An online quiz claims to be able to tell if you’re likely to die within five years. I think I’d rather concentrate on living
Would you like to know when you are going to die? If the answer’s yes, you’re in luck – simply hop online to ubble.co.uk (the UK Longevity Explorer), answer a few simple questions and, voilà, scientists claim they can calculate your risk of dying in the next five years. But if your answer is a resounding “no, thanks all the same”, well done.
Why would anyone want this information? Death comes to us all but, for the most part, in order to keep functioning, to keep putting one stupid foot in front of the other, ad nauseam, we simply ignore this most inconvenient of facts. And, if ever pressed about how and when we wish to die, the answer is always roughly this: as old as possible, but fully in control of our faculties; painlessly, quickly, in our sleep, or while doing what we love: kitesurfing in a force 10 gale, making vigorous love to a supermodel 20 years our junior, or watching Made in Chelsea, for example.
Believing we know when we’re likely to die gives us an illusion of control that is completely false
Related: ‘I had a ticking time bomb inside me’: four women who faced Angelina Jolie’s choice
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