How many of you have heard of Machine of Death [http://www.amazon.ca/Machine-Death-Collection-Stories-People/dp/0982167121/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334252739&sr=8-1] ?
It?s a collection of stories written and illustrated by internet types like Randal Munroe (xkcd), David Malki ! (Wondermark), and our very own Yahtzee Croshaw. The central premise is that a device exists called ?The Machine of Death?; if you give it a sample of your blood, it will spit out a little paper card that tells you how you die. Some predictions are straightforward, like HEART ATTACK or PRISON KNIFE FIGHT or EXHAUSTION FROM HAVING SEX WITH A MINOR (Yahtzee?s entry). Others are more ambiguous, like PIANO or NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING. Even if you get one that seems obvious, like OLD AGE, it may be the machine having a laugh; you could actually be run over by an octogenarian. The only rule that the machines follow is that every machine gives the same short message describing the circumstances of your death, and they always come true (though sometimes not in the way you?d expect).
My question for you is whether or not you would test yourselves. Do you want to know how you die, but not where or when? Would you want to know if your slip said CAR ACCIDENT so you could go skydiving or join the military without fear? Would you prefer to live without knowing, even though people around you would possibly be getting their cards, and changing their lives accordingly?
My opinion:
It?s a collection of stories written and illustrated by internet types like Randal Munroe (xkcd), David Malki ! (Wondermark), and our very own Yahtzee Croshaw. The central premise is that a device exists called ?The Machine of Death?; if you give it a sample of your blood, it will spit out a little paper card that tells you how you die. Some predictions are straightforward, like HEART ATTACK or PRISON KNIFE FIGHT or EXHAUSTION FROM HAVING SEX WITH A MINOR (Yahtzee?s entry). Others are more ambiguous, like PIANO or NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING. Even if you get one that seems obvious, like OLD AGE, it may be the machine having a laugh; you could actually be run over by an octogenarian. The only rule that the machines follow is that every machine gives the same short message describing the circumstances of your death, and they always come true (though sometimes not in the way you?d expect).
My question for you is whether or not you would test yourselves. Do you want to know how you die, but not where or when? Would you want to know if your slip said CAR ACCIDENT so you could go skydiving or join the military without fear? Would you prefer to live without knowing, even though people around you would possibly be getting their cards, and changing their lives accordingly?
My opinion:
I would not do it. Death is best when it?s intangible; sure, everything might kill you, but it might not. If you get a vague hint about what will kill you, you?ll spend your life trying to avoid the inevitable. For instance, if I got PIANO, I?d never go downtown anywhere, in case some piano movers dropped one on my head cartoon-style; I?d never go to another live show, because nearly every theater has a piano in it somewhere; I?d probably even stop listening to music, because I?d have a mini heart attack every time I heard someone playing the harpsichord. And despite all that, I?d STILL get killed by one! Everything that I do will not stop the inevitable, it will just ruin what time I have left. All you have to do is look at people with terminal diseases, and see how their life revolves around their death, to see what I mean.
