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)
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.
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.
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.
Honestly, those are all selling points. I’d love to understand how a coma patient thinks a few months in, a few years in and a few decades in. What it’s like to die in war in the year, 700, 1700 & 2700. To die as a newborn and then eventually see how those very parents are affected. So long as it is randomized and I’m statistically likely to see something radically different tommorow, I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of the human experince.
I’d modify the question to specify that each life is presented as a unique and compelling motion picture, each between an hour and four hours in length, of the sort that would be likely to win either critical acclaim or box office success (or both) at some point in the late 20th to early 21st century - and that I get to watch them in an unending variety of well-staffed and enthusiastically-attended movie theaters, with interesting companions who I can discuss the movie with for as long as I want to afterwards, with endless credit to spend at the concessions, and with no bodily needs like discomfort or fatigue.
For folks who haven’t read it before: Andy Weir’s ‘The Egg’
Bro this is already what’s up. We’re all the same stardust!
why limit the playback to human life? how about the vagaries of past/future speciation?
seems like a special hell to me either way.
I like this