Thought experiment: kill switch on a countdown

[FohPah]

I wonder if suicide would be easier to commit to, if performed with this hypothetical system.

You press a "kill me in one minute" button, which starts a countdown. At the end of the countdown, you die instantly. Until then, the only way to avoid dying is to press the "cancel" button. After canceling, it's as if nothing happened, and you're free to try again.

It could be implemented with a gas chamber that locks you inside, a guillotine to which your head is fixed, or any mechanism that leaves you with no agency except to press the button.

The point is twofold:

• To reframe the decision. It's like an "undo" button. Anyone who's merely curious about what impending death feels like can start the countdown to get a glimpse of it, without having to commit to anything. So it should be easy to start the countdown. I speculate that the decision not to press the "undo" button would be easier than the decision to press a "kill me instantly" button. It's so much easier for us to be at peace with our decisions after we feel like we've already made them.
• To desensitize the user to the feeling of impending death. It would be an opportunity to practice relaxing and keeping your hand away from the button as the timer counts down -- however many attempts it takes to become completely comfortable with it. It's kind of like when people practice hanging themselves, and each time they put more pressure on their neck. Only with this, you can get as close as you want to the point of no return, and there's no risk of an accident.

I'd certainly like to try something like this, if for no other reason than curiosity.

 

[Eurus]

Interesting,very interesting

 

[Giraffey]

Such an interesting thought. As a consequence of this, you're making the decision to live an impulsive one. Impulsive anti-suicide.

As a cruel twist, how about a torture device where the life-preserving button doesn't work? Or an elaborate Russian roulette where the buttons to "kill" and "cancel" are unlabelled...