this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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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)

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[โ€“] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (7 children)

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.

[โ€“] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.

[โ€“] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

That's how you trigger a blue screen.

[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

No death for an infinity is a torture in itself.

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

And in a moment you'll learn, that at your scale, for the practical purposes, the universe rounds pi to n numbers. E.g. ~3.1416. Check & mate.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

it would be like a detective game, figuring out intent between non-verbal, static people and deciding what is the right course of action

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

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.