sports, etc and know it wouldn't kill you. In some ways you could be more carefree.

On the other hand, you would always be haunted with the knowledge of your upcoming demise. Life would become one big countdown to the end. Would you want to keep being reminded that you only have X number of days or years left? I would think such knowledge would be depressing. It's already depressing enough to know that I'll die someday and all good things must come to an end. And what if you scheduled to expire at a young age? Think about the impact that could have with the little time you have left? Sometimes its better to be blissfully unaware.

For me, its enough to know that I will die someday and that by looking at life expectancies and statistics that I have some approximate sense of how long I may have left of my life. Of course there are no guarantees and I could die in a car accident tomorrow. So I already life my life as if today could be my last day and I don't take too much for granted. Therefore, personally, I don't see how knowing the date of my death would be beneficial. The only exception might be if I had some incurable terminal illness and knew I was dying soon anyway. Then I may want to know the date of my death, so I know how much time I have left to get my affairs in order and say my last goodbyes to my loved ones, etc.
 

Valiant

Courage is immortality
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Regardless of knowing the exact appointed time, living in today's society makes you feel that there will be no rest until you die.
Judging by a number of factors, you also know approximately when you are going to die.
How long your relatives lived, what caused their deaths, do you smoke, work out, eat healthy la-di-da-di-da.

Anyway. I'll probably live until I am 85 or 90 if I am not shot before that.
Sometimes, it pisses me off that I have such a long time ahead of me since it's all just a big bundle of stress, pollution and crap anyway.
 

strychnine

All Natural! All Good!
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
895
I would want to know. But if everyone could know their time of death and it wasn't just special to me, that would be a problem. It would be like that movie Gattaca... be kinda hard to get health insurance...

If one were suicidal it would be kind of creepy to know. Actually I'd also like to know the cause of death... even if I wouldn't be able to avert it necessarily.

But I could see how knowing would be advantageous. You could plan for your death and ensure loose ends are tied up. You could also inform your family members and loved ones and insure that all business between them was taken care of (assuming of course your date of death is far enough away to give you sufficient time to do that).
These are my reasons to know, pretty much.

Let's say you come down with cancer at age 50 but you knew you weren't due to expire at 80. You could breathe a big sigh of relief, knowing that you would survive it. If you knew you would live to old age, you wouldn't have to worry about being so careful all the time, when younger. You could indulge in fatty food, smoke, drive fast, take up extreme sports, etc and know it wouldn't kill you. In some ways you could be more carefree.
But it would still reduce your quality of life. This is like immortality, too, just because you can live that long doesn't mean you will live well for that long. Or you could get gravely injured in a situation where one would "normally" die but still live. This is kind of separate point but just because one knows when they're going to die doesn't mean earlier accidents/diseases/etc allow one to breathe a sigh of relief so to speak.
 
P

Phantonym

Guest
I would like to know. In this case I find the unknown more depressing since it gives me the illusion that I have plenty of time to waste. Knowing would allow me to plan things more efficiently so that I could experience the things I've always wanted to experience without wasting time on unimportant things that seem to be "important". If that makes sense.
 
Last edited:

Malice

Boldly Gone
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Mar 3, 2010
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Never. I would spend all my time obsessing about it.
 

Fluffywolf

Nips away your dignity
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No I do not. I know death is unfortunately inevitable. But I want to live thinking I got all the time in the world to live. When death comes I would prefer it to come swiftly and unexpectedly, some years after my 100th birthday. Maybe from a heart attack while running a real life marathon, wearing interactive 3d goggles playing some new age super mmorpg, sipping a macdonalds strawberry milkshake.

That would be ok for me.
 

Vie

Giggity
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I would want to know only because I need to know everything, this included. I feel as though then I could plan for it -- though, like someone said above, I would obsess about it. I am fascinated with the idea of fate and destiny and all that horse crap, so I would be interested in DISPROVING my day of death.

I feel as though if you knew the exact date though, all of your actions would be because of you knowing -- therefore causing your death. It's all such an endless cycle, lawls.
 

Rail Tracer

Freaking Ratchet
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It depends, if that date is too early. Definitely not.

If it was old age like 65+, sure, tell me the date and time. It just means I can do MANY things without fearing that I'll die from them until then.
 

Blown Ghost

New member
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There wouldn't be a point to knowing it. Once you found out you would inevitably avoid the circumstances leading up to it and it would end up being different.
 

lets eat pie

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All very good points. I'm torn between knowing and making the most out of life (assuming I won't die until that prescribed date,) and not knowing and basically wasting my time until death shows up. The down points would be that knowing would to make life seem pointless but not knowing can also be just as nihilistic.

Either way, I still know I'm gonna die but between these two choices, I'd rather not know. Just knowing the date of my death does not mean I know what will happen in my life before that time. And since I'm already aware of my mortality, I might as well leave my date of death as a surprise as well. ;)
 

chelsea

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I would want to know. It's difficult to explain why exactly, but I would.
 

Words of Ivory

facettes de la petite mor
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INFJ
I can't really say yes or no. The answer is more a case of "I don't care either way."

When it happens, it happens. It could be tomorrow or next week.

Life is arbitrary and finite concept, and it'll only be here for each of us as long as it wishes to be.

I'm in no rush to find out any of the answers, but what happens happens.
 

Night

Boring old fossil
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Hmm.

Is the date fixed? Does the reveal make it negotiable somehow? What if I want to implode at a different date/time?

Those questions aside, I think the reveal would be enlightening. Would make each day (until your last) absolutely fearless. You would never be afraid to live again. If you are untouchable, there is no pause for anxiety or excessive contemplation. Life would become all that more tangible; all that more profound.

So, yes. Sign me up.
 

nozflubber

DoubleplusUngoodNonperson
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Hype
uhhhh, where exactly would this information be coming from? a super genius scientists? angel of death? god? that kind of matters...

and considering that as we progress scientifically we are discovering more and more aspects of our universe are probabilistic and not deterministic, I would heavily scrutinize any definite date, even if it came from some entity calling itself God.
 

Tiltyred

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Yes, I would seriously like to know. I would be SO PISSED OFF if I retired and then keeled over the next day. I don't care if I'm going to die next year, just let me have a little bit of time that I don't have to work before I go. And I need to know how long that will be so I can plan, because my quality of life depends a lot on how far I have to make my money stretch.

P.S. I do not understand obsessing and such over one's own death.
 

Amethyst

¡MI TORTA!
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I would really like to know, because if it's early then I don't have to waste my time and money on college and do really crazy things.
 

Dying Acedia

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Absolutely! Though I can't see how this work unless divine intervention prevents me from getting killed before then.

Oh, you know what would be really cool? A death scope, which tells you whether you are moving towards your death or not. It says, "If you go to Africa you'll die 3 years from now." Hmm, I must contract malaria over there, or perhaps dangerous parasites.
 

Aquarelle

Starcrossed Seafarer
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No way.... I'd get gradually more nervous about it every day. Especially if I'm going to die from a terrible disease. I'd rather not know.
 
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