How different would life be if we knew exactly when the day we were going to die was.

[Eyeofmorbius]

Lets's just say for arguments sake that we had a countdown clock with the exact date and time we were going to expire how would the world be different?
( This is a college project i'd like some help with if you could please )

Would it be a better thing to know when someone was going to die? Would this cause any problems that you can see or are there more pros than cons?

The pros i can see is that through generations of this happening we would obviously be more prepared for death as a race and i think much more understanding to the death procedure then we are now.

A con i can see is criminals or nutcases seeing that their children would be more unpredictable when their life cycle was coming to an end as if they knew they were going to die in 12 hours then killing as much people as they could maybe wouldn't bother them.

So what are the pros and cons and would this be better then not knowing when you will expire?

[sandyRoe]

I had a great uncle who knew the date and hour he would die. The judge told him.

[coccinelle]

It's not really when I'm going to die which bothers me but how I'm going to die. If say I knew I'd die in March 2020 I'd still want to know if for 4 years leading up to that I wasn't fighting cancer or some other disease.

[modeller]

It can be summed up with the old saying :
'Live for today for tomorrow you die.'

The first thing is if you knew when you were going to die there would be no fear of death . Therefore there would far less restraint physically , socially and morally.
What you don't say is how you are going to die and that would be a major factor in your behaviour. rather than the date. However :
,It could boost the economy and tourism as everyone would go on a spending spree in the last two or three years.
Pension schemes would be disrupted as they would know exactly how much they would have to pay out.
The NHS would know when not to bother with drugs and medication .
Many doctors would lose their jobs as patients wouldn't bother going to see them if they knew it was a waste of time.
There could be an upsurge in dangerous sports and pastimes . Driving could be a nightmare if there was no risk of dying.
Would there be any point in studying or working hard if you knew you were going to die young.
You can get some idea by looking at the behaviour of Kamkasi pilots ,suicide bombers and to a lesser extent during the last war when combatants knew they had little chance of surviving the next action.
It is well documented that they were highly irresponsible during the previous days.

[askyourgran]

Absolutely right modeller, I imagine some people would run up huge debts, in a bid to enjoy their last days with family and friends. Get drunk overeat assuming they were not in some terminal state of disease.
Although:
I could never understand why kamikazi pilots wore goggles and helmets when they were going on suicide missions.

[modeller]

Live for today for tomorrow you die. Just about sums it up.

The first thing is if you knew when you were going to die there would be no fear of death . Therefore there would far less restraint physically , socially and morally.
What you don't say is how you are going to die and that would be a major factor in your behaviour. rather than the date. However :
,It could boost the economy and tourism as everyone would go on a spending spree in the last two or three years.
Pension schemes would be disrupted as they would know exactly how much they would have to pay out.
The NHS would know when not to bother with drugs and medication .
Many doctors would lose their jobs as patients wouldn't bother going to see them if they knew it was a waste of time.
There could be an upsurge in dangerous sports and pastimes . Driving could be a nightmare if there was no risk of dying.
Would there be any point in studying or working hard if you knew you were going to die young.
You can get some idea by looking at the behaviour of Kamkazi pilots ,suicide bombers and to a lesser extent during the last war when combatants knew they had little chance of surviving the next action.
It is well documented that they were highly irresponsible during the previous days.

[modeller]

Sorry fault on PC for double posting

[Hymie]

Let’s say my countdown clock has 1 day remaining – given that my death would almost certainly due to some traumatic event, I would change my normal routine (say stay in bed all day).

The world would be a very strange place – where persons who took such precautions still expired; may be due to a gas explosion or faulty electric blanket.

Therefore most persons who died young (as a result of an accident or some similar event) will have precipitated their demise trying to avoid it.

[lightbulb247]

//It's not really when I'm going to die which bothers me but how I'm going to die//

i agree with coccinelle, however it really depends how much time you have and how it happens. Pros would be that youll be able to set your life to those events like go on holiday and do everything you want before you die, cons being that it will constantly be hanging over you, everything you do, that you know youre going to die.