#8 - haircuts

You are at your doctor's office one afternoon for a checkup. Near the end of the session you are asked if you have been experiencing anything out of the ordinary. You respond by saying that you hair and scalp have been feeling sort of "tingly" lately. The sensation has been a minor annoyance over the last few weeks, and you can't recall feeling anything similar in the past. The doctor does not seem overly concerned, but takes a hair sample for testing to confirm that nothing serious is going on.

The results that come back from the lab are interesting to say the least. While your hair at present is growing normally and will continue to grow, it seems that somehow it has been altered in such a way that if cut, an individual strand of hair will never again exceed its new length. If a hair falls out or is pulled from your scalp, the follicle will still regrow the hair, but it will never grow longer than its most recently cut length.

The implications of this begin to sink in. If you were to buzz your hair, you would never again be able to grow it out any longer than that.

You pepper your doctor with questions, but there's not much else known about your condition (though it does appear that no other part of your body is affected, just the top of your head). Based on these developments, what is your hairstyle strategy from here on out?

#7 - color

After experiencing a series of very painful headaches, you make an appointment with your family doctor to get things checked out. Because blurred or impaired vision usually accompanies these headaches, you are soon routed to an optometrist and then to a renowned eye specialist (due to the uncommon nature of the problem).

It is indeed a problem with your eyes. The specialist recommends an operation as soon as possible, before things get any worse. This operation will correct your vision and eliminate the headaches but will regrettably leave you unable to perceive colors. From here on out, the world will appear to you like a black and white movie.

There is a strange quirk though. If you choose, the surgeon will be able to preserve a single color of the visible spectrum that your eyes will still be able to see. This color will appear to you the same way it does today, with all differently colored objects residing in grayscale. The eye specialist urges you to be specific in your choice to ensure that they will be able to pinpoint and save the correct color. Simply saying "green" would not be an acceptable choice. What shade of green? Maroon and red (for instance) are considered separate hues, so the particular shade you indicate is important.

The surgeon gives you a week to consider this, but does not want to put off the operation much longer than that. How do you respond?

#6 - hour 25

You notice that you've been feeling very well rested as of late, so you begin staying up a little later at night, which leads to an extraordinary discovery. It seems that at 2:00 am each night, time seems to halt for an hour (according to your watches and clocks). Everything resumes after this hour, but you realize you've been feeling more invigorated because you've been getting an extra hour of sleep every night.

Now, time hasn't actually stopped in the sense that everything is frozen. You observe the following things when you stay awake past 2:00:

You can still interact with your surroundings and the world at large. Traffic lights and electronic devices still operate, for example. Any object you move to a different place during the bonus hour will remain where you left it (rather than reverting back to its 2:00 am location). Your actions will not be erased as in the movie Groundhog Day, but will have any applicable consequences when things start back up.

The main change seems to be with people (and other living creatures). Anyone you come across during this hour seems to be in a very deep sleep. If you happen to be hanging out with someone, they always end up falling asleep at 2:00, waking an hour later, and unresponsive in the meantime.

So in essence, you (and you alone) have been given an additional hour each day. What do you do with it?

#5 - solitude

A wealthy industrialist knocks on your door one day, prepared to offer you a million dollars to participate in yearlong social experiment. He gives you two options on how you can spend the next year to qualify for the money. Another individual of similar age and background has also been selected for this study, and will be enlisted in whatever option you do not choose for the purposes of comparison.

OPTION 1
You spend the year alone on a deserted tropical island. A relatively impressive shelter (from a desert island perspective) exists on the island, with a decent mattress and running water. The island is free from both predators and poisonous plants. And though you will have access to different types of fruit trees as well as trapping and fishing equipment, you will be able to make special food orders once a month. Additionally, though you are separated from civilization in many ways, you will be free to write letters, which will be collected for speedy delivery once a week. Any messages addressed to you will also be be dropped off at this time.

OPTION 2
You spend the year confined to a large glass case in the middle of Manhattan. The case contains all of the features of a small loft-type apartment. The bedroom and bathroom areas of your dwelling are hidden from the outside, but otherwise, you are in full view of passers-by and vice versa. You will be provided a weekly stipend to use as you see fit to place orders for food or other consumer products (and copies of the Sunday Times will be dropped off once a week). While in your glass house, you will be unable to communicate with those outside. No e-mails, letters, or phone calls. Someone could easily enough stop by the outside of your dwelling, but the walls are designed to prevent any transfer of sound.

Under either option, your health and mental well being will be monitored throughout the year. You will have checkups once a month and will be returned to society at large if you require urgent medical attention (though this will mean forfeiting the $1,000,000).

You will have a 24 hour phone connection to a concierge of sorts (who you have never met). This person can pass along any of your requests and will respond in case of emergency, but will not engage you in conversation. Attempts on you part to "chat" with the concierge will disqualify you from the study.

You will also be allowed to bring a packed suitcase to the island or the glass case, filled with clothes or other items you think will be of benefit during your 365 day seclusion.

Do you accept the offer? Which option do you choose?

#4 - heavy lifting

You receive an anonymous letter one day in the mail. The envelope is like none you have ever seen, very shiny and requiring a while to open (as it is not made of typical paper). The enclosed message informs you that you now possess a degree of superhuman strength. You have the ability to push, pull, or lift objects weighing several metric tons.

There's a catch, though. You will only be able to call upon this ability ten separate times in your life. After that, it's gone for good.

A few days later, while on a leisurely weekend drive through a local metropark, you come across a fallen tree lying in the roadside, blocking off both lanes. You exit your vehicle to inspect the large log (that appears to be well within your newfound lifting range). You are in no rush and can easily turn around and take a different route to your destination. However, as you walk back to your automobile, another lone motorist pulls up behind.

The driver, a middle-aged man, rolls down his window and the two of you strike up a brief, hurried conversation. It seems that he is on his way to his daughter's piano recital. He also knows the area and other possible routes, but based on the time, your present location, and where the recital is being held, taking a detour would assuredly result in him arriving late. After this becomes clear, the man begins drawing the discussion to a close so that he can at least make decent time.

The man's comments and manner imply that his already strained relationship with his wife and children would be further complicated by this lapse in punctuality. It is within your power to help this individual, but as the situation currently stands, he knows nothing of your ability and would have no reason to believe you could assist him in any way.

Do you lift the log?
Would your answer change if you were alone?

#3 - super mario souvenir

In a dream one night, you spend an afternoon hanging out with Mario in the Mushroom Kingdom. Near the end of the dream, Mario makes you a startling offer: as a memento of your time spent in his world, you will be able to take one object or character from the Mario universe back with you to your real life.

After Mario says this, you are overwhelmed with the feeling that what he says is true. This is not going to be one of those dreams where you win the lottery only to wake up disappointed.

Which character or object do you choose?

We'll assume that Peach and Luigi are off limits, as they would miss Mario too much and vice versa. Also bear in mind that whatever you select will have the same properties in the real word as it does in the Nintendo games. Eating a fire flower would let you produce fireballs, but you could lose that ability were you to sustain an injury. Though he looks friendly, a Pokey would probably not be an ideal pet (most of these creatures would likely require an arduous domestication process).

#2 - time machine

A great uncle of yours recently passed away. He was independently wealthy and nobody you know can manage to tell you what exactly he did with his time. Though most of your extended family considered him a little crazy, the two of you always got along well.

In his will, your uncle leaves you the remnants of one of his "science projects", delivered to you in a large crate. Upon inspection, you find a time machine inside.

It is a single-passenger device capable of transporting you to any time or place (the user sets the date and location). Besides your own person, the machine has enough room to accommodate two medium-sized duffel bags. Also in the crate is a sort of manual left by your uncle. It contains general usage instructions, assurances that the device is fully safe and operational, and a few caveats about the machine. They are as follows:

1) While in another time period, you will not have the ability to alter significant historical events.

2) On a related note, your uncle also advises you not to travel to any time in which there is a high likelihood of encountering yourself. He cites space-time continuum concerns.

3) The machine's battery is solar powered, but needs a full year to recharge after jumping. In essence, if you choose to time travel, you are committing to at least a year in that time.

4) To return to the present day, you simply press a large red button on the dashboard once seated in the machine. This will not take you back to the day you originally left. Rather, your return date will be determined by the date of your departure plus the length of time you spent in the past or future. For instance, if you leave in January of 2009 to spend two years studying under Socrates, you will return in January of 2011. There is no way for you to regain the two "lost" years in the present day. While you cannot grasp all of the theory behind it, your uncle includes a great deal of math in this section of the manual explaining why this is.

Based on this information, what do you do with the time machine?

Please note, travel to distant times and/or places would present cultural challenges that would likely require preparation in advance of the trip. In the example above, showing up in ancient Greece as an English speaker in blue jeans might very well lead to a fruitless (or possibly even dangerous) year.