Death Pods

Suicide Is Still Never the Answer

In the 1999 animated TV show Futurama, the pilot episode begins with the main character being cryogenically frozen and waking up in the year a.d. 3000. Being unfamiliar with this radically changed world, he steps into a phone booth to try to call his only living relative. Unfortunately for him, it is not a phone booth, but rather a suicide booth, which politely asks him to select his mode of death: "quick and painless or slow and horrible." Accidentally selecting "slow and horrible," the terrified character has to dodge an assortment of blades, saws, and knives attempting to dismember him. Though he survives, the automated booth informs him that "You are now dead. Thank you for using...