this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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Obviously a hypothetical scenario. There is no way to pass on the knowledge to anyone else. Time freezes for you only, and once you have your answer you are out of this world.

The question can allow you to see into the past, present and future and gain comprehension of any topic/issue. But it's only one question.

Edit: the point isn't "how to cheat death". You can't. Your body is frozen and there is nothing you can do with this knowledge other than knowing it, and die. So if you would rather be frozen in a limbo just thinking of numbers for eternity, be my guest.

Such a variety of replies, it's been really interesting to read them!

What would you want to know? Personally I'd want to see a timelapse or milestone glimpses of humanity's future until the end of Earth's existence (if we survive that long)

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[–] [email protected] 98 points 11 months ago (9 children)

When is going to be the year of the Linux desktop?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 71 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (10 children)

What was life like for ever human that has ever existed? I'd like to see every single day start to finish from their perspective, sorted as randomly as possible.

The worst part of traditional immortality is being stuck as you, I'd like to experience the entire library and range of human experinces. It would eventually know how it started and how it all ended, while seeing every perspective that got us there. They'd be a lot of days toiling in a field, a lot of days in office cubicles toiling in excel, but most importantly I'd see the small victories and tragedies that make up every life. I think that'd be the real beauty.

[–] [email protected] 74 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I don't want to ruin your idea, I think it's kinda neat. But I think that you may be monkey pawing yourself.

A tremendous amount people have suffered so much, that I'd probably not want the experience in its current form. The horrors of the holocaust, unit 731, and a lot of wars springs to mind, from just the last century.

IDK how you could modify the question, but "no violent deaths" could be a starting point.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I don’t think there is a short clear way to avoid potential centuries of suffering. Living in pain could be worse than a violent death.

Imagine a life time as a comatose patient who is still conscious and can hear but not respond?

Years of nearly starving to death. Years of physical abuse? Slowly dying in a hospital from cancer / some other slow painful death.

Hiker trapped alone on a mountain.

In short no thanks.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Also, I'm sorry to say but I think the vast majority of people would be boring. We all have 1 or 2 interesting things happen to us in our lives but the humdrum of taking a shit and sleeping for 8 hours would get old fast

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

Oh, well okay, into the egg cycle then.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Was I ever a good impact on someone else's life?

Simple and sweet. Let's you go to the next thing either with your head held high or knowing for sure if you just lived and died.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

I'd rephrase this to "was I ever a good impact on someone else's life that I was unaware of?"

Because most people are fairly confident they've had a good influence on "someone's" life. My partner has told me as much, and I've said it to them. Even if just their parents or something, there's typically obvious answers to this question.

I'd want to know the non-obvious answers.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 11 months ago (7 children)

I'd pick an irrational number, say pi, and ask for every decimal digit of it. Then, I have infinite time to walk around the world in explore mode (i.e. I can't die, and hence don't need to eat etc..., and am effectively an infinite energy source, and can interact with objects) while time is frozen. This effectively makes me a god, but only for one point in time, with the ability to create a discontinuity in the world state at that point. I'd travel around the whole world (even if it involved swimming oceans) and try to make it so that the infinite sum of each action I take while the world is frozen converges on a world that is in a much better state infinitesimally after the moment compared to infinitesimally before.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

But if you actually had infinite time, then that would mean that the world for all intents and purposes has ended. It would never continue, ever. No matter what you do, it would have absolutely no impact at all.

Furthermore, I imagine if you actually had to wait infinitely long for the answer to finish, that would be like hell. There is only so much you can look at in a frozen world, assuming you would even be able to move at all. I can hardly imagine any happiness after some billions and trillions of years of no new stimuli in a frozen world.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago

That's how you trigger a blue screen.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

No death for an infinity is a torture in itself.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago (2 children)

How is the entity or power that has the ability to grant me such knowledge connected to the existence of the universe?

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 11 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 35 points 11 months ago (9 children)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

To quote King Missile, "there are no points"

There is no point to life
There is no point to death
There is no point in continuing our meetings
There is no point in not continuing our meetings

There is no point in going out
There is no point in staying in
No point in gaining weight
And no point in staying trim

There is no point in answering the phone or opening the mail
There is no point in getting drunk or doing drugs
And there is no point in staying sober

There is no point in needing someone
And no point in being alone
There is no point in doing nothing
And no point in not doing nothing

These are all good points, yet none of them lead anywhere
None of them are points at all
There are no points
There is no point

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Welcome to existence, where everything is made up and the points don't matter.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I want stats like the end of a game. How many red lights did I run, did anyone die by my actions, how many hours did I sleep, how many meals did I eat. Things like that.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (3 children)

By what mechanism did the universe come to be, or if it simply always existed, why does it exist in this particular way with these particular laws?

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Just "Why?" Leave this magical answers being confused and questioning humanity, like the rest of us.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

Just 'because'

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I would like to know the detailed life history of every human that was ever born...

Start taking I'll wait :)

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Sounds like a nightmare when you're dying and probably in pain... It extends that painful state for a virtually infinite time.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not to mention the overwhelming amounts of unimaginable suffering you would see.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Why do hotdogs come in packs of ten while hotdog buns come in packs of six?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

So you buy 10 packs of buns and 6 packs of hotdogs

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (30 children)

Assuming other implications (existence of an afterlife and God) with this scenario I would have but one question. Why? Why everything? Honestly I would be mad furious if there was an afterlife. More so if there was a God.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

"In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If you need to ask, then probably not. If she really did, you wouldn't have to ask, you'd know.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

I'd like to see the details of the events from Nefertiti up through the end of the 19th dynasty and the activities of the sea peoples with a special focus on the figure of Muksus, in an interactive format where I could sort of scrub the timeline to fast forward or rewind and instantly move around the Mediterranean to observe the different events in different places in parallel.

I wouldn't mind having the same for the 1st century CE too, but that would be a secondary priority.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What is the diagnosis and cure for the disease that has ravaged me for the last 13 years?

Thanks.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

With how the universe and its sense of humor works, it would probably end up being something simple like β€œyou didn’t clean out your faucet aerator and the bacteria growing on the scum caught inside was poising you”.

In a related note, this is a reminder for everyone to clean out your faucet aerators if you haven’t done that this month.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I would want to know if I could have accomplished anything different that I did. Could I have been a super successful NFL quarterback? Could I have been a lawyer? Could I have been president of the United States? Could I have been a rockstar or a movie star? Could I have been a bodybuilder? Could I have been a New York times best-selling novelist? I would like to know all the possibilities of what I might have been. I would like to see them lived out, what it looked like, what steps were taken, what decisions were made. Given the limited raw intelligence I had, the genetic potential of my physical body, what was the most I could have done with it?

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

Given that God is infinite, and that the universe is also infinite, would you like a toasted tea-cake?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Personally I'd want to see a timelapse or milestone glimpses of humanity's future until the end of Earth's existence (if we survive that long)

I'd ask for the same thing, but not a glimpse, I'd ask for an immersive first person view, and not a timelapse, I'd want to see it in realtime.

And just like that, I'd be reborn.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I wouldn’t ask anything. I’m gonna die and that knowledge would be lost. Just play me out Ricardo

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (9 children)

Starting right now, how can I preserve my personal conscious existence until I'm ready to no longer exist?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"Can I see the moments when I made other people feel good/better?" or to know what people i helped and how

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (10 children)
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