How long do you want to live?

[Jarsa]

You have exactly 10 minutes to choose how many years you want to live and type the number into the calculator. At the end of the 10 minutes, you’ll be escorted out of the room, and your decision is permanent and unable to ever be changed. You’ll live for exactly that many years and then you’ll die. Oh also…every other human on Earth is currently in a room just like this making the same exact decision and you won’t know what they chose until you leave the room. If you enter no number into the calculator, your life will go on exactly as it had before, unaffected—you’ll die a natural death whenever you would have if this had never happened.
Other information in the note’s fine print:

• There’s an infinity button on the calculator, and there are endless digit spots.
  
  
• You can choose the age of your body and change it at any time—that means if you’re 40 right now you can choose to go back to 25 and live out a bunch of years in your 25-year-old body, then let yourself age up to 70 over the next 45 years, do that for a while, then bring yourself back down to 35 for a while, etc. (The point here is to take body age out of the question.)
  
  
• Sickness and ailments don’t happen anymore for anyone who enters a number into the calculator. People who leave it blank will get sick as they would have in their normal life.
  
  
• People who enter a number in the calculator will no longer be able to reproduce—any children they already have (including existing pregnancies) can live on, but they can’t conceive any more children. People who leave the calculator blank can continue to have children, but those children won’t ever be given a chance to choose an age—they will be normal mortal people who will live and die naturally, as will their children, and so on.
  
  
• This opportunity will never come along again—it’s a one and only one time thing.
  
  
• No other guarantees about anything—if you enter a number into the calculator, you will continue to live a conscious existence until your birthday that year, and then you’ll peacefully die that day. Sickness and ailments won’t occur, but discomfort, pain, and suffering still can—i.e. if you’re living a comfortable life on Earth, you’ll have general good health at all times and any ailments or injuries will be healed immediately, but if you tried to free dive to the bottom of the ocean, while you won’t die, you’d experience horrible pain and suffering as if you were drowning. If you don’t eat or drink, you won’t die, but you’ll feel completely desperate for food and water like a normal person would.
  

[mordant]

Well some would be tempted, given this setup, to press the infinity button. To which I would say, be careful what you ask for.

Since it sounds like I can't off myself if desired then this would be exchanging self determination for predictability -- a bad bargain in my view, especially since some authoritarian regime could still take over and torture me or something, which means the only predictably that really matters -- personal safety and self-actualization and freedom of association -- is not guaranteed.

I'd walk out of the room unless maybe I already had a fatal cancer diagnosis or something, and wanted to take care of some unfinished business.

[brewerb]

What makes you think I'm 'living' now?

If the person has a birth defect (i.e. cerebral palsy) will the defect be cured? Or treatment resistant epilepsy, schizophrenia, genetic disorders,.......

[Thumpalumpacus]

I made my peace with dying a long time ago. I wouldn't enter any answer, I'll just take what I get and make the most of it -- kinda like what I'm doing now anyway. You roll the dice and hope it ain't snake-eyes. And if it is, well it wasn't anything you weren't promised anyway the moment you started sucking air.



Some people may care when I die, but I won't, because I won't be alive to care. I just want it to be quick.

"The answer they reveal / Life is unreal"

[Inkubus]

If you had just a minute to breathe
And they granted you one final wish
Would you ask for something like another chance
Or something sim'lar as this
Don't worry too much It'll happen to you
As sure as your sorrows are joys
And the thing that disturbs you is only the sound of
The low spark of high-heeled boys

[SYZ]

... Some people may care when I die, but I won't, because I won't be alive to care. I just want it to be quick.

Agree totally with this... at my age LOL.

The beauty of death is that one doesn't ever
know one is dead. Ergo, it's impossible to
fear it—as too many people do.

[Minimalist]

I want to live until I die.

Not a moment longer.

[Dānu]

I haven't died yet!

[brewerb]

I haven't died yet!

Do you want to go on the cart?

[Dānu]

I haven't died yet!

Do you want to go on the cart?

I feel happy! So happy!

[Minimalist]

You're not fooling anyone, you know.

[no one]

Who says I do?

[c172]

"Be careful what you wish for. It may come true." ---some ancestor of mine.

[TheGentlemanBastard]

Life is too full of variables to be able to give a simple answer. I'll take the health and healing and play potluck with the rest, thanks.

[brewerb]

I'd prefer to consider changing the length of something else please.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Who says I do?

You do. You're still alive, after all.

[brewerb]

Who says I do?

You do. You're still alive, after all.

There is the beginning of a vaudeville comedy act in the above.

[Edible crust]

I'd like to have the choice to end my own life legally, but that's probably a whole new thread.

[brewerb]

I'd like to have the choice to end my own life legally, but that's probably a whole new thread.

I doubt anyone is going to throw you in jail once you've purposely ended your life. Just don't ask for help.

Note: this is not promoting suicide.

[SYZ]

I'd like to have the choice to end my own life legally, but that's probably a whole new thread.

Please feel free to kick it off.    

Briefly then... I believe in voluntary assisted dying
and the DNR, "do not resuscitate" clinical directive.

[Unsapien]

Is this calculator programmable?

I can't measure the value of my life in days, weeks or years. I'd like to die when I'm comfortable with it.

I want to program a formula where I don't outlive my wife, her and I dying together would be my "goal?" (whenever she decides to choose her ending, although I'd have to program a maximum time limit just in case she chooses infinity). Also I'd like it to be a time when I know both my kids are able to take care of themselves without me, a grand kid would be nice to see before I go too.

Being around to see the first lifeform discovered that didn't evolve on Earth would be a nice icing on the cake also.

I think this is all doable in the next 30 years.

[Inkubus]

Beautiful post.

[Edible crust]

On the day that I can no longer wipe my own arse I'd like to be able to say "I don't want to be here anymore". I can put that phrase or any other phrase in writing now while I'm deemed capable and that should be enough and legally binding for the docs to give me whatever it takes to finish me off.

I had no choice in whether I existed, I should have a choice when it ends.

[brewerb]

On the day that I can no longer wipe my own arse I'd like to be able to say "I don't want to be here anymore". I can put that phrase or any other phrase in writing now while I'm deemed capable and that should be enough and legally binding for the docs to give me whatever it takes to finish me off.

I had no choice in whether I existed, I should have a choice when it ends.

Out of curiosity why do you think a doctor should have to do it? Do you have euthanasia laws?

I have my own plan to avoid lingering death, provided that I still have the physical/mental capability. But if my P/M abilities are gone my living will states to stop all life sustaining support.

[Edible crust]

On the day that I can no longer wipe my own arse I'd like to be able to say "I don't want to be here anymore". I can put that phrase or any other phrase in writing now while I'm deemed capable and that should be enough and legally binding for the docs to give me whatever it takes to finish me off.

I had no choice in whether I existed, I should have a choice when it ends.

Out of curiosity why do you think a doctor should have to do it? Do you have euthanasia laws?

I have my own plan to avoid lingering death, provided that I still have the physical/mental capability. But if my P/M abilities are gone my living will states to stop all life sustaining support.

Euthanasia is currently illegal here, I guess that I could travel to a foreign clinic but that's not ideal.
I'll definitely be a 'do not resuscitate' but that could be after years of suffering.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47158287