# Would you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 22, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440 "2004-02-22T00:48:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Buran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Buran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buran)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440/1 "2004-02-22T00:48:29Z")
I saw the movie Big Fish the other day. (semi-spoiler) At one point the main character meets a witch who foretells how people will die when they look in her eye. He asks to look, reasoning that if he knows the manner and time of his death he doesn’t need to be scared at any other event in his life. Would you look and why? Personally I’d rather not know… ---
**Author:** ![rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rose)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440/2 "2004-02-22T01:02:48Z")
…If you see how you are going to die, can you change or avoid it? Or is it a rule that even if you foresee your death, you cannot avoid it? The latter depends on the existence of fate; i don’t believe in that, so i’ll answer the question assuming the future is changeable. And in that case, i would defintely look, and then try to avoid that demise. ---
**Author:** ![Gwynfyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a9a28c/32.png) [@Gwynfyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gwynfyd)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440/3 "2004-02-22T01:07:10Z")
I’d look. I hate uncertainty. It would be reassuring to me to know exactly when and how I was going to die, not to mention the benefits of being able to plan ahead for the welfare of my family. Plus I’m stuck with an irresistable sense of curiosity. I couldn’t NOT look if given the opportunity. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![zephyrine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/35a633/32.png) [@zephyrine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zephyrine)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440/4 "2004-02-22T05:16:49Z")
No. I secretly believe that I am immortal, and I’d hate to find out it isn’t so. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_griffin-kentzel/32/14787_2.png) [@Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Griffin-Kentzel)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440/5 "2004-02-22T05:30:07Z")
This thread is better suited for [**In My Humble Opinion**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=12). I’ll move it for you. **Cajun Man** for the SDMB ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440/6 "2004-02-22T08:36:49Z")
No. I want to believe that I will die at 110 while in my sleep but would hate to find out I die at 23 when I choke on an almond. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440/7 "2004-02-22T21:43:28Z")
I wouldn’t want to know. If she tells me I’ll die in a car accident, then I’ll spend the rest of my life afraid of cars, since I’d never know which one might hit me. Even assuming she’d tell me exactly how and when it would happen, I wouldn’t want to know. I would live dreading that day, thinking about it… I prefer blissful ignorance. And _of course_ you’d have no power to change that future. She’s a witch with magical powers! Any prophecy from a witch or gypsy _always_ comes true, in the movies. So if I’d desperately try to avoid cars for the rest of my life, living secluded in a forest cabin, someday a plane carrying a shipment of Toyotas would explode overhead, and I’d be squashed flat by half of a flaming Corolla. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440/8 "2004-02-23T06:33:38Z")
Hell no. I have trouble imagining living to be middle aged now, imagine how depressing it’d be if it was _true_. ---
**Author:** ![Delly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Delly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delly)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440/9 "2004-02-23T21:45:27Z")
I wouldnt ask. I would end up dreading that moment for the rest of my life… and thats something I dont want. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440/10 "2004-02-23T23:50:44Z")
Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Sqube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Sqube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sqube)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440/11 "2004-02-24T00:15:01Z")
I think that, given enough time, most people would. This idea is based on something that Edgar Allen Poe suggested, and it’s called… [The Imp of the Perverse](http://www.4literature.net/Edgar_Allan_Poe/Imp_of_the_Perverse/2.html). In a nutshell, you’d do it because it was the one thing that you know damn well you don’t want to/shouldn’t do. ---
**Author:** ![Cosmopolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you/230440/12 "2004-02-24T04:25:26Z")
I’m going on the assumption that it would be “fated” for me to die in a certain manner despite the fact that I don’t buy into the idea of fate. That being said: Hell no, I wouldn’t wanna know the manner of my death! Ignorance would be bliss in this particular scenario.