You could either live a finite time, one hundred years, 35600 days, miraculously immune to diseases, accidents, you know the deal. Whatever happened you'd survive, at least, and wouldn't die until your time was up.
-or-
You were given a non-limited span of life, under the same rules, but every morning when you woke up, you had to roll a (very big) dice, or use a number generator, or whatever. On one chance in five hundred thousand, you would simply keel over dead.
In neither case would you be superman or anything, you'd just survive any external influence. What the question boils down to is, would you pick the statistically shorter, but secure, lifespan, or would you pick the unsafe but statistically longer, with a visible reminder every day that it might be your last?
Oh: Aging would be scaled in either case, in the latter off the average, so you wouldn't turn 60 and then be old forever. Zaza fucked around with this message on 08-08-2004 at 01:31 PM.
I mean, eventually I have to die. I wouldn't want to live for ever, but I enjoy taking chances, and I could live each day like it was my last. 
Also, in this situation, is there an afterlife?
Scenario B to me is... Living every day with impending doom on my mind. That sounds more like torture than a gift. And even then, it's only a statistical chance you'll survive more than 100 years. It's not a guarenteed.
quote:You don't need a die roll every morning to do that,
Make Gadani's fight on the hill, in the early day.
I could live each day like it was my last.
Black fucked around with this message on 08-08-2004 at 01:39 PM.
quote:
From the book of Black, chapter 3, verse 16:
You don't need a die roll every morning to do that,
I know, stfu. 
quote:
Black had this to say about Knight Rider:
Scenario A would be a better choice. Knowing when and how you will die is a great security for nearly everyone.Scenario B to me is... Living every day with impending doom on my mind. That sounds more like torture than a gift. And even then, it's only a statistical chance you'll survive more than 100 years. It's not a guarenteed.
I think if you knew you were going to die on day x then you would end up living every day in preperation for that day. By not knowing when the end was going to come you could live you life in a more normal fashion.
Scenario B is too much like life as it is now. Everyday you have a chance to die. What's so different, outside the practical invincibility?
quote:I agree. But then, that might not be too bad a thing. See everything you want to see, do everything you want to do, fall in love without having to worry that the person you're with is going to die long before you... These things are guaranteed.
Because, Naimah... You are a puppet.
I think if you knew you were going to die on day x then you would end up living every day in preperation for that day.
Nothing is for certain in Scenario B. Black fucked around with this message on 08-08-2004 at 01:51 PM.
quote:
Black wrote this stupid crap:
Addendum:Scenario B is too much like life as it is now. Everyday you have a chance to die. What's so different, outside the practical invincibility?
Well, the practical invincibility takes away that chance you get shot, or get in a wreck, or whatever. You just have to roll the die.
quote:
We were all impressed when Black wrote:
Scenario A would be a better choice. Knowing when and how you will die is a great security for nearly everyone.Scenario B to me is... Living every day with impending doom on my mind. That sounds more like torture than a gift. And even then, it's only a statistical chance you'll survive more than 100 years. It's not a guarenteed.
My calculator's batteries are dead, but the odds that you'd live at least 35,600 days are very high.
I'd go with B. I would dread the impending set date.
quote:The chances you'll live to see tomorrow are very high, too.
Waisz, I am your father:
My calculator's batteries are dead, but the odds that you'd live at least 35,600 days are very high.I'd go with B. I would dread the impending set date.
/roll 1d500
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
quote:
Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael stumbled drunkenly to the keyboard and typed:
Choice B, because humans spend their lifetime hedging the odds in their favor. I could spend eternity figuring out what surface to roll the die on, how to best load it, etc.
It'd obviously be something you couldn't manipulate. Dice was just a figure of speech really.
I.E. I live to at least 21, but my odds are cut that much smaller for the rest of my life..
Er, What I mean is in 500,000 chances to die, I want a garantee that at least 7665 of those rolls are for me living, at the price of reducing my chances to 1 in 492335 after that.
Or whatever.
Damn aging edit. Didn't really explain it well enough though, as you could age past the point where the body and mind are worth living with.
Choice B also has another problem; you can't choose to die. With enough luck, you could live for thousands of years. Living that long could resulting in a "living hell" situation where you would rather die. You could become bored with life, a cataclysmic event occurs leaving you the only one left alive to wander a wasteland, etc. Since suicide would be futile, you'd be left rolling the dice until you finally got lucky with a bad roll. Talonus fucked around with this message on 08-08-2004 at 02:17 PM.
quote:
And I was all like 'Oh yeah?' and Zaza was all like:
It'd obviously be something you couldn't manipulate. Dice was just a figure of speech really.
Does it really matter to most humans? No.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
All the time.
Mainly because I happen to want to live on forever, no matter what the consequences of that choice 
And, to be honest, I think my chances of living longer are better with B than with A.
quote:
The logic train ran off the tracks when Crezia said:
A. Because I'm horribly unlucky and if I went B I'd most certainly end up with the number of death on my first 'roll,' and the few moments of life I'd have left before instantly keeling over would be spent thinking "Fuck, I should have taken the first choice."
This reminds me all too much of the whale's train of thought in Hitchhiker's. 
Didn't anyone see Big Fish? When he saw his own death he knew EXACTLY how he would die, so he could do anything else he wanted, because he knew he wouldn't die to anything else.
If I KNEW I wouldn't die any other way but hitting 100 years old, that'd be security.
His "you'd survive, at least" makes me think that, but I could very well be wrong.
Either way, I'd choose A. I don't know if I'd want to live as long as I could potentially live under B, and waking up every morning knowing I have to have my fate decided for me before I can do anything that day would kinda suck.
quote:
Check out the big brain on Mr. Gainsborough!
I'd have to say A because of the possibility of never ending life. That might suck.
Actually, you couldn't. You could only live a very, very long time. Statistically, you will roll the magic number eventually.
I just thought of something else nice... Plan B gives aging based on a 500,000-day lifespan. You will either live your life nice and young or you will have the benefit of a longer life. If you do grow old, you will have lived a nice, long happy life.
quote:
How.... Waisz.... uughhhhhh:
Actually, you couldn't. You could only live a very, very long time. Statistically, you will roll the magic number eventually.
You can roll an infinite number of times without hitting the magic number.
quote:
Palador ChibiDragon wrote this then went back to looking for porn:
You can roll an infinite number of times without hitting the magic number.
Nope, because it's infinite. You can do it a very large number of times, but not infinite.
Another thing to think about the random life length plan thingy: As you age, your memory weakens, your body weakens, you become more and more brittle strength-wise, and you lack the energy to do things that you would at a young age. Living 160 years wouldn't be a fun thing. Eventually, you'll just turn into a lifeless zombie waiting for your luck to run out.
quote:
Willias had this to say about Jimmy Carter:
Choice A. 100 years is a looooong time, and if its something like being immune to diseases and stuff like that, that would be one hell of a comfortable 100 years. If you go Choice B, you can either look forward to living about as long as the 100 years, or significantly less than that, or significantly more than that. Imagine living longer than your children. That, in my opinion, would SUCK ASS. If you live exactly 100 years, however, once that day starts rolling around the corner, you can prepare. Your family can prepare. You can live your life to the fullest possible, and die happy. With the random thing, eventually, you are just going to hit that random number, and BAM, no preparation, no final good-byes, you'd just leave the world forever. That'd suck too.Another thing to think about the random life length plan thingy: As you age, your memory weakens, your body weakens, you become more and more brittle strength-wise, and you lack the energy to do things that you would at a young age. Living 160 years wouldn't be a fun thing. Eventually, you'll just turn into a lifeless zombie waiting for your luck to run out.
You missed the age scaling part. 500,000 days is 1,369 years. Assuming 60/100 years is the beginning of age-diseases (hardly), that leaves 821.4 years of good memory. Similarly, assuming 20/100 years is the end of "youth", you get 273.8 years of youth. All you have to do is live that long. Even if you don't, you lived a life full of youth. Waisz fucked around with this message on 08-09-2004 at 12:32 AM.
quote:
Waisz attempted to be funny by writing:
You missed the age scaling part. 500,000 days is 1,369 years. Assuming 60/100 years is the beginning of age-diseases (hardly), that leaves 821.4 years of good memory. Similarly, assuming 20/100 years is the end of "youth", you get 273.8 years of youth. All you have to do is live that long. Even if you don't, you lived a life full of youth.
Meh, still, it would suck to see many generations of your family die in front of your own face.
Edit: I didn't miss the age scaling part. I just didn't understand it. Willias fucked around with this message on 08-09-2004 at 01:07 AM.
