What Were You Thinking X! - Question 31 (Winner?)

[SleepyKrew]

and then if it's not peaceful you get to live knowing that you'll die a non-peaceful death
until you die
non-peacefully

[Cephrir]

i don't want to know either of those things, but if i knew the time it would hang over me every second of every day for the rest of my life

if i knew the method i would just become extremely afraid of one thing and could potentially take action to put it off

[SleepyKrew]

*aggressive shrug*

[xofelf]

What Ceph said, yeah. Time is much more terrifying than how.

[Randomnamechange]

No method off death would scare me too badly that is likely) time could fuck me up.

[Felissan]

I agree that learning I'd die in a nuclear strike would be nightmare fuel, but it's just too unlikely to worry about it.
I'd most likely learn that I'd die of cancer or old age, which is pretty much what I'm expecting.

[Plotinus]

i think knowing the time would be pretty calming and reassuring.

[Xalxe]

If you are the type of person to enjoy thinking about how knowing how you'd die would affect your life, I highly recommend the

Machine of Death

story collections. They're two books of short stories based around the premise that there exists a machine which will tell you how (and, sometimes, when) you will die, and how that affects people. They also have portions of both books available for free download right there at that link!

(This was not my intention with this question at all but I've just remembered that these books exist!)

[Plotinus]

I think for me it would mean that whenever things were rough I'd know that I'd survive it somehow.

[Save The Dragons]

Assuming time and method are fixed (which isn't clear) then knowing either doesn't help save your life.

Knowing the date would be pretty scary but for me if I found I was dying 60-70 years from now, woo hoo, that's kind of expected anyway. If I'm dying 3 years from now I know I got to quit my job and try and do things for me and make sure I make the most of that time, so while it sucks that I know that, I can do stuff to make sure the remainder of my time is pretty happy. That last day would be pretty shitty though.

The worst case is I find out I die like in a month or so which maybe I don't want to know.

I think I'd rather not know though because it'd be stressful no matter what.

[Felissan]

And how would you break out the news to everybody you know?

[Save The Dragons]

"Why did you quit your job, STD?"
"Well, mom..."

I'm not really sure that problem doesn't exist on knowing method either, though.

[Axxle]

If I knew the time I would think I'd reasonably be able to choose the method if I planned for it. And I could probably leave an excellent life insurance payout for whoever I leave behind.

I don't think knowing the time of my death would make me enjoy life any less, just like knowing when a story will end doesn't make me enjoy it less. I guess it'd make me think of things that are more long term differently though.

[DeasVail]

In agreement with STD and Axxle here.

[Snakes]

If I know that I'm going to die in a car crash but I wouldn't know

when

I would die, I would never leave my house and never enjoy life. But I'm still going to die in a car crash, so all my precautions won't change anything, it will just mean I never really live.

On the other hand, if I know that I'm not going to die for a while, I'll just enjoy life. And if I'm going to die soon, I'll know that I need to make the most of the time I have while I'm still around.

[Cephrir]

yall cray.

[Shadoweh]

One of those answers is merely a curiosity, knowing when you die is simply more useful then how. I would want to know how long I can abscond to Amurika!

[pablito]

There's like a film series that clearly argues that method is not a good answer. That's why I thought time might be the more popular answer. I'm still ambivalent.

Final destination 3 was my fave of those films. Although the first was great too.

[Cheery Dog]

I don't want to know either

[Cheery Dog]

I should have answered "no"

[xofelf]

I'd rather not know when. Time is all sorts of funky for me as it is, and no matter how long or short I was aware I had, it would never feel like enough and I'd always feel that much more like I should have done so much more and regrets galore. Deadlines and I are the worst of friends. If I know how, but not when, I can live my life a lot more easier. Cuz i can at least accept that and it's whatever. Death doesn't scare or bother me, but not having things taken care of, and time enough with those I love and knowing that they'd be okay and good and set when i'm not there does scare and bother me.

[Cephrir]

oh god if life had a deadline i would procrastinate it until the last minute

[xofelf]

Exactly. So I don't wanna know when.

[Shadoweh]

Don't worry, we'll work together to get both, you just ask how and I'll make sure we're in the same car/plane/boat/bicycle for two.

[xofelf]

Nah, Titanic > Romeo + Juliet thanks.