Obviously a hypothetical scenario. There is no way to pass on the knowledge to anyone else. Time freezes for you only, and once you have your answer you are out of this world.

The question can allow you to see into the past, present and future and gain comprehension of any topic/issue. But it’s only one question.

Edit: the point isn’t “how to cheat death”. You can’t. Your body is frozen and there is nothing you can do with this knowledge other than knowing it, and die. So if you would rather be frozen in a limbo just thinking of numbers for eternity, be my guest.

Such a variety of replies, it’s been really interesting to read them!

What would you want to know? Personally I’d want to see a timelapse or milestone glimpses of humanity’s future until the end of Earth’s existence (if we survive that long)

  • What was life like for ever human that has ever existed? I’d like to see every single day start to finish from their perspective, sorted as randomly as possible.

    The worst part of traditional immortality is being stuck as you, I’d like to experience the entire library and range of human experinces. It would eventually know how it started and how it all ended, while seeing every perspective that got us there. They’d be a lot of days toiling in a field, a lot of days in office cubicles toiling in excel, but most importantly I’d see the small victories and tragedies that make up every life. I think that’d be the real beauty.

  •  A1kmm   ( @A1kmm@lemmy.amxl.com ) 
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    266 months ago

    I’d pick an irrational number, say pi, and ask for every decimal digit of it. Then, I have infinite time to walk around the world in explore mode (i.e. I can’t die, and hence don’t need to eat etc…, and am effectively an infinite energy source, and can interact with objects) while time is frozen. This effectively makes me a god, but only for one point in time, with the ability to create a discontinuity in the world state at that point. I’d travel around the whole world (even if it involved swimming oceans) and try to make it so that the infinite sum of each action I take while the world is frozen converges on a world that is in a much better state infinitesimally after the moment compared to infinitesimally before.

    • But if you actually had infinite time, then that would mean that the world for all intents and purposes has ended. It would never continue, ever. No matter what you do, it would have absolutely no impact at all.

      Furthermore, I imagine if you actually had to wait infinitely long for the answer to finish, that would be like hell. There is only so much you can look at in a frozen world, assuming you would even be able to move at all. I can hardly imagine any happiness after some billions and trillions of years of no new stimuli in a frozen world.

    • Well I guess my bad for not being more explicit with my question, but your body is frozen as well. Only your mind has the ability to absorb the knowledge of one answer, and then you are gone. I’ve seen many asking for infinite answers in hopes of stretching time in a limbo, which wasn’t the spirit of my original post.

    • To quote King Missile, “there are no points”

      There is no point to life
      There is no point to death
      There is no point in continuing our meetings
      There is no point in not continuing our meetings

      There is no point in going out
      There is no point in staying in
      No point in gaining weight
      And no point in staying trim

      There is no point in answering the phone or opening the mail
      There is no point in getting drunk or doing drugs
      And there is no point in staying sober

      There is no point in needing someone
      And no point in being alone
      There is no point in doing nothing
      And no point in not doing nothing

      These are all good points, yet none of them lead anywhere
      None of them are points at all
      There are no points
      There is no point

      • To quote Harry Nilsson,

        Finally, the two travelers reached what Appeared to be the entrance to the Pointless Forest.

        There was a huge stony barrier with A small sign at its base which read " THIS WAY".

        Once on the other side of the barrier, Oblio and Arrow had their first encounter with the Pointless Man or the Pointed Man depending upon your point of view.

        You see, the Pointless Man did have a point.

        In fact, he had hundreds of them, All pointing in different directions.

        But as he so quickly pointed out A point in Every direction is the same as no point at all.

        And, speaking of points, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a Pointless Forest but a forest Is a forest and one of the first things Oblio and Arrow noticed about The Pointless Forest was that all the leaves on All the trees had points and all the trees had points.

        In fact, even the branches of all the trees pointed in different Directions, which seemed a little strange for a Pointless Forest.

        And when the Pointed Man disappeared Oblio and Arrow were left Standing alone wondering what to do next when suddenly, They were aware of a strange sound coming in from the north.

        And when they looked up there was a Giant swarm of bees headed straight for them.

        So, to seek cover they jumped inside a hollow log. But when the bees attacked the log was jarred loose and it tumbled Down a steep hill and careened and crashed Finally into the base of a most unusual rock pile…

        In fact, the Rock Man.

        And the Rock Man said, " Say, what’s happening with you boys? It looks like you’re pretty shook up, been goofing with the bees"?

        And Oblio told the Rock Man that they were banished and Asked him whether or not this was the Pointless Forest.

        And the Rock Man said, " Say, baby, there’s nothing pointless about this gig. The thing is you see what you want to see And you hear what you want to hear - dig. Did you ever see Paris?" - Oblio said, " No". " Did you ever see New Dehli?" Oblio said " No". Well that’s it - you see what you want to see and you hear what you Want to hear", said the Rock Man and with that the Rock Man Fell soundly asleep leaving Oblio and Arrow once again all alone.

        So they continued on through the Pointless Forest until suddenly, Arrow, who had been running a few yards ahead of Oblio, disappeared into a hole, the point of no return.

  •  Piers   ( @Piers@beehaw.org ) 
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    6 months ago

    This kinda just feels like “what single question would you ask ChatGPT if it was omniscient” so my mind is just getting lost in the arcane and complex structuring and restructuring of the question to get the answer you want rather than one that literally answers the exact question you asked.

    Assuming though that you actually do just get the answer to the intent and spirit of your question the only rational one I can think of would have to be some variation of:

    “What answer could you give me that would offer me the most peace, contentment and sense of resolution to my life?”

    Otherwise I’d spend an eternity (or however long I’d have to consider my question) pondering how to ask that question without getting an accurate and correct response like:

    “A really good one.”

    • “What answer could you give me that would offer me the most peace, contentment and sense of resolution to my life?”

      Also the concept that this is like asking ChatGPT really shows that the techno-futurists are winning with their idea of building a their own god of wires and processors that they can use to give the world answers in the place of a god that only lives in the heads of its believers. That’s a dark future where someone can program god to have specific answers to questions.

  • Assuming other implications (existence of an afterlife and God) with this scenario I would have but one question. Why? Why everything? Honestly I would be mad furious if there was an afterlife. More so if there was a God.

    • Personally I wasn’t assuming either the existence of God or an afterlife when I posted but I left it open to interpretation on purpose. I would totally agree with you if such was the case, it’s a valid question worth asking. I’m not sure if I’d be mad at an afterlife, that would depend on the answer to “why”, and what the afterlife was all about.

      • If I die today, as in stop existing completely, I wouldn’t have any questions. When I die I will no longer be, there will be no conscience, no memories, nothing. That is the death I desire.

        If I exist after death, even for a moment, that means death is not the end. Who am asking questions? Why can I ask one last question? How can I get one question / request fulfilled this one last time? I can’t really separate these things that easily.

        • Well- it’s a fantasy scenario. And the question happens right before death, not after. Your reasoning makes sense taking the situation literally, but in essence the post is about gaining knowledge just for the sake of knowledge, without any practical use or impact in your life.

  • I would want to know if I could have accomplished anything different that I did. Could I have been a super successful NFL quarterback? Could I have been a lawyer? Could I have been president of the United States? Could I have been a rockstar or a movie star? Could I have been a bodybuilder? Could I have been a New York times best-selling novelist? I would like to know all the possibilities of what I might have been. I would like to see them lived out, what it looked like, what steps were taken, what decisions were made. Given the limited raw intelligence I had, the genetic potential of my physical body, what was the most I could have done with it?