How important is the manner in which you die?

[madnak]

So if you suck out on the river, does that make you happy you won or sad you made an awful play?

Is it +EV or not to trade a week of horrible pain for 40 years of absolute bliss? So long as the weight of the suffering is less than 2080 times greater than the weight of the happiness, it's +EV. Therefore, the implication of anyone who chooses option B is that they think pain is over 2000 times more important than pleasure.

Or the majority of these responses are irrational.

[yukoncpa]

Madnak-
Sign me up coach. I’ll sign a contract with any terrorist. If they forward me a billion dollars and a few playboy bunnies to get me started, they can even have one of there ( naked, female ) spies follow me around until I’m 65. Then I’m all theirs to torture. Of course I’ll have a cyanide pill available. But even if they thwarted all my plans to renege on my end of the bargain - well, it was worth it.

[Riddick]

[ QUOTE ]
This poll is more a question of "would you want to live a great life knowing you'll die terribly, or live a not so great life and die peacefully?" The thread is just misnamed.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, the thread isn't misnamed.

Has Northwestern been lowering admission standards recently?

[Riddick]

For those who responded:

Yes the end results would be guaranteed (no way out) but no, you would not live your life knowing anything about the future to come, so option A would be just as sweet as you want it to be.

[LadyWrestler]

[ QUOTE ]
So if you suck out on the river, does that make you happy you won or sad you made an awful play?

Is it +EV or not to trade a week of horrible pain for 40 years of absolute bliss? So long as the weight of the suffering is less than 2080 times greater than the weight of the happiness, it's +EV. Therefore, the implication of anyone who chooses option B is that they think pain is over 2000 times more important than pleasure.

Or the majority of these responses are irrational.

[/ QUOTE ]

That depends on one's definition of the word "happiness". [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[LadyWrestler]

Ha! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[soon2bepro]

I chose A. However I mind you that if I had everything I wanted, this would include several extremely reliable ways to end my life instantly and without pain, for extreme circumstances such as this.

In any case... 1 week of absolute pain is clearly a good trade off for 65 years of absolute happiness (assuming, of course, that with the other option I would only live up to my 90s, which is rather unlikely without major diseases or an accident/murder, given the exponential growth of science/medicine/technology. However I'm playing along with the options).

Option B doesn't grant me an OK life. I don't care about having a family and especially don't want to spend half my awaken life in a boring 9 to 5 office job. That'd be quite a torture for me. And it's about 50 years I have to live with that? No way.

(in fact, I'd much rather kill myself than having to live that life)

[KKbluff]

What if option A included leaving a legacy such as Jesus (or anyone still highly looked up to
or worshiped/followed today)?
I wonder if that would change anyones opinion...
just a thought...