If you had the choice to be born would you have been born?

To be able to make such choice implies that I already exist in some form.

And I'd probably be too afraid of non-existence to choose not being born.

Life sucks, but I also don't want to "not-exist". Its terrifying.

Can I just be a ghost floating around and just "chill" and observe? Perhaps in the company of other ghosts to talk to...

Certainly not.

no.

Absolutely.

A. Even with how shit the world is there's enough good that exists for it to be worth it.

B. If I didn't exist, I would never have a chance to help improve the world in my small way.

No. And thats the reason i don't have kids.

Humanity is rotten, and personally i don't think we'll ever change. The best thing that can happen to earth is for humanity to collapse and become extinct.

Fuuuuuck no.

Certainly yes.

No. Not even remotely. Not even if I was assured it was a simulation. No.

I'm echoing a lot of the replies here by saying “No.” Even if I'm given a choice as to what kind of life I'd live, still no.

Even if people say there's a lot of good things in life, or that there are people living their dreams in this world, still no. I don't play the lottery, even if I might end up with more money than I could ever hope to spend. The same logic applies here.

There would be no me to regret not existing if I don't exist.

Funny you should ask because fetus me actually tried to hang myself with my own umbilical cord and they had to cut me out of my mom to stop me. So apparently i really wasnt looking forward to my time on earth.

Even if my life currently is not bad, there are and have been bad times. Not existing is never bad. So no.

Fuck no.

Others have already answered this well, but I'll repeat it anyway: No.

No

Hell no

Oh fuck no. For my entire life I've resented having to be alive. You try being a suicidally inclined 7 year old and see how you like it. The fact that it's impossible to ask someone if they want to be born is enough for me to never want to have kids, always had been. Forcing existence and cognizance on a human being is unspeakably fucking cruel.

No

Warning: ITT, lots of nonresponse bias.

Life dissatisfaction guides people to type no;
neutrally satisfied folks will skip;
the relatively contented might type a "yes" or be offline.
With today's historical context, there's a bit of a skew, especially for those hanging out online o( ; ´ ﹏ `;)o

As for me, I'm excepted. I have decent dissatisfaction rather often, but arrogantly -- I'd be born a million times, every time (unless you ask me at a bad moment).

Even at my worst, why do I not roll over and die? "I want to see how my story ends."

I reckon so, yeah. Better than nothing, right? Been plenty of good with the bad. That's about all a disembodied energy form could really hope for, after all.

I mean, the universe is just an experiment in experience. Even with the bullshit, it's better to have been than to never have been

Question, can I change my sex at birth?

God no. And I won't have kids either. Spare them having to think about it.

Yes. If I'm actually some kind of cosmic being that can choose to be born yes, I am taking that pill. I'm taking all the experience pills.

Yeah, it's worth it. Plus maybe I can help.

Yes. Everything is pointless and nothing is forever. Might as well enjoy the life we've got. Non-existence is better for some people, but I think on the whole life is worth living for most people.

Just like how we don't know what it would feel like to be dead, and we dread dying, I suppose choosing to be born would feel like death of that self that is given this choice, so I guess the question can be rephrased as "if you could die in this moment, would you choose that?"

I guess not.

Damn right I would.

I think I would have preferred to just manifest as a being of energy that could take corporal form at will.

Would have been a lot easier on my mum.

Yes!

_naw

Fuck no!

just go ahead and turn me to dust again, split apart my atoms, make something useful out of it.

So far, yes. I think being able to be physically embodied is so remarkable. And on top of that, to be able to hear and see (sort of) and think and feel? It's not gonna last forever, so I want to feel it while I can. Absolutely yes.

I lean no, but it's close. On the one hand, life is meaningless and hurts. On the other I've gotten to see some cool things.

Yes! I'd rather there be something than nothing. It's a wonder that anything exists at all

Seeing as how shit everything is, no.

Absolutely. I'm not terribly privileged, but while the difficulties of life are non-trivial, overall I've experienced enough joy to justify the expense.

Absolutely.

If I had the choice ahead of time? No, I wouldn't choose to be born.

If it's a retroactive thing though, I wouldn't undo my birth

If I'm just being asked to be born in a randomized way in a randomized location to a randomized family in randomized situations .... then no

If I had a choice of where, when and what circumstances I would like to be born in? ... then yes I would like those odds better and would like to be born.

Maybe if I had the choice of where and when to be born. Much too risky to leave it up to chance though

Like, now? No way. I would choose to continue my unborn existence. However, if I could choose a time period, that would be a different story.

Yes. We have to persist through the horrors, thats just how it is on this removed of an earth

Depends. What's the alternative?

I don't know what I would choose, I was just a little baby at the time

Yes. Alternative doesn’t actually exist, to some degree.

Even being able to process this question means some amount of knowledge to understand it.

Even then, yes. Every time. Existing is the best we know we’ve got.

Yes, but with better teeth.

Do I get a vision of my entire life, or do I just have to choose on a whim?

Hard to say.

absolutely, I'm a fucking delight. Eudaemonia, baby!

If it was before I’d had my kids, probably. Now with my kids existing in the world, I’d essentially be deleting their existences too, so no.