# A Choice of Futures or Cuchullain's Bargain **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 14, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500 "2014-09-14T21:27:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/1 "2014-09-14T21:27:16Z")
For purposes of this thread assume this takes place before you met your significent other and/or had children. So there you are sitting at home by yourself minding your own business when you hear a knock at the door. Answering you see two people, a man and a woman, they are wearing odd clothing and have somewhat strange accents but you instinctively trust them. They explain their reason for visiting you, turns out they are from the future and surprisingly enough its a future you are going to have a massive impact on but the decision as to what happens is down to you. They show you that there really are multiple realities and as such the results of the decision you take are generally known but the only future that concerns you is _this_ one, the reality you are currently in. At some point in the near future you are going to be faced with a choice, if you choose one direction you will prevent a major upcoming war, your name will go down in history and people will remember you for what you did, that you saved millions of lives by your courage and heroism, but as a consequence you will die young, will never have any children or meet the love of your life (s/he really is out there), your line will end with you. Alternatively if you choose otherwise the war will take place, millions will die, but you yourself will find the love of your life, have a loving partner and children, will live a long, happy and content life and die peacefully, surrounded by loved ones but your name will never be known by anyone outside your own circle of family and friends, your line will continue indefinitely. You are certain that the visitors really are telling you the truth, they have no ulterior motives and their intentions are benign, they put no pressure on you either way but the decision must be yours. So what do you choose? \*Cuchullain btw was a legendary Irish hero who as a youth was offered either a short life full of glory and the promise that he would be remembered in legend, or a long happy life but an obscure death and that and his name would be forgotten. Needless to say, he chose the former. Dammit I meant to put a poll on this one but screwed it up ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/2 "2014-09-14T21:33:02Z")
I say “Piss off, ya wankers” and slam the door. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/3 "2014-09-14T21:45:33Z")
Nitpickery, but I think this is Achilles’s bargain, not Cúchulainn’s. Achilles was offered the choice between a short life of glory and a long dull one, and chose the short life of glory. Cúchulainn was just the subject of a prophecy saying he would have a short life of glory. He didn’t get to make the choice. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/4 "2014-09-14T21:46:44Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > . . . . Well, I guess it is obvious which _you_ would choose! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/5 "2014-09-14T21:49:23Z")
If I’ve recently taken a long car trip with my wife I might go for the true love. Otherwise, being relatively stupid, I’d save the millions. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/6 "2014-09-14T21:49:24Z")
Ask them which of the two futures they came from, and pick the other one. _That_ should screw things up. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/7 "2014-09-14T22:27:33Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > Nitpickery, but I think this is Achilles’s bargain, not Cúchulainn’s. Achilles was offered the choice between a short life of glory and a long dull one, and chose the short life of glory. Cúchulainn was just the subject of a prophecy saying he would have a short life of glory. He didn’t get to make the choice. Ah, thank you, must have misremembered that! > [@njtt](#): > > Well, I guess it is obvious which _you_ would choose! 🙂 Heh, actually I’m kind of a romantic at heart but I don’t think I could truly be happy and content knowing that my decision had led, albeit possibly indirectly, to the death of millions even if the people from the future told me I’d get over it. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Ask them which of the two futures they came from, and pick the other one. > _That_ should screw things up. I kind of tried to sidestep that issue by mentioning the alternate realities, assume that whatever you do it won’t affect _them_. Though I like the way you think! ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/8 "2014-09-14T22:41:44Z")
Well, for me it’s an easy choice since I have no SO, nor any intent to sire any offspring. And frankly, the only part that interests me is “prevent a major war”. Nothing else matters. Fame is beside the point. Longevity is beside the point. I’ll take the first choice, every time. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/9 "2014-09-14T22:48:26Z")
Since time travel is possible and I hold the fates of millions in my hands, it would only be a matter of time before someone turned up to assassinate me if I told them to sod off and thus unleashed war. So my choice is messiah who sacrificed himself or monster who was rightly slain. Can I ask them to fake my death, then take me to the far future of an alternate reality? Seems a fair price to exact. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/10 "2014-09-14T23:45:43Z")
Well… this is actually a very interesting question for me because I’m not a big risk-taker. So I’m weighing the chances of success and not so much the outcomes themselves because both outcomes have their perks and drawbacks. If it’s offered exactly as worded in the OP - a _guarantee_ of saving the world, being remembered, etc. then I would go for that. It’s a big benefit to other people, and I do get something out of it, if only posthumously. But if you take away the guarantee of saving the world, I’d actually choose differently. I’m quite happy living a quiet normal life and being forgotten. I’ll make my little piece of the world nice and enjoy myself. It’s the safer bet and more likely to succeed. I’d hate to die young merely _attempting_ to make the world a better place. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/11 "2014-09-15T00:13:34Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > So there you are sitting at home by yourself minding your own business when you hear a knock at the door. Answering you see two people, a man and a woman, they are wearing odd clothing and have somewhat strange accents but you instinctively trust them. That’s bloody unlikely. I’m not buzzing in strangers wearing weird clothes! ---
**Author:** ![buddy431](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@buddy431](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddy431)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/12 "2014-09-15T03:36:56Z")
I tend to dislike these sorts of questions, because they’re so far divorced from reality. It’s like the [Trolley Problem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem), where 90% people will say it’s OK to divert the trolley, but nearly no one will say it’s OK to kill a healthy hospital visitor to save 5 people in need of transplants. The problem is that a situation where the outcome is certain don’t come up that often in real life. If two people came up to my door and said that, I _wouldn’t_ believe them. You can say “well, what if the plot device means you know the outcome for sure”, to which I respond that I would be entirely unequipped to deal with such a situation; I have never dealt with that situation before and, if I want to invoke some evolutionary psychology, my ancestors have never dealt with such a situation before. All that being said… I’d take the long happy life. I don’t care what people think of me after I’m dead. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/13 "2014-09-15T04:15:25Z")
I don’t care about the fame and glory, but I _couldn’t_ live a happy life knowing that my decision cost millions of others their lives. I’d die young and without having my kids and husband even if I _weren’t_ remembered, if it would prevent millions of deaths. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/14 "2014-09-15T04:28:51Z")
My first thought is that these are a pair of right bastards, to be telling me this. What’s in it for them? ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/15 "2014-09-15T07:33:26Z")
Hey: If the _Terminator_ can travel back and kill the mother before she becomes the mother, why couldn’t a couple of jokers come back a play mind games? Hell yes, I’d go for the glory - I’m old and have already found that my life has not made much of a difference outside a handful of cases - and it’s not certain that I didn’t screw up others. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/16 "2014-09-15T09:26:31Z")
_Every_ decision I make might start a war/unleash global devastation/save a puppy. Who knows. Sure, I stop this war and get the fame and respect in _their_ distant future…and then, in a _more_ distant future, past my visitors’ ken, I’m used as the messiah figure for a death cult that kills _ **quintillions** _ of sophonts across all the sentient-occupied Seven Galaxies…if only I’d lived a quiet life! We should get that one damn butterfly to stop flapping its wings. And I live my life the way I would have, always. ---
**Author:** ![CT\_Damsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CT\_Damsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CT_Damsel)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/17 "2014-09-15T13:52:05Z")
I want to prevent war, save millions and die young since it is necessary; but please use a pseudonym as I do not wish to be famous. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/18 "2014-09-15T16:02:46Z")
If this is a ‘many worlds’ thing, then both of those futures happens regardless of my choice; I’m just choosing which one I want to inhabit. I still don’t know what my answer would be. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/19 "2014-09-15T16:41:48Z")
I own a mirror & I’d know that its a lie. So, where’s this damn war we’ve gotta stop…? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500/20 "2014-09-15T17:07:30Z")
Already 52 and not likely to have children. Let’s rock. We have a war to stop. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-choice-of-futures-or-cuchullains-bargain/698500.md?page=2)