# Pick a cursed blessing. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 1, 2012, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665 "2012-12-01T11:26:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665/1 "2012-12-01T11:26:40Z")
In a [previous thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15272539#post15272539), I offered everyone a choice of superpowers. Here’s a new set to choose from, though they are almost certainly more of a curse than a blessing. **Knowing the date people will die.** When you interact with someone, your brain tells you how many months or years they have left to live, should they continue as they are. You cannot switch it off. **Clockword World** Everyone, except you is just a stimulus-response engine,being propelled through life by the events that happen to them and thus incapable of real sapience. This allows you to manipulate them really easily once you figure out the patterns. **Seeing dead people** You can see ghosts, lost souls who due to trauma are chained to a place. You see at least dozens of them each day. They can talk to you(and want to), and you can talk to them, though some are not willing to listen. Be warned, very few ghosts get through the trauma and isolation with their sanity intact. On sight alone, it is difficult to pick them out from the living. **Immortality and Invunerability.** You are unending, no force in the universe can harm you, even if you want it to. You cannot receive surgery or get stronger at the gym. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665/2 "2012-12-01T11:51:54Z")
“Knowing everyone’s date of death”; it seems at least possible to help people some of the time (“should they continue as they are”). And even if you can’t help a person live longer, you can plan for their death; or on the flip side, you know who you can expect to live a long time. “Clockwork World”\* would be depressing and lonely. “Seeing dead people” would be depressing and likely to get you in trouble. And “Immortality and Invulnerability” condemns you to utter solitude, sensory deprivation and madness as you float around after everything else in the universe is dead and the stars have gone out. \*An idea from Fritz Leiber I think? I’ve used that in hypothetical myself elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665/3 "2012-12-01T12:42:38Z")
No brainer. Immortality and Invulnerability may become old after a while, but it’s the only one that offers all the Ben and Jerry’s the world has to offer with no consequences. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665/4 "2012-12-01T14:10:30Z")
Can you dumb down Clockword World for me please? I’m not entirely sure I know what you mean. ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665/5 "2012-12-01T14:14:49Z")
I pick knowing people’s date of death, because of the “should they continue as they are” part. I’m a student nurse, it’d be really cool and useful to _know_ if what I’m doing for my patients is working. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665/6 "2012-12-01T17:03:00Z")
You left out “None of the above.” To me, each of the choices would result in a serious nightmare. On the surface, I suppose “immortality and invulnerability” would be the most appealing . . . but I’d hate to outlive the universe, followed by unending nothingness, if that’s how it turns out. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665/7 "2012-12-01T20:57:55Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Can you dumb down Clockword World for me please? I’m not entirely sure I know what you mean. Everyone but you is a mindless automaton, like some Non-Player Character in a video game. They are just operating on a program. > [@panache45](#): > > You left out “None of the above.” To me, each of the choices would result in a serious nightmare. I think that was the point… ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665/8 "2012-12-01T21:00:08Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Everyone but you is a mindless automaton, like some Non-Player Character in a video game. They are just operating on a program. > > I think that was the point… You are right ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665/9 "2012-12-01T21:10:45Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Everyone but you is a mindless automaton, like some Non-Player Character in a video game. They are just operating on a program. If EA is wrote the program and I have to live in a Sims world, kill me now. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![chowching](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@chowching](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowching)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665/10 "2012-12-02T05:40:12Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > **Knowing the date people will die.** > When you interact with someone, your brain tells you how many months or years they have left to live, should they continue as they are. You cannot switch it off. Would you also get to know what date you will die? ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665/11 "2012-12-02T06:39:57Z")
> [@chowching](#): > > Would you also get to know what date you will die? No you will not directly know. However if the majority of people around you have the same date of death, and absolutely no one is predicted to live beyond it, I would start to get very worried for myself. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-a-cursed-blessing/642665/12 "2012-12-02T15:16:42Z")
I’d choose knowing everyone’s date of death. I think you’d get used to it after a while, and like **Namkcalb** said, if someone around you is dying very soon, you’d know to be wary.