The Final Countdown (not the film)

[thelordharry]

Duddle ler der, duddle lud dud der etc.

How would your life change, if at all, if you magically found out the date of your death? Not the circumstance or reason, just that on a specific date in the future, you were to be no more...

How would that change your outlook on life now?

[Graham Kennedy]

It would rather depend on when that date was.

Is it in the distant future, 30+ years away? I'd pretty much live my life as it is now, because my expectation is already that it will be then.

Is it in the immediate future? Days from now, weeks from now? I'd stop looking for a job, concentrate on having fun and being happy instead.

[thelordharry]

If (for me at 36 years old) it was in 40 to 50+ years time, I agree, it wouldn't make a tremendous amount of difference as I think we all naturally live as though we're going to live forever anyway. If it were tomorrow, then you'd of course say a series of hasty goodbyes etc. What if it was in a few years? Enough time for it not to be an immediate worry but short enough so that the everyday worries and stresses of life were put into perspective.

[thelordharry]

Each circumstance opens up a different avenue of thinking though. If I knew that in five years time I was going to pop off, would I spend each moment making merry and seeing my family much more often than I do now? Would expedite my/our plans to have another child? Or would I just continue to live as I do now?

[Graham Kennedy]

Five years is a tough one. It's too long really to sit around having fun... you'd run out of money if nothing else. But it's close enough that it would loom over you, I think.

I suspect I'd just keep on as normal for three years or so and then make merry for the last two.

[Tyyr]

Yeah, the time frame is critical to the question. If its soon then spend lots of time with the family, probably not turn on the computer or TV at all. In the distant future, can't change anything.

[thelordharry]

So the magical slip of paper says that you'll be 85 year old. Doesn't just knowing that you'll live that long somehow alter your perspective/outlook on what you do from there on in? I'd certainly rethink my current retirement strategy (which doesn't actually exist yet )

[Graham Kennedy]

Does the date mean you will die on that day all other things permitting, or definitely then no matter what?

The latter has some interesting implications. I think it was Heinlein that wrote a short story on this once. The premise was that time is a dimension like any other, and somebody devised a machine that could measure your duration just as one would measure height or width. He could tell you when you would die... and there was absolutely no way to change that date. So for example you could go off to war knowing for absolutely certain that you could not be killed.

First thing that happened is the life insurance industry went crazy trying to suppress it...

[thelordharry]

Good point, Graham. To leave it one or the other does open up a Pandora's Box. Say that whatever happens, the date is when you will meet your maker. No matter what you do, that's your lot on the given date. I guess it would then be fun to try and commit hari kari

[Tyyr]

Not really, unless you like the idea of spending the rest of your allotted time with a colostomy bag after you feung shui your own intestines with a dagger.

If I knew exactly when I'd die when I was 85 I still don't think it changes much. It makes retirement planning a lot simpler and when I get close to that age it makes planning holidays, my will, and a lot of other things easy. The thing is, I already know I'm going to die. I honestly expect it'll be sometime around that age anyways. So what's knowing the exact date really do in that case? Not much, it's expected. It's the unexpected that can mess with you. If I knew I was going to die tonight you can be sure I'd get up and leave work right the fuck now. Probably head home to spend what time I've got left with my wife and kids. That's the kind of time limit that really changes things and makes you think.

[Graham Kennedy]

Good point, Graham. To leave it one or the other does open up a Pandora's Box. Say that whatever happens, the date is when you will meet your maker. No matter what you do, that's your lot on the given date. I guess it would then be fun to try and commit hari kari

It starts to get a bit "Death Becomes Her" though... yeah you can't die, but step on a landmine in that war and spend the next 50 years with no arms or legs...

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Damn, I thought this was gonna be about the song.

I'd try to live my life as I always have, but the closer my death date is, the more things would change. Look for a flight out to Utah, mayhaps?

[Deepcrush]

Hopefully its soon, I'd rather die young while doing something of meaning then dying old and weak without a purpose.

[Graham Kennedy]

Why don't you just keep doing meaningful things when you're old, too?

[Deepcrush]

My kind of work isn't exactly easy to do when you're old.