Settings

Theme

Tikker – The wrist watch that counts down your life

kickstarter.com

21 points by atas 12 years ago · 37 comments

Reader

ck2 12 years ago

I find "weeks of life" the most familiar repeating pattern.

Take a moment to realize there are "only" about 1000 weeks in 20 years.

Now think about your weekly patterns and start counting down.

Bonus depression for the morning, your chance of cancer doubles every decade.

mokkol 12 years ago

Depressing when it turns to 0 seconds. Ok now I'm about to die! If not, I will send a bug report!

kabouseng 12 years ago

Watching the video I realised I am wasting valuable time watching the video... - Also I would have preferred a grant total of seconds remaining rather than years / months / days / hours etc.

jpswade 12 years ago

Is this a joke?

This sounds like the perfect way to induce anxiety and hopelessness, ultimately resulting in depression.

This is a terrible idea.

  • vijayr 12 years ago

    depends on the person, I guess. Some people might think "not much time, so let me not waste it" and some might get stressed/depressed thinking about it, and waste even more time than before.

jkscm 12 years ago

Does a deadline produce better work and happier employees?

I doubt that this kind of think will have a motivating a effect. Reminding you of the estimated point in time when your body degraded so much that you will die does not sound great.

It's also purely egoistic. How about making some else's life better by doing things you don't like?

exratione 12 years ago

The time you have remaining is not a fixed number. It is increasing at about one year every decade at the moment, and that rate of increase might leap dramatically in the near future.

You can either be a freeloader, roll the dice and see where the work of other people on medtech takes you, or you can help to increase the amount of time you have left. Participate in initiatives like http://healthextension.co/, or donate to the SENS Research Foundation.

It is interesting to see that in a community ostensibly focused on creating change the first response to length of life line items is usually that length of life and trajectory of life is fixed and immutable.

  • lnanek2 12 years ago

    For a middle class person, they are probably better off saving their money rather than funding life extension research. Having money enough to get good health care in their old age will extend their life more than adding a few dollars to research they would barely speed up thanks to the small amount. Heck, the money might even be needed to buy application of the results of the research. If you are rich, OK, fire away at funding life extension research.

ourmandave 12 years ago

I don't need an Expiration Date clock counting down the seconds to remind me to Live Life.

When I want to feel depressed, er, motivated I just figure out how many weekends I have left until I'm 78.

From all the complaining I hear from people past a certain age there's quality of life issues well before that magic number though.

stavrianos 12 years ago

Built a toy javascript utility along similar lines about a year ago. Breaks down your expected life remaining into blocks by month: http://novorobo.com/projects/hitpoints/index.html.

amimetic 12 years ago

I made a little (free) Android App a couple of years ago that does something similar: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.amimetic.de...

  • eterps 12 years ago

    It needs a progress bar (more visual)

    • amimetic 12 years ago

      I hope a progress bar would be too slowly moving to be of any use!

      • eterps 12 years ago

        That's not what I meant. "18262 days" doesn't say much, but a progress meter (or maybe a pie chart with "Life lived" & "Life left") is more informative IMO.

        • amimetic 12 years ago

          Ah. I agree it would be more informative but also more depressing: a countdown gives you a (inaccurate of course) number of days left to 'make the most of'; showing the number of days done gives you an (accurate) count of days you (perhaps) haven't made the most of.

          But to be honest the App was something I quickly put together in a few hours and I didn't really consider alternatives to a countdown.

    • antonioevans 12 years ago

      Can we level up?

chunkiestbacon 12 years ago

So incredibly depressing. Aren't we reminded enough already everywhere, that it will someday end?

  • antonioevans 12 years ago

    I don't believe we are reminded of this at all. People make ridiculous decisions today with no thinking of the future. It's a common fallacy on the mind. We think of our today "self" and not the grander "self" of from birth to death. If you think about the finite-ness of life you've live healthier and more productively.

  • robmcm 12 years ago

    I expect it's designed for people who don't think about the future, yet I imagine people like us will end up getting it and just get dipressed every time we have fun rather than preparing out legacy.

  • telephonetemp 12 years ago

    "Memento mori" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori) has a long history.

  • Drakim 12 years ago

    Is simply "not thinking about it" the answer though? It seems to me that a lot of people deal with death by forgetting about it, and avoiding anything that reminds of it.

pallandt 12 years ago

At 1st look this is depressing, but strangely enough they've already raised 16k out of the required 25k, AND there's still 24 days left to go until the end of the campaign.

Perhaps the backers are looking at it in a different way: time left to treasure.

draven 12 years ago

Reminds me of this: http://barefootfts.com/blog/memento-mori which is a bit more visual.

zacharydanger 12 years ago

Actually, I'd love a generalized countdown clock. Not necessarily for my lifespan, but set it up for goals like, "My side project will be profitable in 2 months."

  • kfk 12 years ago

    What about an app that does that?

    • esw 12 years ago

      They exist. I use one that counts down to anniversaries, birthdays, and project milestones. It's not good enough to merit mentioning, but if you search the app store for 'countdown', you'll find several.

clark-kent 12 years ago

As eastern philosophers say: The only time that matters is Now. Now is the only time you can ever use.

I agree with other comments this is a terrible idea.

trothamel 12 years ago

"It's occasionally off by a few seconds, what with free will and all." - H. Farnsworth

Yaa101 12 years ago

Probably they won't get many customers, this will make many people go :-(

samnardoni 12 years ago

I'm pretty sure Karl Pilkington first thought of this idea.

SwaroopH 12 years ago

For Pebble owners, a "watch app" would suffice?

TausAmmer 12 years ago

I love to watch this age to be obsessed with time management, waste, gain or whatever anyone comes up with. Šhow for free, sometimes - too serious.

Keyboard Shortcuts

j
Next item
k
Previous item
o / Enter
Open selected item
?
Show this help
Esc
Close modal / clear selection