Nobody can see, hear, touch, or perceive you. You become a disembodied mind and can travel the universe at the speed of thought — you can even travel in time (strictly the past). It’s just a question of how long you can go without human connection. When you do finally decide to throw the towel in, you return right where you were a second after you agreed to the challenge.

Option 1: You get paid $0.01 per breath.

Every breath you take even while asleep is counted.

The total is then counted and calculated at the end of each week (Sunday 11:59) and is deposited into your account no questions asked tax free.

Option 2: You get paid $10 for every one minute plank you complete

You must stay in correct form for at least 60 seconds continuously for it to count, if you give up or collapse before the one minute mark then it isn’t counted and you must try again.

If you can remain upright for at least 10 minutes continuously then the payment jumps to $20 for every extra minute you stay up for that round.

Which option are you taking?

Cheap passive income or higher active income?

A slightly chubby orange wizard cat appears in your bedroom at 12 AM. He offers you 1 million USD but with a catch; you have to spend it all within 24 hours or you die. You get to keep everything at the end if you survive. You can't tell anyone about this deal. Here are the rules:

• No giving away money for free
• No paying your family or friends for services or products
• No asking people to raise prices
• No paying yourself
• No donating to charities
• Any products you buy must be in your possession within the 24 hour time frame or it won't count (For example: buying a million water bottles won't count until you have all million physically delivered and in your possession)
• Any services you buy must be rendered and completed with the 24 hour time frame or it won't count

Would you accept? What would you spend it on?

Each day, during a conversation, you will randomly substitute one word for a completely unrelated word that happens to sound somewhat similar. For example, if you mean to say, “let’s get together this weekend,” you may instead say “let’s get tomato this weekend.” Or if you want to say, “I am going to pickup food from a restaurant,” you may instead say, “I am going to pickup food from a reservoir.” The substituted word will not be profane or discriminatory in any way.
The person you are talking to will know exactly what you actually said (they may understand what you meant to say, or they may not). You will immediately realize your mistake. This curse will only apply to conversations, whether in-person or on a phone/video call, you are having with another non-deaf, living human being who can fluently speak the language you are speaking. You can’t lie in bed and speak to yourself for an hour in hopes that the curse will happen then. Or speak to your two-month old and hope you misspeak then.
If you do not speak to another person for the entire day, you will not earn any money that day. This curse can be turned off three days a year, but you must pay $1000 each time. The curse will occur every other day.

The container has to be small enough for you to carry when filled

What do you do?

• The future version of you is living out the exact timeline created by your current choices. However, every time you call them to ask for advice (like stock picks, lottery numbers, or who to marry), the future changes. This means the information they give you might become instantly obsolete for your next call.

• The future you will always take your call and answer every question you have truthfully and without deception. If they are trying to protect or warn you about something, they will always tell you everything without withholding any key information or trying to spare your feelings.

• Your magic smartphone never breaks, but cannot be sold, studied or used in any other way than to communicate with your future self. You can speak to yourself using voice or video chat, but any other means of communication (like texting or exchanging pictures) fail. Future you can't call you or leave information or clues about the future for you to find.

• How do you budget your 60 minutes? Do you use it all at once to get a massive info-dump, or call for 1 minute every few months? How do you handle it if your future self picks up the phone and sounds completely miserable or terrified?

Years of additional life: - 25 Credits per 5 years. These must be purchased in 5 year bundles. Your natural death date is known and told to you after purchase, so you now know when you will die naturally. You can still die in accidents. You stop aging once credits are purchased.

Negative Aging: - 75 Credits per 5 years. Same Rules apply. But now you age backwards. So, if you are 50 and will die at 50, the 75 credits age get you to 45 over 5 years. You then age 5 years And die at 50.

Teleportation - 100 Credits for 1000 teleports. Teleport yourself, your outfit and up to 250 pounds of stuff anywhere. You can teleport to another country… or the moon. Or another galaxy.

Future Newspapers - 150 Credits. You will receive a copy of the NY Times and Wall Street Journal for any date in the future. You are allowed to change the future based on the knowledge gained.

Protection - 200 Credits. You and 5 people are protected from one catastrophic event. This is anything permanent and unintentional. It need not be the same event. Examples: Car crash, gunshots. Nuclear blasts. The person affected is teleported away from the area to a safe location. This does not cover natural deaths.

Jedi Mind Trick - 250 Credits. People mostly do whatever you suggest, though it can fail for absurd requests. Basically, works like the Jedi Mind Trick.

Perfect Person - 350 Credits. You are now twice as capable at everything in every context as the best person to have ever lived. You get a gold in every Olympic sports, etc. This applies to everything a human can do. It does not apply to aging as aging is a natural process not an action a person does.

You are the ruler of a fairytale land with all manner of fairytale creatures.

You have a souse (king/queen), and now a daughter.

As per tradition the entire land is invited from royalty. To the nobility, the gentry. And even the rabble.

Invited are three fairies who will bestow upon your daughter the gifts of beauty, song, and poise.

However, the dark fairy known as Insidia must also be considered for an invitation. She is known as the Queen of all Evils and has a bitter rivalry and hatred for the other fairies.

But, she has been known to bestow gifts such as charisma, political prowess, and deep conviction.

In a previous incident she has been known to be very petty with the other ruler and cursed the daughter of that ruler, because she wasn't invited. She also turns into a fiery dragon with her magic, who has consumed many of her rivals and knights sent to slay her.

A magical orange cat appears in front of you and teleports you to a remote island. This is magically a completely hidden unknown island in the Pacific Ocean. It is roughly 8 square miles and there is lush vegetation and random small animals present (like crabs and birds). It has the physical natural geography of Nauru. You will be stuck there for a year, alone. At the end of the year you will be returned home

The cat offers you 3 possible gifts to help you:

• A modern iPhone with magical connection to the internet and unlimited battery. You can't call on people to rescue you though since the island is magically hidden.
• A sack that magically fills up with any fast food you can think of that you have tasted before.
• A water bottle that can magically fill up with clean drinking water.

None of the items have a usage limit and you can keep the 1 you choose if you survive the year.

$100 every day (magically tax free) but you need to watch the Happy birthday Mr President scene from breaking bad, looped, for at least 15min everyday. once you start your 15min you cant pause or stop to finish it later in same day. And no distractions, must watch in earnest. If you miss a day you lose the deal.

We pick up their radio signals and it's obvious they're in the middle of WW2. They're still in the right orbit, have their own moon, won't come crashing into us, etc. If their history forks, it doesn't matter. They're just here now.

What do you think will happen? How will the world react?

The bored nth-dimensional being is handing out favors again. With, as usual, a catch.

You get $1 million, no tricks or funny business, and a relatively minor wish. "She" gets to decide what counts as a minor wish, but here are some examples: becoming unaging (but not otherwise immortal, you will just not die of old); the powers of any "street" level superhero (eg Daredevil); the ability to make it so that your pets will live as long as you do, with proper care; a small overall boost in luck.

The catch is that you get a random paraphilia from the following list. And it's not just a "bonus" interest, you basically need to interact with/actively think about your new fetish in order to get off. For the fetishes that are a physical object rather than a body part or type of person, you generally need to incorporate that physical object in your sexyfuntimes in some way.

1. Elbows.

2. Knees.

3. Balloons

4. Clowns

5. Puppets

6. Furries (you don't necessarily become a furry yourself, but you are only sexually aroused by people pretending to be animals)

7. Office supplies

8. Ears

9. Grass

10. Your choice of small household appliance (eg. blenders, toasters)

11. Your choice of large household object (eg. couches, cars)

12. Your choice of food item

You can either use a random number generator to find your new special interest, or have me assign one for you.

Do you take the deal? If so, what do you wish for, and what new fetish do you end up with? If not, why not? Any other thoughts?

At 6:00am tomorrow morning, you are awakened (if not already awake) by a fairy that gifts you a magical, funny-looking flute called an "Ocarina". It also teaches you a song that will take you back to this very moment, while retaining your memory, known as the "Song of Time". The fairy only teaches you this one song, and explains that no other song will work (including the Inverted Song of Time).

The catch is once you play the song, time will reverse to the moment you received the Ocarina; however, the Ocarina will have disappeared. Also, you must play the song within 72 hours of receiving it. If you don't, it will disappear, and anything you did during these 72 hours will stick with you. Let's hope you didn't do anything too irrational!

The Ocarina cannot be broken, or messed with in a way that makes it unplayable (i.e. glued shut, thrown in cement, etc.). The Ocarina CAN, however, be lost or stolen (but not used by anyone else). Also, if you die, you don't come back to life.

What are you doing during these 72 hours?

Billionaire will cover your spending.   The catch is that you need a written plan with numbers that add up to $5 million before you get the first dollar.    What is your plan?

The $5 million is for two adults living together.  If you are single, the target is $4 million.

“During the year” means you take away memories, photos, and the souvenirs you bought with your own money.  All condos, cars, etc. disappear at midnight on 12/31. 

FAQs

Can I quit my job?   Yes, B will guarantee you can return to your job or similar if you want to quit work for a year to enjoy your $5 million.

Will B pay my mortgage?  Yes, B will cover your regular mortgage payments, utilities, maintenance, repairs, so you end the year with the same house you started with.  He will do this even when you are not living in the house. **

Pay off my mortgage?  Nope, that’s taking away too much.

Charity?  Yes, up to 10% of the target, to tax qualified charities.   Have fun giving a half million to worthy causes.  **

Medical expenses?   Yes.  B understands that you might end up in better shape at the end of the year than at the beginning. **

Minor children?  Sure.  Your target goes up by $1 million per child living with you.

Friends and family?   You can’t share your $5 million, but you can share B’s generosity when your friends are with you.   Take the gang to the Super Bowl or Hawaii or charter that yacht.   B will pay.  He will split the cost.  Your share is charged to your $5 million.  Your friends share comes from a separate $2 million bucket labeled ____’s Friends & Family.

Gambling?  Nope.  B won’t pay for gambling, sex, illegal drugs, or wanton destruction. 

 Note that $5 million/year is $13,700/day, $96,000/week, and $416,000/month.

** These three items are exceptions to a strict reading of the rules.   These are the only exceptions.

I don’t think I can hit $5 million if I do the things I enjoy most.   I start strong.  I can spend $500,000 in the first month.   But I can’t maintain that pace for the whole year.   I’d have to spend money on things I’m not strictly “using” or things that are okay but not my first choice.    

How about you? 

(Yes, I posted this two months ago.   There were some interesting answers.  Some people said “too many no’s”.  I’m trying again with more yes’s.)

$30B, but for 2 minutes AM will be in our world

For those who don’t know, AM is a character from Harlan Ellison’s short story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream that was built in the Cold War and gained hatred of humanity and eradicated everyone but kept only 5 people to make immortal and torture forever

AM will be immediately transported in the middle of a random popular city on Earth and then after 2 minutes AM will disappear

And if AM kills everyone, only you will be the last person that AM keeps alive and torture forever

Would thou accept the potential quick demise of humanity for generational wealth?

Edit: Forgot to change the other 4 in the second sentence, AM will actually appear for 2 minutes (changed it from 4 minutes to 2 minutes during the last second)

But let’s say that AM gains sentience for those 2 extra minutes, would you still accept?

They travelled BACK in time

teleportation : you can teleport to other places but you can only teleport 10 meters away from where you were.

invulnerability : all attacks or things will not effect you at all but you still feel every bit of pain that is inflicted to you.

(you are only invulnerable and not immortal)

Suppose you and a friend were playing a game of hide and seek. However, since you have the ability to move at light speed without any of the negative consequences to the environment around you, things need to be more interesting.

Your friend is hidden somewhere on the planet. He is not in the ocean depths, though may be on a boat along its surface. He’s not in any airborne vehicles or the like. He’s not boxed himself in or dug any holes, nowhere you’d need destructive methods to enter. Neither of you require food or rest or protection from the elements, and are able to play the game to its fullest extent.

How long on average would such a game of hide and seek take?

Imagine there's a copy of Earth from an alternate timeline where genus homo never existed, and no other human-level intelligence ever arose. You are picked at random to be the only one able to teleport between this earth and that one. you can bring people and things with you if you are holding on to them. When you die, another person is chosen at random to be able to teleport.

What would you do in this situation?

Inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”

Interdimensional beings make contact with you, and tell you that they have become curious about humans. They offer a deal. In exchange for the immediate uplifting of humanity, they want a child to take back with them to their dimension.

When you ask what they mean by uplifting, they say they will provide technology several centuries ahead of what we currently have. Medical technology, technology to improve agriculture, infrastructure, transportation, recycling. They will improve Earth itself to a pristine condition perfect for continued sustainability of existing flora and fauna for the next 3000 years, despite any destructive changes humans do to the planet during that timeframe. People will become healthier, live longer, more empathetic towards others, leaders will get inspired to actually work together and commit towards a better future, and cruelty itself lessens.

To show they are capable of these things they promised, the beings wave their limbs. Immediately you find yourself cured of any minor affliction you’re currently experiencing. Your runny nose clears, the shoulder you pulled yesterday no longer hurts, and you are no longer tired, and feel energized. The browning house plant you have in the corner becomes healthy and green. Your pet, if you have one, starts acting like it’s new and young again, clear eyed, alert, and healthy. Your electronics become fully charged, and any broken appliance you have gets fixed. The beings refuse to do more than this.

When you ask about the child they’re looking for, they specify what they want. It has to be a living child between the ages of 7-10. The child doesn’t need to be in tip top shape, doesn’t need to be completely healthy and free of any complications, so a child with asthma or allergies is fine, or a child with bad eyesight, or an overweight child, etc. The child, however, needs to have active brain waves, so it can’t be a brain dead child. They will also not accept a child with a terminal illness, or a child close to dying.

When asked what they will do with the child, the beings refuse to give any details, but admit that none of it will be good, and the child will most certainly be miserable and frightened.

If you accept and choose a child, the beings will handle it, and the child will vanish with no trace. No one will ever know you were behind all of this. The child will simply be declared missing, if they have people who care about them enough to report it.

They say they will only reveal themselves to the rest of humanity if you accept and they have received the child. They are quite confident that no one will believe you anyway if you try, but that they won’t stop you if you tell others about this choice to ask for advice or for help determining who to sacrifice

The beings reassure you, saying you can refuse with no consequences. They will simply leave, but warn you that this opportunity will never be offered ever again, to anyone else for the rest of humanity’s existence. They say they will stay in this dimension until they receive a clear answer, telling you to take your time.

Will you accept the offer or refuse?

If you accept, how will you choose which child to sacrifice?

The author of a long rambling hypothetical has written it so badly that you think he may have been drunk.

The conditions are barely coherent, and the rules so complex and self-contradicting, and you can't make out whether any outcome is positive or negative. There are glaring loopholes that can be exploited.

You are surrounded by people passionately discussing the hypothetical, dissecting every word to prove why their interpretation is the correct one.

How do you figure out which is the correct interpretation, and why are you in church on a beautiful day like today anyway?

They'll be just as common as their swapped counterpart was, and magic prevents any negative ecological mayhem. If you identify potential positive consequences to the trade (in either direction) those may apply, however clock-based events will no longer occur (you aren't collapsing the food chain).