Just before death you are granted one truthful, understandable answer to one question. What would you want to know?

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.

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.

No. It's not a selling point and you don't want it. I have a condition that puts every part of my body in pain continuously. It's been 4 years and I've forgotten the sensation of painlessness. Many people with my condition kill themselves, not only because the pain alone is intolerable, but because every step of the way somebody will tell them they are being lazy or faking it.

I feel for you and I'm sorry you also are going through it. I don't blame you for taking umbridge with this all. But I also live in constant pain as well, after a dog attack a few years ago I can't walk for more than an hour at a time, laying sitting and standing all hurt and even with pain meds, I can only get to a dull ache. I can't work and the life I had before is gone, it was such shit trying to prove to skeptical condescending doctors saying just to do stretches and it will get better, but... Here I am still waiting.

So while I feel where you are coming from with this time of chronic pain, I am ready to deal with this and other life debilitating conditions if I also get to feel like it was to run again, to climb, to see through the eyes of an athlete. To be able to walk normally and enjoy events again. I'd take my own pain and yours again to feel human again.

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

the humdrum of taking a shit and sleeping for 8 hours would get old fast

Ageed I'm only halfway watching this poor sod's life, and it's soo boring. I'm not going to watch more of this.

Maybe we could add a remote control and a library interface? Like choose whom to follow and then you can use ffw and a stop function?

ah you mean just like Adam Sandler's timeless masterpiece, "The Magic Remote Control"?

Was that the one where he enlarges Jennifer Anniston's boobs?

Nah, that was just my dream

I loved when Adam Sandler said "It's Sandlering time" and totally Sandlered all over those guys

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.

https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI?si=BaLe05ZiIdVmnQ1c

For folks who haven't read it before: Andy Weir's 'The Egg'

There's a Kurzgezagt animated version of it as well

hey me

Woah

Oh, well okay, into the egg cycle then.

why limit the playback to human life? how about the vagaries of past/future speciation?

seems like a special hell to me either way.

"...no"

I also think this is the only fair version of reincarnation. If we are all everyone. If everyone has to live every life.

I like this

It's the Kang the conqueror paradigm

Bro this is already what's up. We're all the same stardust!

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.

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.

I like this one. Even better. "Who are the people I have positively influenced and what were the key interactions we shared?"

It would be a flashback of loving moments of humanity.

I'd love to see a reel from someone like a social worker, teacher, nurse etc

https://www.ascii-code.com/

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.

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.

That's how you trigger a blue screen.

No death for an infinity is a torture in itself.

And in a moment you'll learn, that at your scale, for the practical purposes, the universe rounds pi to n numbers. E.g. ~3.1416. Check & mate.

it would be like a detective game, figuring out intent between non-verbal, static people and deciding what is the right course of action

"Longer than you think!"

Well I guess my bad for not being more explicit with my question, but your body is frozen as well. Only your mind has the ability to absorb the knowledge of one answer, and then you are gone. I've seen many asking for infinite answers in hopes of stretching time in a limbo, which wasn't the spirit of my original post.

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

Magic

is p != np

I thought of asking that one, but then if the answer was no, my last thought would probably be that I was really worried about what happens when the living humans figure it out.

Probably a lot of encryption would fail. That would be bad.

I guess that depends on whether n != 1

What was the point?

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

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

Look I thought we just went over this and there is no point. Now you're saying there are multiple?!

To quote Harry Nilsson,

Finally, the two travelers reached what Appeared to be the entrance to the Pointless Forest.

There was a huge stony barrier with A small sign at its base which read " THIS WAY".

Once on the other side of the barrier, Oblio and Arrow had their first encounter with the Pointless Man or the Pointed Man depending upon your point of view.

You see, the Pointless Man did have a point.

In fact, he had hundreds of them, All pointing in different directions.

But as he so quickly pointed out A point in Every direction is the same as no point at all.

And, speaking of points, I don't know if you've ever been to a Pointless Forest but a forest Is a forest and one of the first things Oblio and Arrow noticed about The Pointless Forest was that all the leaves on All the trees had points and all the trees had points.

In fact, even the branches of all the trees pointed in different Directions, which seemed a little strange for a Pointless Forest.

And when the Pointed Man disappeared Oblio and Arrow were left Standing alone wondering what to do next when suddenly, They were aware of a strange sound coming in from the north.

And when they looked up there was a Giant swarm of bees headed straight for them.

So, to seek cover they jumped inside a hollow log. But when the bees attacked the log was jarred loose and it tumbled Down a steep hill and careened and crashed Finally into the base of a most unusual rock pile...

In fact, the Rock Man.

And the Rock Man said, " Say, what's happening with you boys? It looks like you're pretty shook up, been goofing with the bees"?

And Oblio told the Rock Man that they were banished and Asked him whether or not this was the Pointless Forest.

And the Rock Man said, " Say, baby, there's nothing pointless about this gig. The thing is you see what you want to see And you hear what you want to hear - dig. Did you ever see Paris?" - Oblio said, " No". " Did you ever see New Dehli?" Oblio said " No". Well that's it - you see what you want to see and you hear what you Want to hear", said the Rock Man and with that the Rock Man Fell soundly asleep leaving Oblio and Arrow once again all alone.

So they continued on through the Pointless Forest until suddenly, Arrow, who had been running a few yards ahead of Oblio, disappeared into a hole, the point of no return.

Nihilism is based, and if you ever feel down because there's no point, just watch Gurren Lagann and embrace the potential for a better tomorrow through nihilism

To exist.

What an awful thing to do to someone

There can't be a point unless you make one.

Maybe, you get to choose the point. What were the moments that made it all worth it?

What worthwhile moment never faded into oblivion?

You need thinggs to be eternal to matter to you? Tall order.

Petting my cat

Depending on your perspective of time, none of them did. All of them happened and are as much a part of reality as any other moment. We may have moved past those moments, but that's only an artifact of our relative position in the timeline.

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.

You might like this short film then it's in line with that and it's honestly pretty similar to this post in general.

Haha love this

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?

I was going to say “are we in a simulation” but this would work too.

Because of it didn't it wouldn't, but it does so it is.

Because all possible universes with all possible combinations of particular laws exist.

Maybe even the impossible ones exist.

And they all came to be the same way the number 3 "came to" exist.

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

Just 'because'

Because 42

In ASCII, 42 is an asterisk, which is a common computer placeholder for "whatever you want it to be". The computer in Hitchhikers wasn't just pooping out a random number, but in the most computer way possible it pretty much just said life is what you make of it.

So yea, 42.

Bro. I love this. TIL. Never thought of checking the ASCII of 42.

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

Start taking I'll wait :)

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

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

And joy, but I'd say being suddenly ommiciant to all the life of humanity but completely impotent sounds awful

The prompt said that time freezes. No time = no pain.

Im not sure if there would be pain, but it's a possibility. When I thought of the question I figured everything but your mind would freeze, perhaps I should have been more explicit when I phrased it. I understand those asking to experience the lives of others - even strangers- but I can't understand those asking for an infinite answer such as a number in hopes of.... What? Staying in a limbo doing nothing but absorbing a number?

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

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

Life hack: Halve your spendings by only bying 5 packs of buns and 3 packs of hotdogs.

Hotdog and hotdog bun production companies hate this simple trick.

You're just pandering to the lowest common denominator

Good news! Due to shrinkflation, hot dogs now come in 8-packs. Even better, the downsized buns fit standard dogs - no need to buy bun-length skinny hot dogs!

So, I figured it out. Why hot dogs come in packages of ten and hot dog buns come in packages of eight. See, the thing is, life doesn't always work out according to plan. So be happy with what you've got, because you can always get a hot dog.

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.

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

What if the afterlife was universally accessible like a participation prize and relative to each individual such that there wasn't a single idealized version of happiness?

Is that still fury invoking?

Not OP, but my fury in this instance would be because an omnipotent god allowed for all the suffering that happens to all living creatures when we could all just live with love and joy in our hearts, and god chose this instead.

What if the creator isn't omnipotent and what if the universe isn't the original copy?

One of the ways to potentially achieve an afterlife would be to recreate the living creatures and their environment as simulated copies that wouldn't need to die. The physical originals would die, but the copies would live on.

Is it still unethical to recreate an evolved and chaotic universe of suffering if you could by doing so give each participant a much longer existence in a relative paradise for everyone?

Would it be more ethical to have whitewashed history such that you exclusively recreate the privileged and fortunate denying those that suffered in an original reality from representation in a functionally eternal and relative paradise? i.e. Would it be better to pretend orphans didn't exist than to accurately represent the historical reality while giving those recreations the opportunity to reunite with their parents in an uncapped afterlife?

Yes. Recreating a 'relative paradise' where people have to suffer over and over would be worse than having to live it once. If you could recreate the universe, would you make people suffer? Forever?

What the fuck even is this argument? There's no whitewashing if you start over every time anyway. Just make it better from the beginning.

A couple of problems: a copy of me is not me, no amount of post-life paradise justifies injustice in life, not everyone deserve hapiness (no matter what moral framework you use), what is the point of life if there is an eternal paradice for everyone.

From the moment I introduce afterlife some sort of God becomes necessary for any morality to work.
Having no God works if I assume that life is finite. If life is finite then I must make myself as happy as possible. Living around and with people I can't just be as selfish as possible, I must conform to society if I want to be in society, otherwise I will make my life so much more difficult.

a copy of me is not me

That's true. Unless you are the copy of an original, in which case the copy is you.

no amount of post-life paradise justifies injustice in life

Is it just to perform a painful surgery on a sick child in order to save their life?

not everyone deserve hapiness

Agree to disagree. The notion of cosmic justice for souls whose behavior in life is significantly dictated by the terms of their embodiment and environment is, to me, insane.

what is the point of life if there is an eternal paradice for everyone

Maybe the point of life isn't absolute and is up to each person to find and define individually.

If there is any degree of intelligence in the design of the universe, the fact that there's no absolute frame of reference for macro observations and relative measurements of micro details might just be relevant.

That's true. Unless you are the copy of an original, in which case the copy is you.

In which case I'm not the original, my point exactly.

Is it just to perform a painful surgery on a sick child in order to save their life?

The analogy breaks down rather quickly when you start to expand the definition of a surgery. Dying because of war is not surgery and if it is who and how decides on the goal of the surgery?

What if I don't want the surgery and want to live out the rest of my days in comfort?

Agree to disagree. The notion of cosmic justice for souls whose behavior in life is significantly dictated by the terms of their embodiment and environment is, to me, insane.

I actually agree with you. However my point is about a subjective morality rather than a cosmic one. Any definition of morality and meaning of life will ultimately break if this life is not the one and only. As soon as you try to fit afterlife into this you have to have some omnipotent power to define the rules of it. Otherwise none of your actions matter, you'll still get afterlife, be it heaven or hell.

Having life be finite and bound to physical conditions: being a social creature in an imperfect world. Is enough to have a robust and consistent moral rules and meaning. That's where my Occam's razor kicks.

In the end no matter what framework of thought you choose there is gonna be good and bad things and people doing them, hence not everyone will deserve happiness.

Maybe the point of life isn't absolute and is up to each person to find and define individually.

If there is any degree of intelligence in the design of the universe, the fact that there's no absolute frame of reference for macro observations and relative measurements of micro details might just be relevant.

And that's where my anger would stem from. If there is no knowable and proovable absolute truth. Than the simplest subjective frame of reference that makes sense is that there is no meaning or reason. Life is finite, make the best of it and enjoy it to the fullest because that's all there is.

I'm not going into the aspects of life that are not individual and affect others. There are law based, moral and social-utalitarian reasons why I would want to live in a society and bring as little suffering as I possibly can.

What if I don't want the surgery and want to live out the rest of my days in comfort?

Aye, that is a key issue as there's no informed consent to being born.

But how much of that is the fault of a creator of a universe and how much one's parents? FWIW, one of the traditions that thought similar to what we are discussing was fairly against having kids.

It could be managed if we are exact copies of people who lived, as if the originals consented to it then we may well be in a kind of Severance situation where you exist in a world of suffering because you (in a sense) consented to it.

Though it is arguably more interesting if rather than exact copies we are an archetypical copy of humanity. Individual and unique in our own existence here and now, but an accurate aggregate resemblance of humanity circa 2023.

There, informed consent very much is a challenge as there's many who would want our metaphorical surgery and others who would not and they can't express an opinion until they exist in the first place.

If there is no knowable and proovable absolute truth.

But a knowable and probable absolute truth collapses the possible options.

If someone really hates the idea of continuing to exist in any way after death and feels like the existence of a god or not being an original would rob their life of meaning - should they be denied their ability to reject these ideas so that another is able to embrace them?

Vice versa, if we have the capacity to define things as different results for different observers, should we deny others the ability to have their own beliefs about the unknown by making a single option probable?

The relative measurement at small scales in our own universe only works when the thing being measured is unobserved until each individual observer making a measurement is separated from the others. If they are together, the measurement is singular for all involved.

Again - I will agree it causes a challenge with informed consent. But no belief system I'm aware of that has endorsed a similar model has also endorsed an omnipotent creator, and as long as there are logical limits in place the loss of absolute or prior informed consent in exchange for access to relatively ideal continued existence seems like it would be more than fair for most given commonly held beliefs.

We are going into a what if terirory here and I don't think there is any good argument to be had there.

So I'm gonna end on this:

A copy is not an original. I am me, nothing more nothing less. There is no consent I can give prior to my existence. Going further into the analogy is pointless, life is not a surgery.

But no belief system I'm aware of that has endorsed a similar model has also endorsed an omnipotent creator,

~~Umm, Christianity? Just to name at least one major religion.~~

I misread that so ignore it.

Cannonical Christianity claims this is a copy of an original world with universal salvation and an individualized afterlife?

Ironically there is a heretical Christian sect that thought all those things, but it died out in antiquity. But those concepts are pretty much the opposite of the mainstream Christian theology.

What if I don't want the surgery and want to live out the rest of my days in comfort?

Aye, that is a key issue as there's no informed consent to being born.

But how much of that is the fault of a creator of a universe and how much one's parents? FWIW, one of the traditions that thought similar to what we are discussing was fairly against having kids.

If there is no knowable and proovable absolute truth.

But a knowable and probable absolute truth collapses the possible options.

The afterlife is your consciousness continuing in a nearby parallel universe where, for whatever reason, you didn’t just die.

As you get older and older, and your death becomes more and more likely, the scenarios that must occur to prevent your death get more and more outlandish.

Eventually, the fulfillment mechanism evolves into some kind of radical transformation away from human life. Like, you can’t be 10,000 years old and your story be “I’m a human”. By then your story must be something like:

I am strakthos the eternal
I got uploaded into a computer in 2045
They got really good at science and my body has practically eternal youth

This will happen. Your subjective life will never encounter death. Your consciousness will continue to hop to the nearest universe where you survived, and you won’t remember the hop. Your subjective experience will just be an ongoing set of circumstances that keep extending your life. Just pray you’re not one of those unlucky ones who are the only one in their universe to live forever.

Most of us, no doubt, will be encountering circumstances that apply to other people as well, and hence will have company in their millionth year and thereafter.

This will happen.

Are you sure it hasn't already happened?

A few years ago I got to wondering if, like in most games I've played, there might be a 4th wall breaking bit of lore in our world history if it were a simulation.

It took only a few weeks to find a text and tradition from antiquity attributed to the most famous individual in our world history claiming we were copies of a long dead spontaneous humanity as fashioned by an intelligence the original humanity brought forth in light. That we weren't actually human at all, that the world to come has already happened and we just don't realize it because we think time is linear and that we're in a physical world instead of realizing it's all just that intelligence's light. And that this was done because the original humans' souls depended on bodies that died, but the copies of what existed before will not taste death.

That was pretty spot on for a 4th wall break and a bit out of its time and place with its thinking (though less than you might expect).

So within the context of what you suggested, there could be a version of you that thinks it's only X years old and that it's only 2024 when in reality it might be much further into the future than that and in truth the oldest conscious version of 'you.' And this version of you right now may already be that far future version, just with limited subjective memory of anything outside your life here and now.

Why bother living then? What is the point of existence if no matter what you do you end up the same?

7 more...

10 more...

Personally I wasn't assuming either the existence of God or an afterlife when I posted but I left it open to interpretation on purpose. I would totally agree with you if such was the case, it's a valid question worth asking. I'm not sure if I'd be mad at an afterlife, that would depend on the answer to "why", and what the afterlife was all about.

If I die today, as in stop existing completely, I wouldn't have any questions. When I die I will no longer be, there will be no conscience, no memories, nothing. That is the death I desire.

If I exist after death, even for a moment, that means death is not the end. Who am asking questions? Why can I ask one last question? How can I get one question / request fulfilled this one last time? I can't really separate these things that easily.

Well- it's a fantasy scenario. And the question happens right before death, not after. Your reasoning makes sense taking the situation literally, but in essence the post is about gaining knowledge just for the sake of knowledge, without any practical use or impact in your life.

12 more...

Did she ever love me?

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

Nah. The thing about this is that people who are insincere don't know how to act sincere. People who are sincere also don't know how to act sincere.

Aargh fuck

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

African or European?

I... I don't know that...

AAAAHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

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

Thanks.

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.

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?

Wouldn't that be awful? Just sitting back and watching all your wasted potential when you're in a position to do nothing about it?

I don't feel that, I lived the life I had, it would be like a very long movie starring me doing cool stuff.

yeah, I think I would ask what I need to do to be the happiest possible instead.

You want to see your personal Everything Everywhere All at Once map! Love this

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

Yes Mr lister sir

Smeeeegheeaaad!

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.

You'd have no agency though. You'd be a passenger in someone else's mind, unable to communicate or intervene. I understand the appeal but personally, without agency I'd be bored quickly. I'd rather satisfy my curiosity in a shorter timeframe and be gone.

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

Leaving on a positive note, I like that

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

"You can't. You had literally all of eternity to ask your final question, you could've used some of that time to come to terms with your death, but instead you immediately used up your question(and your remaining time) trying to cheat death. Goodbye"

If you're not mentally ready to go this is hands down the best question

What if the answer is just "you can't, goodbye"

I believe there is a good chance there is an answer that can achieve the preparedness necessary, but if not- at least they tried. They were going to die anyway.

You cannot.

[fade to black]

Well, you could in theory build as accurate as possible a recreation of both yourself and the entire universe in simulated form that wouldn't be dependent on a body with an expiration date.

You wouldn't have much benefit from this, but the copy would benefit a lot.

Unless...you already are that copy.

(There's actually a group in antiquity that claimed this was the case - that souls which depend on bodies are screwed but that we all are actually copies of a first humanity which brought forth an intelligence in light which tried to save them, couldn't, and thus recreated them within its light in a copy of the universe. That it's actually the future, we just don't realize it, that the evidence for this can be found in the study of physics, and that those who understand its sayings about it being better to be a copy of what existed before will not fear death.)

You can't, you need more time.

So then the answer would tell me how to get that time, of it's possible. If it's not: well, I tried.

You only get one question silly, you already used it.

Is the answer really 42?

No. I'd tell you what and why, but you didn't ask.

Yes

8 more...

What is the universe?

It's not a bowl...

How does one use the three shells?

This guy doesn't know how to use the three shells!

Scoop the poop

Why

"it was just a prank, bro"

God's voice: "idk i was bored ig"

Why not

Who is your daddy, and what does he do?

Steve, he is a sales force admin.

ah, the APEX of humanity

Lol I don't know what that means, but he dies his best I guess.

It's not a tumor! It's not!

"So god, we cool?"

“Hey god, do you exist?”

“Nope!”

?!?!

"No, I don't exist." but that may not be understandable.

"What's next?"

Did my childhood dog really go live on a farm in the country?

When I was younger, we lived on a little farm outside town. Some people from town couldn't take care of their golden any longer, so the dog came to live with us.

About a year later, they asked if they could bring their kid by to visit, because he found out that "went to live on a farm" was usually a lie.

I'm sorry, your dog is on another farm.

No :(

As the chemicals worked their insensate magic on her diaphragm, and her mind winked out leaving her head blank, she fell into a waiting blanket held by God. And the blanket surrounded her, and showed itself to her as a farm, pristine in its morning dew and limitless splendid smells.

How does priority work in MtG?

In actuality though I'd probably kick up a reincarnation loop by asking for the full experience of every living and inanimate thing the universe has to hold, starting with everyone/everything I ever interacted with and branching exponentially from there.

Priority in MtG works based on who is able to find a Google result supporting their argument first.

In actuality though I'd probably kick up a reincarnation loop by asking for the full experience of every living and inanimate thing the universe has to hold, starting with everyone/everything I ever interacted with and branching exponentially from there.

Congratulations, every worst experience and death you ever read about? Now you're getting hands on experience of it!

The ask is so I can feel a connectedness to and understanding of reality; if I just ask for the good stuff I'm lying to myself. So yes all of the worst things but that's a pessimistic view on it because there is a lot of joy and life out there too. And in actuality the huge bulk of what I experience would just be stars roaming around anyway

Nice

Will revolution and communism win or will humanity hit the wall with the great filter and wipe ourselves out?

What is squirt?

Pee

This kinda just feels like "what single question would you ask ChatGPT if it was omniscient" so my mind is just getting lost in the arcane and complex structuring and restructuring of the question to get the answer you want rather than one that literally answers the exact question you asked.

Assuming though that you actually do just get the answer to the intent and spirit of your question the only rational one I can think of would have to be some variation of:

"What answer could you give me that would offer me the most peace, contentment and sense of resolution to my life?"

Otherwise I'd spend an eternity (or however long I'd have to consider my question) pondering how to ask that question without getting an accurate and correct response like:

"A really good one."

"What answer could you give me that would offer me the most peace, contentment and sense of resolution to my life?"

Also the concept that this is like asking ChatGPT really shows that the techno-futurists are winning with their idea of building a their own god of wires and processors that they can use to give the world answers in the place of a god that only lives in the heads of its believers. That's a dark future where someone can program god to have specific answers to questions.

Yes, the idea is that you get an answer "to the intent and spirit of your question". No Gotchas.

What's really the meaning of life - like are we really just a cosmic roll of the dice going through an at most ambivalent universe?

The meaning is whatever you make it, and really no pressure; it doesn't have to be anything at all if you don't want.

That's what we make of it, yeah... but I want an answer from the universe itself

To get to the end, also, don't be an asshole.

What do I need to do from now, until the day I die, to be the happiest possible?

Well in this scenario you are already on your last breath so perhaps ask to know something that will make you as happy as you could ever be?

My bad I didnt see that. I like what you wrote, if you are in your last breath, might as well enjoy your last seconds and leave with a smile.

Has Morocco rejoined the Eurovision Song Contest?

What's the total weight in poop I produced over the course of my life.

Seems like 11 tons according to this

What is the formula of everything that perfectly fits the description of our universe or multiverse?

The name of every girl that ever liked me

What caused the bronze age collapse and are we socially overdue for a similar one?

Tell me all the digits in Pi or some other irrational number so that I can get pseudo eternal life.

Since we have a wish-granting entity then that means the supernatural is somewhat real and I use my newfound time as well as the frozen world to learn everything I wanted and possible ascend beyond humanity.

Assuming you aren't just forced to stay and listen to the numbers of Pi for the rest of infinity.

You're dead, you wouldn't just be allowed to walk around.

Yes there's several who thought of that answer already. The point of this post isn't cheating death or showing how smart you are for finding a loophole in my post wording. It's only your mind active in this scenario. You might as well just ask to know everything in existence. I don't see how you get to the ascension part anyway, you can only absorb the answers you look for, you don't get time and space to do anything with it.

My point still stands even if its modified a bit.

It's only your mind active in this scenario. You might as well just ask to know everything in existence.

Knowing everything in existence is just merging with the universe which isn't what I want. I want my ego to still exist, even if only temporarily. I don't want to go from human -> THE ALL, I want to follow the path with the extra time I was given.

I don't see how you get to the ascension part anyway, you can only absorb the answers you look for, you don't get time and space to do anything with it.

If I don't get time and space then it doesn't matter what I ask anyway as I'd be dead before I got to appreciate the answer. "Oh what's the secret of the universe?" But then I'm dead before I even get to think about what it means. May as well just ask what's on TV tomorrow because I wouldn't get anything from it.

I don't think you get the intent of this post, but hey, whatever works for you.

I don't think you understand that getting some hokey answers when you do an asklemmy thread about the supernatural is par for the course.

I do, just checking you were aware that was your case

“Why?”

Because

Do people believe the things they say? I probably want to go case by case

What is the fundamental nature and purpose of the universe?

This one's easy, it's a succession of random events without purpose and it's random luck that made it so we developed enough intelligence to be here to talk about it today.

Not all things need a nature or purpose.

The universe is, and we are.

Yep, pretty much! If randomness had made things happen another way we could just be another branch of primates without technology and the Earth at current age could be going on like it did for millions of years and maybe life with technology would only develop in 500m years and it would be based on an evolution of gorillas 🤷

People have a hard time grasping that evolution is random, things happen, sometimes they give an advantage and it helps the individual pass that change on to their kids, sometimes it might be recessive and it won't (imagine an human born with perfected knees but the genes weren't passed on!) and sometimes it's not beneficial but because it doesn't hinder the individual they still get to pass that evolution on to their kids... We don't evolve from hitting our head at a problem long enough that we suddenly have a child that's born with a fix...

Not all things need a nature or purpose.

This is just an easy way to avoid the question...

Whatever you want it to be.

4 more...

Nah, I'm good

"How, subsequent to receiving this answer, can I subvert my death or cause this font of knowledge to actually be useful?"

Answer: "you can't." And you just wasted your question!

Well if that's the real answer, then any question at all would be a waste.

That's not true! Getting an answer to something doesn't necessarily mean the thing you're asking about is possible. You could ask me how to split myself in half and become two people, and I'd say (within my knowledge) it's impossible. But if you ask me how computers can show a pixel on the screen, I can give you a detailed answer. Either way, I'm answering your question, just perhaps not satisfyingly.

The point of this post is to see if there is any piece of knowledge you'd like to acquire, just for the sake of knowledge and not for any practical use. It's perfectly valid to say knowledge is worthless and pointless without any applicable use, I take that's your stance. Lots of opinions in this thread, it's been interesting to read all these replies.

what's ligma

What are the 23 flavours in Dr. Pepper?

Cola
Cherry
Licorice
Amaretto (almond-like flavor)
Vanilla
Blackberry
Apricot
Caramel
Pepper
Anise (licorice-like flavor)
Sarsaparilla
Ginger
Molasses
Lemon
Plum
Orange
Nutmeg
Cardamon
All Spice
Coriander
Juniper
Birch
Prune

It's been a pleasure knowing you DumbKid.

Lol. Is this for real? I had no idea.

Interesting that anise is described as similar to licorice. The plants are indeed very similar and related, but the flavour is very different. I love anise but can't stand licorice. I wonder if it's a thing like parsley vs cilantro, which some people find disgusting but others can hardly tell the herbs apart.

How much lost money have I walked past in my life and not noticed.. can also include gold.

How could we prove the Riemann Hypothesis?

Is there an afterlife in this scenario? Do I ask my question and go to heaven? Or is this just asking a question, getting the answer, and your consciousness blinking out of existence at the moment of death?

Because if it's the latter, frankly, I don't think I'd care that much about anything because nothing will matter in a moment. What good is knowledge without a mind to keep it? The concerns of the material world are ultimately irrelevant to void that I will soon be a part of.

I'd probably ask something stupid like "I lost my copy of Pokemon Blue when I was a kid, where did that end up?" and then disappear into that sweet, sweet nothingness.

If there's a heaven...I'll just ask people what they asked when I get there.

LoL people would end up a jibbering mess if they came up face to face with a cosmic deity that could answer any questions that they would absolutely end up accidentally asking something like, "Oh no! Did I leave my car running?" "Did I remember to feed Mr. Mittens?" Or just "Oh, am I dead then?"

I left it open to interpretation on purpose. I didn't want to shy anyone because of their beliefs. The point of the scenario is experiencing one bit of potentially unattainable knowledge, just for the sake of knowledge itself and not to make any profit or practical use of it. I was curious to know what would others want to know. For me there is no god or afterlife, yet if given the chance I would still ask about something non trivial, even knowing fully well that I'd blink out of existence after I get the answer.

i'd wanna know who had the biggest dick in human history

I heard he lived in Rome

You can just Google that and get a close enough response.

What was the single thing I did that had the last direct impact on myself, that had the greatest lasting impact on anyone else?

Things like spending the extra time one day making a cup of coffee made it so this specific person was stuck behind my slow-ass speed limit driving, averting what would've been a multi-car pileup or some shit like that.

Why cut yourself short with single? I'd surely want to know if there were more things like that in my life

I mean, ideally I'd want a ranking of every decision I ever made in my whole life on that scale, so I could thumb through it.

My favorite concept for an afterlife is being handed a magic book that contains the answers to every question like this where it'd be impossible to track the data, and it would be able to display it in any way you want.

What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything?

What religion is correct, and what do I have to do with the short time I have left to ensure that I get into the best version of the afterlife possible?

Is the Standard Model correct or is there a single fundamental particle/string/anything that we haven't discovered yet?

There are a million fundamental things everywhere that no one will ever know.

Where were you, when everything was falling apart? And all my days were spent by the telephone--

After I'm gone, how would everyone I've loved remember me?

The number of times I walked out of the shower without using soap plus i times the number of times I soaped at least twice to avoid that scenario.

4 more...

Will our efforts in philosophy ever lead to a non-circular answer to the worth of life? I.e. will mankind ever create or find its purpose?

Well, we can prove that a system of axioms can never be both consistent and complete. So for the former, I'd wager not. Would be better to directly ask for it instead, so you get it by fiat at least.

For the latter? I'd wager I'd rather not think about it. What if we found our purpose circa 1300 BCE and have actually had it ever since? I don't think I'd want to risk knowing that :D

Did i make a positive impact?

Will humanity ever stop repeating tired old jokes from monty python and Douglas Adams?

If yes I can die happy that things get better, if no I can welcome oblivion with joy

What happened to the other species of humans? Would they like metal? The first question can be ignored if both are not allowed

You could ask to see and know everything that happened to the other species of humans in a parallel universe identical to this only with birds that sing metal ( if that's the metal you talk about)

You might be onto something

What is the mechanism for qualia?

Ahh scratching that itch before going must be good

It's the only question with an answer that would settle literally all of ethics.

Over or under?

Over. Bye!

The meaningful questions…

And over is the correct answer, of course.

Over and out.

Over

I want to know what the best version of myself would have been like. What did I miss out on.

How might entropy be meaningfully reversed?

Do it squirt?

When I die my first question to the Devil will be: What is the meaning of the fine structure constant?

— Wolfgang Pauli

"What is every number each under 1 sextillion?" bouta buy me a little time

"Real."

"Next!"

Why not 69 sextillion