You can find out the exact date & time (but not place) of your death. Do you do it?

[Skald the Rhymer]

Time for another pointless Rhymer hypothetical This one, as some of you will gather, is suggested by Robert A. Heinlein's short story "Life-Line."

Though whatever sci-fi implausibilities you care to postulate, a device is invented that can infallibly predict the date & time of the future death of a person who enters it. Let's call it the Thanatos Prognosticator. Now, before you ask, the Prognosticator does NOT kill you itself; it is a genuine reading of the future using polarized nutated tachyon tunneling through hyperspace, or some other such technobabble.

Anyway...the Thanatos Prognosticator itself is pretty huge, but the part of it that the user sees is the size and shape of an old-style phone booth--the sort Clark Kent would've used to change into Superman. The interior of the booth is opaque to the outside. Before entering the booth, the user inputs a code on a console on the door. He or she must remain in the booth for 60 seconds during the tachyon scanning sequence. The Prognosticator then prints out one and only one copy of the person's date of death (precise to the hour & minute) and deposits it in a small compartment outside the booth. After emerging from the booth, the user can choose to either retrieve the print-out or destroy it without looking it at. To do the former, the user must re-enter the code specified at the start of the process. If this is not done within 1 minute of emerging, the print-out is automatically destroyed and all history of it is lost.

There is, of course, a catch. Actually four catches. First is that the Prognosticator will not work if more than one person is inside. Second is that it that it can only be used once on a given person; if you use one, elect to destroy your readout, and then try again either with that unit or any other, you'll get a No response possible printout. Third is that, for theoretical reasons probably having to do with Heisenberg, the machine cannot forecast both the date and the location of a person's death; it's one or the other, and thus all models are set to give only the date (which is precise down to the hour and minute). Finally, the TP's prediction is rather like opening the box with Schrödinger's cat inside. The user's death-date is not set until the prediction is not merely printed out, but read, whether by the the user or someone else. Before that moment, other possible futures exist; as of that moment, the other possibilities collapse.

Would you be willing to use the Thanatos Prognosticator? Why or why not?

[Queen Tonya]

Nope, I don't wanna know, thanks. I prefer the mystery.

[OtakuLoki]

Of course not.

In the RAH story, the benefit was that you'd be better able to do things like planning your estate and how you'll have to insure yourself. While I'll admit this isn't completely implausible, it's also of limited utility.

And the way such exact knowledge would affect my current happiness and quality of life would just not be worth any perceived benefit.

[Skald the Rhymer]

Of course not.

In the RAH story, the benefit was that you'd be better able to do things like planning your estate and how you'll have to insure yourself. While I'll admit this isn't completely implausible, it's also of limited utility.

And the way such exact knowledge would affect my current happiness and quality of life would just not be worth any perceived benefit.

Well, it MIGHT say that you're destined to day on 19 February 2099. That might encourage you to take a few more risks.

[Taumpy]

No, I wouldn't. I might be tempted, but this part puts me firmly in the "no" camp:

Finally, the TP's prediction is rather like opening the box with Schrödinger's cat inside. The user's death-date is not set until the prediction is not merely printed out, but read, whether by the the user or someone else. Before that moment, other possible futures exist; as of that moment, the other possibilities collapse.

At that point it would be like I was just counting down the days until I die. That sounds pretty horrible to me.

[Oliveloaf]

Knowing would completely alter the way I live.

I would behave differently with my kid, enjoy life less, and basically freak out.

No thanks.

...

Unless I knew I was going to live a really, really long time. That might actually be good to know. But I still say no.

[What Exit?]

Sure, it would help with retirement planning and much else. I imagine it helps in other ways to, can you imagine the party you can plan? Host your own wake? I see little down side.

Please note, I immediately understand why it is not an excuse to become a daredevil, it only predicts by date and time of death, not the time of my possibly becoming a vegetable.

[vison]

Of course not.

[Glazer]

I foresee life insurance companies requiring that you use the machine and not read the output. If it comes back null response* you are disqualified for a policy.


* Life insurance companies would keep a data base of people who are certified to have had their results destroyed so that you can buy more or change policies.

[Cluricaun]

I have the ability to choose that for myself on a daily basis. The trick is staying ahead of the idea you see.

[Cartooniverse]

Yeah I'd like to know. Probably try some tricks, insurance, avoiding it, etc. But I completely think that when it's your day, dude it's your day. I've come fairly close a few times and the last time ( after doing two 360's on ice at 65 mph on the NYS Thruway ) I sat there on the side of the road, shaking, pissed off. What is WITH the near death stuff?

If I knew it was my time, I'd figure, okay this is really it, fine.

[Orual]

No freaking way, I'm neurotic enough.

[The Original An Gadaí]

I definitely want to know, so that two days beforehand I can have the biggest hooley ever.

The OP reminds me of an issue of the Alf comic of all things (or it could have been in the show, it's so long ago the two blur). In it Alf reveals that on his planet everybody knows the day they are going to die. One of the humans says something to the effect of "I'd be afraid to live in a world where I knew when I was going to die," to which Alf replies "I'd be afraid to live in a world where I didn't know."

[RabbitMage]

This is something I've debated before. I've decided no.

The idea of death terrifies me. I know few people want to die, but if I let the idea sink in that one day everything that is me will simply blink out of existence and cease to be it does bad things to me. I don't want to know because I will worry over it and count down the years and days and hours until it happens, knowing that I'm absolutely powerless to stop it. Because of that, I think not knowing frees me to enjoy whatever time I might have.

[Nrblex]

Fuh-huck no. I'm bad enough with deadlines as it is. Knowing how long I'd have to live would become the central obsession of my life. I'd sit around ticking off seconds all the time. "Oh, I only have 190,521 minutes left until I DIE."