Would you choose the good or the bad?

Question

Consider this scenario…

Suppose a powerful being approached you and said, “I will truthfully tell you one of these 2 things:"

Either the exact time, day, and place where something *bad* will happen to you, so you can naturally avoid it and keep it from happening.

Or

I can tell you where to be at the exact time, day, and place where something *good* will happen to you.

The only catch is he will only tell you about ONE of these occurrences. So, if you choose to know about the bad, you will never learn about the good, & if you choose to know about the good, you will be unaware of the bad. Plus, keep in mind that the good & bad is up to him to tell you – so you don’t know if he is going to tell you something really helpful like how you will die or something trivial like where you will lose a dollar. Same with the good – it could be where to be to win the lottery – or just something small like how to get a free T-shirt.

It's a gamble either way, but the choice is yours...

By "powerful being, I mean only in the sense of a philosophical scenario - nothing dealing with whether the being is lying or not, as I have already worded this carefully to say he is "truthfully" telling you a future occurrence. So... read carefully people - but good answers so far. Very interesting!

Answer 1

I will chose neither. I will go by my own judgement. As you rightly said that to know the bad is to understand the good. And to chose the Good also means that you have already distinguished it from its opposite. Hence, ones own judgement is always preferable.

Answer 2

I'd tell the moron to shove off. The future is an abstract philosophical concept, not a real entity; no one can tell you what is going to happen, good or bad, because that depends on the actions and decisions we make in the present. Besides, why would you want to "avoid" something "bad" happening? Most of the time, everything works out the way it should in the end, so a "bad" or "unlucky" occurrence is likely to be followed by something good; eliminate the "bad," and it screws up the whole system.

Answer 3

Wow...that's interesting. My problem with the question is, just because you can avoid something bad that will happen, it doesn't necessarily mean you will avoid conflict. Take Oedipus' dad. He supposedly has the baby murdered to avoid the disastrous prophecy that Oedipus will kill him and marry his mother. Well, baby survives, grows up and eventually fulfills the prophecy primarily because of his dad's self-fulfilling actions. So just because you don't trip on the curb and break your leg at 12:15 pm on Main Street, it doesn't mean that you still won't have something bad happening to you if you stay home. You could fall out of the bathtub and break your leg.
Thus, since I think that bad things are inevitable, I'm going to just ask for the good thing, even if it is just finding a buck on the sidewalk.

Answer 4

Since I am a naturally optimistic person, I would choose the good. But, on that note, I also believe that there is way more bad out there than good, so I really need all the good I can get.

Answer 5

If it was me I rather prefer the bad one even if it's trivial, mostly of the good luck can be attracted if you're positive to repel the negative. Perhaps , What about if this being tells you your dying date. With this info your already won.

Answer 6

I think I would want to know about the "BAD"
so that I could avoid it.
Good things comes to those who wait. So I just wait for the good and really life is what you make of it.
Good question!!

Answer 7

It would be very appropriate to piss off that powerful being by not accepting his tricky offer but make my one choice. And that would imply being over bad/ good paradise...just to live my life as it appear, nicely may be even gracefully.

Answer 8

Bad.

Assuming this being knows the future, that it must be inevitable...

It takes more to cope with disappointment, I prefer to know in advance to prepare myself for it.

In addition, knowing the good would ruin the surprise and may inhibit my effort, though probably not.

Answer 9

Neither. I like suprises.

The fact that a "powerful being" would approach me would satisfy the good, bad, and raise ugly suspcions.

Answer 10

Such thngs unusual and i dont believe in such things. we r in 21 century we have to think scientificall everything. we cant believe anything on the words of a stranger whether he is powerful or not.