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[-] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 57 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Causality issues aside, yes I would. Makes a big difference if I found out I had 40+ years left vs 5 years left.

[-] Gsus4@programming.dev 40 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Probably, yes. Imagine how superhuman you'd feel skydiving without a parachute outside the day of your death knowing you couldn't die. (plot twist: you spend 10 years in a coma afterwards and still die from doing it :/)

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

coma would be the universe being nice to you. Imagine a full body paralysis where you're aware of every second passing and the only thing you can do is rot, and maybe hope twitter's head clown puts a dodgy chip in your brain so maybe you could feel the joy of playing solitaire again.

[-] Gsus4@programming.dev 7 points 5 months ago

Ok, you're winning at monkey pawing :D lemme see if I can top that...

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 25 points 5 months ago

I mean, permanently or temporarily? Apparently my heart has been stopping on and off randomly all year. :(

Get this... I was in the hospital in January. I wake up, check my phone... Nurse comes in.

"Were you asleep about an hour ago?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Your heart stopped for 8 seconds."

". . . Um... 'thank you'? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with that information..."

Apparently it happened a few more times in March. I have an implanted heart monitor now, always watching.

[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 7 points 5 months ago

Amazing, from your "apparently" I take you were never awake when it happened. I wanted to ask how it feels. I have an arrhythmia that gets my heart either fluttering or skipping a beat but it happens like a couple of times a year. It feels super weird.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago

I've had a-fib and congestive heart failure, 2 heart attacks, and open heart surgery.

Each of the times my heart has stopped, I was asleep, no awareness of it until the doctors and nurses told me.

With the heart monitor, I can press a button when something feels "off", and report symptoms like being dizzy or passing out. Doc says I've been getting extra heartbeats sometimes. Low blood pressure has been a problem too.

When I pass out from low blood pressure, the first thing is I get super dizzy. Then a ringing in my ears so loud I can't hear anything. Then my vision closes in and turns red and I wake up on the floor.

[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 3 points 5 months ago

Thanks for sharing!

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[-] thezeesystem@lemmy.world 21 points 5 months ago

Is it absolutely certain and nothing I can do to change it?

If so fuck yes I'm pretty much immortal tell that date.

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago

oh just because you know when you'll die doesn't mean you can go yolo on everything. Getting into a horrific accident and becoming bed ridden for the rest of your life doesn't count as dying. Imagine laying in bed, body paralysed, knowing that this is the place you'll spend 30 years in.

You'd still be need to be as careful as usual, just with a painful awareness of how many seconds you have left until the end, and with a curse of not being able to go on your own terms if something terrible happens.

[-] thezeesystem@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

YOLOO!!!.... WAIT, fuck your right. I reject my claim and now will live in a box scared of existing.

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 months ago

You could do fun stuff where if you die, you REALLY die, like testing new submarines.

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[-] Eggyhead@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Plot twist. Going YOLO for this reason is exactly what starts the chain of events leading to your expiration.

[-] lemming934@lemmy.sdf.org 20 points 5 months ago

Yes, so I can probably plan for it.

[-] DudeDudenson@lemmings.world 17 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Is that a knife you're holding behind you?

Jokes aside this is a philosophical question, would knowing the answer let you change it? Would it be different if you didn't know the answer? How do you know that knowing the answer isn't part of the chain of events that leads to your death in such a situation?

What if the person offering was just scamming you and you lived thinking you'd die in 6 months but then it turns out it doesn't happen?

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

I think just the fact that the answer could be something like: "2 more years, suicide" is a no-go for me. I'm not a suicidal person so hearing something like this would absolutely fucking terrify me. I think the more time I'd have left the more freaked out I'd get, constantly wonder when will it start? When will the hell that pushes me to take my own life begin?

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[-] OutrageousUmpire@lemmy.world 16 points 5 months ago

Yes. Be able to choose the right life insurance plan, investments, etc for my beneficiaries.

[-] howrar@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Also for deciding when to retire or how much money you can/should spend to maximally enjoy your life.

[-] MicrondeMMMMMMM 13 points 5 months ago

I don't know, if such a thing existed it would imply that free will doesn't exist, if you knew you would die in 10 hours of dehydration, what happens if you drank a bunch of water regularly?

In that scenario you can't die of dehydration but you're going to die of dehydration forcibly. So what's going to happen?

I can't process if I would do it or not because I don't know what it would imply!

[-] yngmnwntr@lemmy.ml 11 points 5 months ago

You can dehydrate yourself by drinking too much water. You flush the salts out of your system and get water poisoning and die of dehydration anyway.

[-] BreadOven@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

It's not dehydration, it's hyponatremia. The danger is due to brain swelling.

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[-] Dekkia@this.doesnotcut.it 13 points 5 months ago

If the prediction cannot be altered I might. Because that way I basically have plot armor until I die.

If that information just reflects the current path I'm on but changes based on my actions I don't want to hear it.

[-] Urist@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago

The latter is an obvious smart deal to take. Just make sure to check yourself for cancer, not walking on a red light etc. according to the thing that kills you. Otherwise do the same. Odds are you would gain more time with your loved ones.

[-] Dekkia@this.doesnotcut.it 2 points 5 months ago

I'm still assuming death is inevitable at some point.

If I get "death by plane crash" for example, I don't necessarily have to fly for this to happen.

[-] axzxc1236@lemm.ee 11 points 5 months ago

I would 100% exploit this (insurance for family).

[-] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago

I would. I could better plan out my life if I knew when and why it would end. If it comes back and says oh you dying 3 years from a brain aneurysm, I can't be stopped... Then why would I be trying to plan out for retirement? I can take everything I have and live happy for 3 years. Without knowing I feel like my last thoughts would be 'fuck, I wasted my life'

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 10 points 5 months ago

Can I change it?

I got a scan that detected cancer which I was later able to get removed. That cancer would have probably killed me in five years.

If I get told that I'll die of cancer in twenty years, I'm going to deal with it in ten years.

[-] spaghetti_hitchens@kbin.run 10 points 5 months ago

Yes. I think it would add more value to the time I have now and would help me best prepare for my passing.

[-] z00s@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I'm already dying of lymphoma but I'd like to know exactly when. The constant up and down of good days and bad days takes an emotional toll. If I knew I could relax completely and actually plan to do things.

[-] KeepFlying@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

Yes. Then I'd hire a quantum physicist to study my timeline while I try to create a paradox and kill myself. I'm sure someone could learn some shit about how time works.

[-] VelvetStorm@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

No, I don't want to see my expiration date every single time I close my eyes. That would just ruin whatever time I have left because that's all I would ever think about.

[-] lemming741@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

I think you'd get over that. I don't think it'd be any worse than normally contemplation of mortality, eventually. There'd be the initial shock, and then again as it nears, but I think it's worth it to know.

[-] VelvetStorm@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

You and I clearly work differently

[-] Silentiea 6 points 5 months ago

If I know the way that I die, through anything else I will survive.

[-] eskimofry@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

A lot of people definitely would take it. This might be the time to confess their love to a lifelong crush, punch their bully in the face, save up and complete their bucket lists, etc.

Death focuses us on what's actually important and meaningful for each of us.

Yes.

Decide if I want to end it sooner if it’s going to drag on much longer.

[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

Wouldn't you know that, then?

[-] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 months ago

Ah, but if you decided to end it sooner after you'd seen that it would be a long ways off, then you'd fail in such a way that made you either unable or unwilling to try again.

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[-] AlphaOmega@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Knowing the future and changing it are two different things

[-] njm1314@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Sure it would help me adjust the plan

[-] TheFriar@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago

Absolutely. Brushes with and actually facing death force people to see their life more purely, more actively and honestly. Why turn down that chance to live your life exactly as you’ve always known you wanted to because you can’t see it any other way? We all know this concept in our minds, but few, if any of us, actually live this way. When that time comes, a lot of us will have regrets for not living life more fully.

[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 3 points 5 months ago

Of course I would, then I would hate myself for it. But I know I'd hate myself even more if I had the chance to know and not take it

[-] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 months ago

For sure. Though you can never really know. I look at death statics for my age and area every once in a while to adjust my risk taking or too see what health concerns I should be prepping for.

Knowledge is half the battle and all

[-] nicerdicer2@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 months ago

I wouldn't want to know that. Imagine even if you get to know only a part of that knowledge, for instance, you get to know that you will die on a Tuesday or within a specific month. With that information in mind you would dread every upcoming Tuesday (or a specific month) and in the end it all may lead up to a self fulfilling prophecy.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 3 points 5 months ago

Definitely. If I'm gonna die in the near future it'd make no sense to continue university.

[-] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

No. I live to help people and continue making connections. I wouldn’t want to change that.

[-] eskimofry@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

It's truly a great thing if Death is unable to change your priorities. You got your shit figured out and must pat yourself on your back.

[-] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

I learned some lessons from elders a long time ago that the one thing they wished they had done differently is spend more time with family and friends. Helping someone is an extension of that and truly makes me happy. Nothing else gives as much meaning.

[-] CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 months ago

If I knew the reason, chances are it would show "tried to cheat death" with a very close death time. I'd better off not knowing it; because I would definetly try to cheat against it. My lack of knowledge about it will let me live longer.

[-] grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

No, I like surprises

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this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2024
102 points (100.0% liked)

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