Poll: The Machine of Death

[DoPo]

No thanks.

Imagine it told you you were going to die from a heart attack. You would be a constant state of anxiety, trying to calm yourself down because you were afraid of a heart attack which you knew was going to happen.

Or car accident. You could never sit in a car again. But at some point you would have to, and you couldnt avoid it. And you would know that would be your last ride.

Does getting hit by a car also count as a car accident? Because if so your screwed .

OT : Totally . I would know that i could do a lot of crazy shit without dying. Like i could swim with the sharks or wrestle a polar bear . Or go into space. Or trying to fly into the sun just to defy fate . It would be halarious!

I never looked at it like that but....

What if it does tell you you will die from a heart attack? You could have a heart attack while wrestling a bear. Yeah. Screwed.

No. No! NOOO!

Don't you understand - if you're fated to die from a heart attack and wrestle a bear - you will win. And then get a heart attack when you see your fallen opponent. You'll not even be able to take joy in the win. That's evil.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

I would rather not know due to the fact that I don't want to live in fear if something does happen, can it change though? If a person finds out that he is gonna die in a car crash but commits suicide before then what would happen, a magical car comes out of no where crushing him right before his heart gives out?

A lot of people try suicide to beat the machine, but it doesn't work for one reason or another; for instance, a man getting tested in the hospital got AIDS, seized a nearby scalpel, and cut his wrists. The doctors saved him, but the blade wasn't sterilized, and he contracted HIV from it. In another, some guy gets shot, but isn't worried because his card says HEART ATTACK; however, when trying to force himself off the floor to go fight his attacker, his heart gives out. One way or another, the machine always wins.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

I'd use it. Why? Because I'd be curious. I'm one of those weirdos with no real aversion towards or fear of death, thus it wouldn't overly alter how I go about my daily life. If I didn't though, I'd be curious, and it would keep bothering me until I gave up and did it anyway. That's just how my brain functions, so I figure I may as well save myself some time and just use the bloody thing.

What if you got SUICIDE? That's one that gets mentioned in a lot of stories. Do you think you could keep trying to live, knowing that one day your life would be so horrible you would end it? Or would you end it now before your life was ruined?

 

[Agayek]

What if you got SUICIDE? That's one that gets mentioned in a lot of stories. Do you think you could keep trying to live, knowing that one day your life would be so horrible you would end it? Or would you end it now before your life was ruined?

I view suicide as the ultimate act of cowardice, so... yea. I'd have no problem continuing to live with that hanging over me. Worst case scenario, I end up shooting myself, and at that point, I won't really care. If I didn't though, then I would disprove the machine and be amazing.

 

[Innegativeion]

No. I believe in the prevailing power of free will, so the prediction wouldn't even matter to me. If the machine is truly fatalistic (which if it existed in our world, I'd refuse to believe), then getting a prediction would only serve to make one paranoid or overconfident. Both of which are mindsets I'd prefer to live without.

The uncertainty of life is what makes conquering it all the sweeter.

I view suicide as the ultimate act of cowardice, so... yea. I'd have no problem continuing to live with that hanging over me. Worst case scenario, I end up shooting myself, and at that point, I won't really care. If I didn't though, then I would disprove the machine and be amazing.

Or maybe you end up getting indoctrinated *mindblow*

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

What if you got SUICIDE? That's one that gets mentioned in a lot of stories. Do you think you could keep trying to live, knowing that one day your life would be so horrible you would end it? Or would you end it now before your life was ruined?

I view suicide as the ultimate act of cowardice, so... yea. I'd have no problem continuing to live with that hanging over me. Worst case scenario, I end up shooting myself, and at that point, I won't really care. If I didn't though, then I would disprove the machine and be amazing.

But the thing is that you now know that you will commit 'the ultimate act of cowardice'. Are you saying that knowing that you will fail yourself utterly won't have an impact on your life?

 

[Agayek]

But the thing is that you now know that you will commit 'the ultimate act of cowardice'. Are you saying that knowing that you will fail yourself utterly won't have an impact on your life?

Not overly. There's no way for me to know when/why/etc, and without context, there's no way I can do anything about it. It could mean something happens, I get utterly depressed and take the easy way out, or it could mean that I sacrifice myself to save someone else or something. There's no way to tell what it really means, nor what can be done to avoid it.

Thus, I wouldn't worry about it too much. The way I view anything is that if it bothers me, I do something about it. If I can't do anything about it, I accept it and deal with it. It makes for a very stress-free lifestyle. The machine telling me that I will die by suicide is just another item on the list of things I can't do anything about.

At the moment, I can't imagine ever killing myself. I'm not enough of a quitter, to put it bluntly. Could that change? Yea, sure. But I don't see how, and without knowing that, there's nothing I can do to prevent it.

 

[Thetwistedendgame]

I wonder what would happen if the machine said Car accident and then you would shoot yourself before the accident happened.

 

[repeating integers]

CAPTCHA: fork, knife, spoon
I sincerely hope I do not get that result from the machine of death.

I lol'd, thanks for that.

OT: I dunno... I'd probably cave in and do it, yeah. Wouldn't be able to resist. Then I'd live out the rest of my life wishing I hadn't.

 

[DEAD34345]

Finding out your death with 100% certainty like that would effectively make you invincible, wouldn't it? If I know I'm going to die in a car crash, or a piano's going to fall on my head, or of some disease, then I also know that nothing else can kill me.

So yeah, I'd either become some kind of super-hero with a slightly lame power, or I'd make it so that the prescribed death was impossible and see if the universe explodes or something.

 

[Rowan93]

I pick "yes", because I can probably play some statistical games and extend my life expectancy, plus I can take up BASE jumping (except if it's, for instance, heart attack, because how that plays into BASE jumping death is pretty obvious).