# Cosmic Merry-Go-Round: A Poll **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 14, 2004, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166 "2004-02-14T05:19:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ex\_Machina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/1 "2004-02-14T05:19:39Z")
If you were given the option of living your life over again, knowing when you make your decision that everything will happen the same way, and understanding that you will have no memory of a previous life, would you do it? Would your answer be different if the choice was between repetition and annihilation? Would your answer be different if the choice was between repetition and afterlife? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/2 "2004-02-14T05:37:35Z")
> [@Ex Machina](#): > > If you were given the option of living your life over again, knowing when you make your decision that everything will happen the same way, and understanding that you will have no memory of a previous life, would you do it? Heck no! > [@](#): > > Would your answer be different if the choice was between repetition and annihilation? Difficult one. If I were to be annihalated (sp?) there would be no _me_ to suffer it. However knowing that does not put me at ease. > [@](#): > > Would your answer be different if the choice was between repetition and afterlife? No. I am an atheist, but that is not to say I would want to avoid an afterlife if it turned out there was one. Atheists are not against the idea of God and heaven. They just don’t believe in it. Like I don’t believe there’s a huge pile of cash waiting for me when I get home (but I would be bloody glad if there was!) ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Joe\_Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Random)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/3 "2004-02-14T05:45:12Z")
[QUOTE=Ex Machina] If you were given the option of living your life over again, knowing when you make your decision that everything will happen the same way, and understanding that you will have no memory of a previous life, would you do it? [quote] Depends on the alternative… [quote] Would your answer be different if the choice was between repetition and annihilation? [quote] I’d choose repetition. I’d rather exist than not exist (even though not existing would result in my not caring about not existing). > [@](#): > > Would your answer be different if the choice was between repetition and afterlife? I’d likely choose the afterlife, although it would depend on the nature of said afterlife. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Joe\_Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Random)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/4 "2004-02-14T05:47:20Z")
Every time I think my post is simple enough to not require previewing, **this** happens. If I live this life again, can I at least fix my coding mistakes the second time around? ---
**Author:** ![jastu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jastu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jastu)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/5 "2004-02-14T05:53:51Z")
I wouldn’t want to live the life I’ve lived over again under any circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/6 "2004-02-14T06:45:34Z")
Well if you’re going to have no memory of your decision, what difference would it make? I could have made the decision already, many times in fact. If I were to have my memory erased completely it wouldn’t be much different than dying. ---
**Author:** ![Ex\_Machina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/7 "2004-02-14T20:41:37Z")
> [@Yumblie](#): > > Well if you’re going to have no memory of your decision, what difference would it make? I could have made the decision already, many times in fact. If I were to have my memory erased completely it wouldn’t be much different than dying. I understand this. But try to answer the question as it is posed. You die. A being appears to you. He gives you the choice of living your identical life again or annihilation. Repeat your life: yes or no. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/8 "2004-02-15T04:44:17Z")
> [@Ex Machina](#): > > If you were given the option of living your life over again, knowing when you make your decision that everything will happen the same way, and understanding that you will have no memory of a previous life, would you do it? **Not on your freakin’ life!!!** And have all that unbelievably horrid crap happen to me all over again? No kind of way. > [@](#): > > Would your answer be different if the choice was between repetition and annihilation? No, rather than a repeat of my childhood and adolescence, I’d opt for oblivion. > [@](#): > > Would your answer be different if the choice was between repetition and afterlife? I don’t believe in an afterlife. If there was one, I’d be wary that it was full of the very people I go out of my way to avoid in this life. ---
**Author:** ![Ex\_Machina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2004, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/9 "2004-02-15T22:35:26Z")
Thanks to \*\*Lobsang, Joe Random, jastu, Yumblie, and fishbicycle \*\* for answering this question. I’m disappointed that more people didn’t respond since I find this to be a fascinating revelatory exercise. I have asked this question of many people and I was surprised at the number of people who didn’t hesitate in responding “No, no, no.” And many of them gave every outward appearance of being happy. (Just so you know where I stand, I would choose annihilation over repetition.) It once occurred to me, as it has to other folk, that it is conceivable that an individual’s conscience is a result of determinism, and that if the universe is made of finite stuff in perpetual flux (expanding to its limit then condensing to its limit) while cycling through every possible permutation of its fundamental components, then our conscience is a perpetual repetition of the same permutation. A person realizing this, if it is true, essentially asks himself the question of the OP. “Is my life an eternal heaven or hell?” I once thought of this realization as a form of enlightenment where your perpetual happiness is, in that instant, delivered into your hands alone. “Can I,” you might say to yourself, “from this moment on, and regardless of the pain I have suffered to this point, transform my life into one that I would be happy to live over and over?” In a sense you become your own savior. (Consider the religious concepts such as forgiveness, selflessness, even resurrection, which begin to come into play in your “salvation”.) Imagine, a lifetime of sorrow, failure, embarrassment, abuse…all wiped away (in this most extreme of examples) in a moment of perfect happiness, understanding, and peace, in the moments before death. Maybe we can turn our “no” answers into yesses. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2004, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/10 "2004-02-15T23:27:59Z")
> [@Ex Machina](#): > > If you were given the option of living your life over again, knowing when you make your decision that everything will happen the same way, and understanding that you will have no memory of a previous life, would you do it? Sure. > [@](#): > > Would your answer be different if the choice was between repetition and annihilation? No. > [@](#): > > Would your answer be different if the choice was between repetition and afterlife? Depends. We talking Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory here? And in case it helps you any, I’m an atheist and have no belief in anything supernatural. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2004, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/11 "2004-02-16T09:06:02Z")
**Ex Machina** , take the middle path. 😉 OP: no, yes, depends. ---
**Author:** ![Ex\_Machina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2004, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/12 "2004-02-16T18:41:24Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Depends. We talking Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory here? This part of the question is not supposed to be determined. The intent was to find out whether you would trade the ‘known’ for the ‘unknown.’ The reward or punishment level of the afterlife depends on what you feel you deserve. It’s not essential to the OP but it’s an interesting thought. For example, I would choose obliteration over repetition. But if the choice was between repetition and an afterlife I would fear a worse possible ‘unknown’ punishment, so I would choose perpetual repetition as a ‘known’ punishment. On the other hand if you were deliriously happy you might, for your own reasons, decide to forgo the unknown for another go-round with people you love dearly. ---
**Author:** ![Binky\_the\_Operator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Binky\_the\_Operator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binky_the_Operator)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cosmic-merry-go-round-a-poll/229166/13 "2004-02-19T05:37:01Z")
Originally Posted by Ex Machina > [@](#): > > If you were given the option of living your life over again, knowing when you make your decision that everything will happen the same way, and understanding that you will have no memory of a previous life, would you do it? Poses interesting questions about deja vu. Maybe we _have_ done this all before. That being said my answer would be… Hell no! I’m not so keen on doing it this time around. This reminds me of a dream I had a long time ago. It was short and sweet… I jumped into a pool of water and found myself in a complete sensory void. No up, no down, no hot or cold, just my own disembodied thoughts. And peace. Something like swimming in the river Lethe.