Instead of thinking of whether you would rather have cancer or gonorrhea when you are 60, think of which one you would prefer to be diagnosed with tomorrow. Gonorrhea is probably a bad choice since it's curable. So lets make it HIV or herpes. Except for AIDS, you won't die from STDs. Yes, it is an inconvenience and a stigma, but not deadly. Even with HIV, with the current drugs, there are people living for many, many years. There are babies born with AIDS and are still alive in their 20s.

On the other hand, if you get cancer and you are diagnosed in the later stages and it has spread to the lymph nodes and other organs, you are basically fucked. Lifespan would be in months or a few years. And you aren't going to die peacefully one day while you are sleeping. You will instead slowly waste away and in the final months your organs will be shutting down and if it weren't for the pain medication, you will be begging for it to end. Should you get lucky and catch it early, there is always a chance it will come back.

Oh, and on wikipedia, it says we've hit 6.5 billion people back in Feb '06.. Not quite at 9 billion yet.. it's forecasted we'd hit that in the 2040s.

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