Would you pick the red or blue pill?

[mjr]

This is an interesting question. Some of it, I think, comes down to paradoxes.

Because see, nowhere in the initial question does it say your life would turn out the same if you went back to being 10. Because reflecting on that, you may make different decisions, thus altering "the future", and changing what you "know". Maybe you ask out that cute girl/guy that you always wanted to, and that leads to something different. Maybe you make a different choice about a sport, or a class to take, or any number of other things.

Another thing to ponder: If you could, based on the above, go back to being 10 with what you know now, you would also have knowledge and ideas that others wouldn't (i.e. FaceBook), and therefore the idea would be "yours", and you could make the money, and so you wouldn't really need to take the other pill and wake up at 45 with $50 million.

Definitely an interesting question to ponder.

[AnaKhouri]

Neither. Losing seven years of my life (and not seeing those seven years' of my kids' lives) isn't worth all the money in the world. And I wouldn't want to relive my childhood/teenagerhood either- while it wasn't a bad period, going back with my adult knowledge would change everything, and that would change who I am today, and I'm rather fond of who I am now.

[Monterey Jack]

Red pill...it'd be 1984, I'd know what stocks to invest in heavily once I was of-age, my mother would still be alive and I could spend more time with her, and I could hopefully do high school over again and do it right this time (making sure to socialize more and get a girlfriend and get laid before college). By the time I got back up to forty-five, I'd probably be rich anyways from all those investments, my mother might still be alive (I'd harp on her to take care of her health and do more frequent check-ups), and I'd probably have a wife or at least a girlfriend instead of being Andy Stitzer.

[Dreamstalker]

Exactly, mjr. Would the red pill give one the choice of actually going back in time and resetting the clock on everything (minus one's personal accumulated knowledge)?

[Ironclad Alibi]

Because see, nowhere in the initial question does it say your life would turn out the same if you went back to being 10. Because reflecting on that, you may make different decisions, thus altering "the future", and changing what you "know".

That is true. But I have long said that if I could do it all over again knowing what I know now I would make different mistakes.

[EricKei]

mjr - Also, with the ten-year-old option, one would also have to deal with school (and puberty!) all over again, along with the knowledge that you have to survive another eight years before most folks will take ANY financial (or other) advice you have to give about the past/what is now the future seriously...assuming you remember it correctly for long enough.

[Dreamstalker]

You could always write it (or the basics) down once the time-jump is made...

I posed this question to mom, and she went off on a tangent about how anyone who takes the red pill option is proving themselves to be a vindictive person and/or have regrets....sure I have regrets, mostly to do with mistakes I made that let other people screw me over and get away with it because I didn't know better at the time. Who wouldn't want to correct that?

[Kittish]

Imagine for a moment how utterly freaked out parents and friends would be of the person who took the red pill. How do you explain to them why you're suddenly this massively more mature person who... knows things?

[Trixie]

Maybe it's too early and I haven't gotten enough sleep but here's something else to consider. What would you "know"? Is it knowledge of your future or just the future in general? And even going back to 10 there's no guarantee that your life would be any better.

If I could go back in time to when I was 10 to relive those years with just a future me planting the thoughts in my head as I go along in life so I can make different choices in certain situations, maybe.

But going back all those years with the complete awareness of 2017, I have to agree with others and say that would just be way too overwhelming to a 10 year old.

I'd still have to still with my original answer. Blue pill to go back a few years and know I have the money.

[notalwaysright]

I think somehow the question could be structured so that it's more even. I mean, if I took the blue pill I'd instantly lose 15 years, and I don't know if assured money is enough to lose that much time. But other people would actually be younger, so the question is totally different for them.

So instead, maybe if you pick the blue pill you age 10 years from whatever age you are now. What do you think?

[protege]

Definitely blue pill. Lifetime financial security, don't have to relive the hell of an adolescence of being the school outcast and coming home to a violent alcoholic mother.

Blue pill here too. I could pay off the house, never have to work....and I wouldn't have to relive my fucked up childhood...complete with abusive father.

[Ghel]

I would choose the red pill.

If it means going back to 1986, it would mean I get to spend another 5 years with my dad. Getting to know him in a way that I wasn't mature enough to do at the time. I'd take going through the grief again in order to get that 5 years. I could avoid my ex, or at least end the relationship sooner (he probably wouldn't be interested if I had the maturity I have now, anyway). I could stay in Joliet or move to someplace besides rural Minnesota. I might miss out on being with my current boyfriend, but I'm sure I could find someone who is similarly compatible with me. I'd be a feminist and an atheist at age 10.

If it means being age 10 in 2017, I'd still take it. Preferably with a similar support net to what I had growing up, but even if not that, I'd still take it. By the time I got to 18 again, I'd be through the current administration's regime. I could go to college with a head start knowledge-wise, and I'd have a better idea of what I want to study. If I'm lucky, I could be one of the first people on Mars. I'd even be happy to die on Mars if I got the opportunity. I would get to see even more of what the future holds for humans.

[Kristev]

Blue. I'd pay off all my student loan debt and all my other debts, and start fresh going back to school.

I'd never take the red because I wouldn't be a ten year old under my mother's thumb again for anything, even if I did know then all that I know now.

[Akasa]

Red pill.

I could avoid my abusive stalker ex who terrorized me for YEARS and gave me such crippling PSTD and get into computers a different way. I wouldn't slack my first go round in college, apply myself. Hell, maybe I wouldn't have let my mother talk me out of that scholarship to culinary school and followed my dreams to becoming a chef.
I would have avoided that fateful camping trip where I was molested.

So many things I would change.

[Mikkel]

Blue, going back 16 years would assure that I kept my daughter and my grandchildren, but I would be healthier and would probably keep my health better.
The red pill would lose me many of the people I love. My life would perhaps be more succesful, but I don't think I could be any luckier.
Ageing 10 years for 50 mil - no thanks. I'll get older anyway, but I'll do it the hard way .