Sometimes it's better not knowing...

[Ho-Oh]

Would you rather know nothing or everything?

If you had the choice, would you rather go through your entire life with no knowledge at all, having to face hardships without any previous knowledge / understanding, though, in a sense, gives you innocence? Or alternatively, know everything, which comes at a price; knowing the meaning of life, knowing the best and worst of people, though you would know how to avoid certain situations.

Weigh the situations up, which would you prefer?

 

[Ayselipera]

I rather not know. If there is one thing I have learned it's that the more I know the more nervous, sad, and worried I become. I remember when I was really little and barely knew anything I used to be really outgoing and daring. Then as I got older and learned more I just became scared to do things and a bit introverted.

I especially noticed this after a few friends asked me why I was so different now compared to when we were younger. Which I don't want to let anyone down, but I can't help the way I am now. Who knows though, maybe in a couple years I'll be a whole different person again. Maybe not as drastically, but we are all always changing even if it's only minute changes.

 

[Dawn]

I would know everything if I so could. Now, if only that was possible.
/sigh

 

[Dubstep]

I very much value knowledge because of what it can be used for, so I'd like to know everything. I already know the good and bad of a lot of things in life (and people), and how to not let it affect me so much. I'm also a nihilist.

 

[Eternal Nightmare]

Wow this actually a good topic -tosses Forever a cookie :3-

This a little bit tricky for me to answer. If you know everything than you have no knowledge to seek out and learn. That can be boring as, to me anyway, learning new things are fun.

But then again not knowing anything is no fun either. Simple addition and subtraction you can't do. You also have no knowledge of how to protect yourself from danger :/. So really if I had to choose I would want to know a little bit of something while having that void of nothing n_n.

 

[OokamiShipper]

WHOA. I had this debate with friends the other day. And my teacher was talking about this in class. xD

"Ignorance is bliss."
I think that kind of sums up the first choice?

Is anyone really that innocent? Knowledge is inevitable. If you don't know what's happening in the world you live in, how are you going to survive in it?

So, yeah, you can tell, I'd rather go with the second option.

 

[Melody]

I am the type of person whom rarely finds any bliss in ignorance, so yeah. I'd rather know and understand things.

To be honest, I don't particularly like the saying "Ignorance is Bliss" because it's not. It often hurts worse than you think it would, but the effects take far longer to show up.

 

[Morning Sun Espeon]

I'd rather know, because not knowing leads to screwed up thoughts and misunderstandings

 

[KejiBebi]

That's a very hard question to answer, I'd see both being very hard to deal with. D:
But if I had to choose, I would choose not knowing.
I'd never want to know everything.

 

[Luck]

Ignorance is most definitely not bliss to me. I would rather have knowledge of everything. I could spread my knowledge and help humanity for the better.
Although I'll know everything that will happen, I can still endulge in simple pleasures like food, drink, and helping others.

 

[mikey]

Hmm, I'll have to go with knowing everything. Having that knowledge can be influential if you share it.

 

[SIN1488]

I say I would rather know everything, but that would also take a lot of fun out of life. If you knew everything, never again would there be point in doing an experiment, because you know exactly what will happen and why. The upside is that you can use all that knowledge to better the world though.

But wouldn't that suck if you had all that knowledge, and because of that you knew there was still no way you could use it to improve the world? :(

 

[PuNkSter]

I'd rather know everything. We only got one life, if we just stood there knowing nothing, what kind of life would that be?

 

[Sammi]

On one hand, life would be ten times harder than it already is, if I knew nothing. I'd constantly be at a disadvantage, one that I could never recover from. That's not exactly a good position to be in, and I know I'm nowhere near intelligent enough to survive with that kind of disadvantage.

On the other hand, if I knew everything, I don't know if I could handle the pressure of knowing, well, everything. Honestly I think it would break me, knowing all of the evil of the world, even if there's plenty of good to counteract it.

As much pressure as it'd be, though, I don't think I'd be able to survive knowing nothing, so I'd just have to suck it up and know everything, I guess.

 

[SparklingMistral]

I'd rather know everything. When I was younger, I was really shy and all. Now that I know a bit more, I'm less shy and more outgoing. Plus, knowing more would help you in a tough situation.

 

[Gymnotide]

Hypothetical Situation IV (Part Deux)

ITT: This is a remake of a thread I made some time ago.

Choose one.

• Know everything about the world. You think it... You know it. Catch is that you're subjected to oblivion; you can't do anything in the physical world or influence it in any way. You exist, but no one else can see you, feel you, or even sense you. You can't talk to them, they can't talk to you. It's as if you never existed in the first place. And no getting out, either. Imagine floating in space for all eternity.
• Have all your memories and thoughts erased at the start of every day. We can say that exceptions to the rule are things like speech, habits, mannerisms, etc. Things not exempt are your identity, your social contacts, the news, what you were doing, the fact that you forget your memory every morning, your location, etc. You can write down everything that you experience in a book, but you'll forget the existence of that book... And you'll probably doubt it the next morning when you wake up anyway.

 

[Rich Boy Rob]

I think I'd rather go for situation No. 2. I don't think I could stand never being able to influence anything in the physical realm besides, if you forget everything every day, then you would forget that you couldn't remember anything, meaning you wouldn't know anything is wrong.

 

[Pokémon Ranger ✩ Moriarty]

Scenario One is more likeable to me than Scenario Two. I'm not a sociable person at the best of times, but being able to see everything, to know everything...I think that would be rather cool. I probably wouldn't get bored, either. It would be like the universe's biggest soap opera, and you could know what happens to every person...eh. It's highly preferable to Two. I would hate to forget everything I knew every single day. It would make me thoroughly useless. And you would know something was wrong - because you'd forget your loved ones, your friends, your interests, everything. Imagine people walking up to you every day saying "but I'm your mother" or "I'm your best friend", and never knowing if they were telling the truth or not. Or seeing them cry when you don't remember them. That would be awful.

 

[Rich Boy Rob]

And you would know something was wrong - because you'd forget your loved ones, your friends, your interests, everything. Imagine people walking up to you every day saying "but I'm your mother" or "I'm your best friend", and never knowing if they were telling the truth or not. Or seeing them cry when you don't remember them. That would be awful.

I suppose that's true. I was just under the impression that you would have been forgetting everything since birth, hence you would have no pre-existing friends or relationships with family. If this is just a choice that I (hypothetically) get to choose on any random day, then yes I probably would go for option 1 as I would basically be a god, albeit a powerless one. Being able to know and observe everything would be cool, I could go check out what the aliens on other side of the universe are up to. And I suppose you wouldn't really get bored as you would constantly gain more knowledge as things happened. Unless you already knew everything that will happen.

 

[TheUltimateSacrifice]

Only a Sith deals in absolutes...