Today I’m going to explore the ins and outs of a question that I’m sure many of us have encountered in some form or another, be it through TV shows, movies or morbidly curious minds. The question is simple: if you could know when you were going to die, would you want to know? Personally, I enjoy these sorts of questions because of how provocative and challenging they are. Better yet, there are really only two responses; both of which tell you a lot about a person and their approach to mortality.
Answer number one is to say “no” which, to me, means the person really isn’t comfortable with the thought of their own mortality. The other answer is, of course, “yes” which, to me, translates to a strange feeling of determination in order to make the most of one’s remaining years. I fall under the latter category. I already live life at breakneck pace, trying to embrace the belief of living every day as though it was my last; but actually knowing the specific day, or age or even general time period would be… liberating.
According to this article on the front page of the PopSci website, it seems like we’re getting ever closer to the possibility of being able to accurately predict an age at which we are genetically destined to die. (Granted, this research was specifically targeted at predicting folks who would live to, at least, 100.)
I say ‘genetically destined’ because death predictions based off DNA could really only possibly predict your maximum life expectancy, while factors such as diet, alcohol, cigarettes or looking the wrong way when crossing the road can make that inevitability occur a lot sooner. If I look at my family, in which two of my grandparents lived into their 80s (both of whom smoked for most of their life) and the other two surviving grandparents are self-sufficient and healthy in their late 70s, my genetic destiny seems to be telling me I’ll live to be at least 80. If a test comes along to tell me more specifically what my DNA determines as my expiry date, I’d like to think I’d be near the front of the line.
But what I want to know in the comments section below is this: assuming this current research eventually reaches a point where it can accurately predict your genetic age of death, would you want to know?
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I wouldn’t mind knowing. Like that bit in Big Fish where he says (heavily paraphrased) ‘if you know when and how, then you would also know that nothing that comes before would kill you’. Then again it would be pretty depressing wouldn’t it. You may even fall into a kind of taupe where you figure ‘hell, i’ve got another 40 years to get around to that’. It would also suck knowing that you were in the last few days of your life before you get hit by a bus.
I mean, how much would that suck.
Knowing that i will, eventually die, at the ripe old age of 1050 (i’m an optimist) I also know that i could just as easily die tomorrow (scoffs, as if fate would allow someone as awesome as me to die this early). Carpe Deium is a dictum which works hand in hand with uncertainty. Safe in the knowledge that you have the time to do something would be both liberating and a curse.
Its kinda like that turtle that can never ever get to where it is going. If you know when it ends then there will always be another day.. until there isn’t.
It’s definitely an interesting question, that has been posed many times. I’m reasonably comfortable with the thought of my own death (at least, I can say that now, not being faced with the actual prospect of it) but I’m not sure that I’d want to know right now that in 56 years I’m going to…buy the farm. I say that because, for various reasons, my emotional state tends to fluctuate quite dramatically, and while one day I might be totally cool with that fact… the week after, it may cause me to flip out. I do think though, that it would be nice to get a little warning, maybe a couple of months in advance… let me put all my affairs in order, and whatnot. That’s probably ideal. Imagine getting a little email reminder from the death clock, politely informing you that your expiry date is rapidly approaching. Haha, I actually quite like that concept. Is that a little morbid?
@ Dude from Sydney - Knowing more than just my genetic expiry date would be awesome. Actually knowing the specifics of my demise… I dunno, maybe I’m weird, but I believe it would give me a chance to come to terms with it better… particularly if it was horrific. Life is lived forwards but understood backwards; that is, until we die, because we don’t really have a chance to understand our death retrospectively! The idea of getting hit by a bus reminds me specifically of Stranger than Fiction: fantastic film and highly recommended if you haven’t seen it already. Again, quoting Hollywood, I’m reminded of the Sir Ian McKellen cameo as Death in The Last Action Hero where he tells the kid that he’s destined to die a grandfather; that blew my mind.
In regards to your other point, I imagine that it would be a negative for any folk who heavily procrastinate to know their date of death because they’d continue to put stuff off until the last possible moment. But then, I guess heavily procrastinating folk are like that anyway, regardless of knowledge of death.
@ Muffin - Oh wow, you’ve just opened a whole interesting potential future money-making scheme. I can see it now: an email plugin that is designed to link directly to your bucket list and let you know the probability that you’ll have to achieve certain items based off your income, available time and other such factors. I’m struggling to think of a polite way to receive a ‘you’re gonna die’ email reminder.
knowing this would be like a self-fulfilling prophecy so you would act like you will definitely die on that day so you probably will end up carking it