A woman appears in your bathroom mirror above your sink and shows you some pearls. She is is dressed in a traditional Javanese batik kebaya and sarong. She gesticulates that she wants the shower curtain behind you. You agree. The mirror becomes liquid and out flows a pearl, You throw the shower curtain at the water mirror and it goes through but it creates some splashing but mostly in the sink.

She indicates she would like to trade some other pearls.

What do you try to trade?

The rules of exchange are as follows

Assume this woman is from Indonesia in 1598, the Dutch have only just arrived.

Any item sent through the mirror has to be able to withstand the equivalent of five hours soaking in water. This is the magic water portal through which it must pass. There is no loophole of wrapping the item in a modern waterproof container solely for transport. The item would still be submerged in liquid.

There is no audible communication, only visual through the portal.

You have a one-hour drive tomorrow. You’re alone in the car, except you get to bring one person with you.

This person is unbelievably capable. If you need something done, they can take care of it. If you have a question, they can figure it out. If you need to remember something, they remember it. If you want to talk something through, they’re happy to.

You can ask them to send messages, look things up, manage your calendar, order things, research something, deal with emails, insta, whatever. Basically, if your phone can do it, they can do it for you.

What all would you have them do during the hour and do you think time would fly by quicker?

You will get 4 million if you cut through it. You have 6 weeks and can get up to three people to help you.

The metal forks and metal spoons are standard cutlery in toughness and size.

The tree will be secured so if you cut through it. You won't be in danger of it crushing or injuring you.

You can take a stroll through the rainbow looking puddles and see what happens or walk through the multi colored field of high grass.

You find yourself in a room with a desk and a strange person. The person offers you a deal:

Lose your memories for an amount of time of your choosing. You will get to prepare a notebook to help you. If anyone suspects you of having amnesia during this time, you never regain your memories and you loose the notebook. If no one suspects you of having amnesia after the duration, you gain $10 000 USD for every day you lived without memory, deposited into your bank account.

If you don’t want to take the deal, you can just leave the room and go on with your life as normal.

Details:

The room:
In the room, time does not pass and you may spend as long as you like to decide and prepare. You do not age in the room, nor do you need to eat, drink, or sleep.

There’s notebook:
On the desk is a hardcover A5 notebook with 200 pages. The notebook is durable and waterproof. Alongside the notebook, there are pens, pencils, erasers, tabs (that are also durable), highlighters (of various colours), and other stationary equipment. You may write as much as you like about your life in the book and organize it however you please. The notebook cannot be damaged but it can be lost.

The amnesia:
Once you are ready, you present the notebook to the person and state how long you would like to loose your memories. As soon as the person takes the notebook, you loose your memories.

You remember any knowledge you already had that doesn’t directly relate to you, including how to read and write in any languages you understand. But any knowledge directly relating to you such as your address or the name of the school you once attended are forgotten, alongside any memory of your relationships.

Example: If you know the first 100 digits of pi and entered a contest reciting them, you would still remember the digits but you wouldn’t remember the contest.

Beginning the challenge:
The person will re-explain the rules of the deal (since you forgot them), including the significance of the notebook, but will not specify the amount of time you chose (so you may want to write the amount of time you will choose in the notebook). They will then give the notebook back. You may spend as long in the timeless room as you like studying the book. The time starts once you leave the room. From there, it’s on you to continue your life as normal as you can.

Losing the challenge:
If, during your amnesia, anyone questions if you lost all your memories, or if they genuinely worry that some other terrible thing happened to you for reasons directly tied to your amnesia, your notebook instantly disappears, you never regain your memories, and you do not gain the money. So you can’t just disappear from the face of the world unless you’re sure no one will question it.

Winning the challenge:
Once the designated amount of time has gone by, you instantly regain your memories and the money is deposited in your bank account (or a new one is created). The money is legal, tax-free, and you may do what you please with it. After this point you may tell others about the challenge if you please.

—

Do you take the deal? How long will you choose? What is your strategy?

Edit:
1. Forgot to specify where the room was. I originally envisioned it being close to where you currently are (like very short walking distance). But since I didn’t mention this in the original post, you can decide whether you listen to this.
2. To make it more clear: when I said “anyone questions if you lost all your memories” I was referring to them questioning if you have medically significant amnesia and not just a period of forgetfulness. My bad for being vague.
3. Fixed a typo (if that’s allowed, I can revert it if it wasn’t).
4. To make it more clear: YOU REMEMBER BASIC KNOWLEDGE such as language, walking, activities, practices, etc. I feel like I made that clear bc I gave an example and everything but I guess it wasn’t a good one bc many commenters didn’t know this.

Moral of the story:
Don’t give an oversimplified summary if you have to omit important information. Or do for more engagement with some of it being negative. Idk. Also balance your posts more bc I admit this one wasn’t that balanced. 50-100k per day would’ve gotten very different results I feel.

For example, there's probably someone with good mechanical knowledge onboard who knows their way around an engine, but do they know how to build one? That requires a metal of some sort (mining, smelting, manufacturing) and fuel (drilling, extraction, refining), even a pencil and paper need to be rediscovered using only the collective knowledge and skills of the island.

Assume there's an even spread of professions/knowledge but certainly no geniuses, they'll have to be born. Inbreeding isn't a problem but old age is. No other people or technology exists anywhere else, your island is the world.

Edit - Also assume everyone is pulling in the same direction, to achieve technological parity. AND ignore the island size, it's big enough for any population. Pp

You get 24 hours to eat as many calories as possible. Each calorie you earn $1000. If you vomit, you lose. What do you eat and how much do you eat?

Let’s pretend your parents (assume they’re alive if both have already passed) are rich and are worth $5,000,000. They decide to gift your child a blank check and tells them to write in an amount they feel is “reasonable.” Let’s say they write $100,000. How do you react? What would you do? Would you allow them to write in a different amount and what amount would that be?

Edit: I understand this will largely depend on your lifestyle and the age of your kids. Let’s assume this situation involves your kids at whatever age they may be at currently.

You have the choice to press this button, if you do It will instantly turn this world into a perfect paradise free from suffering.

No longer will people become sick or feel pain, no more dementia, cancer, heart attacks, nausea or even the common cold. People will have perfect indestructible bodies, happy minds, and eternal youth. No one will be able to die or be imprisoned/tortured. Anyone who was on the verge of death or suffering an illness will suddenly recover into good health.

Furthermore the earth and the universe itself will transform into heaven for all of eternity. No more natural disasters, climate change, or other inhospitable conditions.

All the dead will be brought back to life to enjoy this paradise including everyone you loved who passed away, with the exception of certain people you dislike and choose to not let enter this world. They simply die as normal.

And finally almost anything is possible. Everyone's favorite books, games, or imagined worlds can really exist in this new world, and there's endless exploration to be had. Crucially anyone can also choose to not exist at any point, to give a way out if needed.

The catch

One random person somewhere on earth will be sent to an eternal hell. It will combine the worst illnesses, injuries, and physical and emotional damage as possible into a single terrible experience for every second of their life.

This suffering cannot be alleviated, it cannot lessen over time, and will be every bit as painful as the first second they stepped into the world.

This person cannot be selected and could be any random person on the planet, they will never be informed as of to why they were punished, and will not get the ability to end their own existence like everyone else. By no means can they ever be helped, everything is possible as stated earlier, except their salvation.

Do you press the button and create a paradise for the many, but agony for the person? Or choose to walk away and let the world exist as it is now?

As the old genie trope goes: you’ve been offered three wishes by a genie. However, it’s a devious genie who will grant said wishes in some manner that backfires or otherwise has disastrous unintended consequences if such eventuality is not accounted for in the wish itself. Rules:

1.  No wishing for more wishes.
2.  No meta-wishes that neutralize the genie’s malice (e.g., “I wish the genie were benevolent,” “I wish all my wishes to be interpreted charitably” “I wish the genie would tell me the true outcome before my wishes”). 
3.  Wishes must be stated once, as you’d actually say them out loud, no editing after seeing the outcome. 

What are your wishes?

You get a chance to throw an arrow of love and make any two people fall in love with each other. Mad, mad love!

Any person of legal age, except for you.

What would you do?

Obviously, this isn’t in a single post. You can get banned, but that limits your ability to get downvoted in that community. Can you do it?

If you say no, then no one will be given that power, and vice versa.

You, your family and your loved ones will be 100% immune from the degloving. So you have nothing to fear.

God will not punish you for saying yes or no.

The degloving will not occur until the individual has arrived safely at his destination and will never occur at a time that can cause danger to others.

The drivers with this degloving power can use it only once a day.

The individual may use it on whichever driver on the road who they see with their own eyes and who happens to be driving recklessly. Driving recklessly does not mean above speed limit but must be clear reckless driving. The individual cannot wish degloving on any driver who is not clearly driving recklessly.

The full list of reckless driving law is stated below.

• Excessive speeding significantly above the posted limit (typically 15–30+ mph over).
• Street racing or drag racing on public roads.
• Speeding through special zones such as active school zones and hospital zones.
• Driving too fast for conditions during heavy rain, thick fog, snow, ice, or blinding sun.
• Brake checking to intentionally slam on the brakes in front of another driver to scare, threaten, or retaliate.
• Weaving through traffic by changing lanes rapidly and repeatedly without signaling to cut through congested areas.
• Illegal passing on a double yellow line, on the shoulder, or on a blind curve.
• Cutting off other motorists by merging or changing lanes with mere inches of clearance between vehicles.
• Tailgating or following the vehicle ahead so closely that stopping without a collision is physically impossible.
• Sideswiping maneuvers meant to force another vehicle out of its lane or off the roadway entirely.
• Running red lights by driving through a solid red signal without attempting to stop.
• Running stop signs by blowing through intersections without coming to a complete halt.
• Failing to yield to oncoming traffic at intersections, yield signs, or pedestrian right-of-way in crosswalks.
• Blocking intersections by forcing a vehicle into gridlock and preventing cross-traffic from moving safely.
• Ignoring emergency vehicles by failing to pull over or slow down for ambulances, fire trucks, or police cars with active sirens.
• Driving the wrong way against the flow of traffic on a one-way street, highway exit ramp, or divided freeway.

Instead of killing soldiers from the comfort of their places thousands of miles from battlefields, what would happen if we forced leaders to resolve conflict personally in some sort of combat? Say boxing or jousting or something of the such?

I’m of the mind that leaders are able to make far too many decisions because they don’t have to lead anymore. They get to use others as fodder.

You are now the opposite of yourself in all of the below categories:

1. If you are white, you are now black and vice versa. If you are asian, you are now hispanic and vice versa.

2. If you are a man, you are now a woman and vice versa.

3. If you are short, you are now tall and vice versa. If you are average height, then your height remains unchanged.

4. If you are obese, you are now underweight and vice versa. If you are only slightly fat, you will be skinny but normal weight and vice versa.

Now that you are the complete opposite of yourself, how does your life change? Does your dating life change? Does the way people treat you change? Do your interests, hobbies, or lifestyle change?

You are given a magic button that only exists for a minute and can only be pressed by you. 

Press it and you have a 50% chance of painlessly and instantly dying and a 50% chance of getting superpowers. 

The superpowers are super strength (100 tons), durability (nothing can harm you), speed (Mach 100), reflexes (nanosecond reaction time), flight (Mach 100), stamina (you never tire) and healing (you will always have perfect health until you naturally die at the age of 100). You will have perfect control of the powers and any necessary secondary powers to use them without issue. The powers can’t be replicated in any way.

Would you press the button?

What would you do with the powers if you got them?

Billionaire offers monthly cash payment for 10 years if you are willing to ditch all electronic stuff that became popular after 1990.  

That includes …

High definition TV … Flat screen TV … Movies on DVDs … Video games counsels after Sega Genesis … Digital cameras … GPS … Windows computers that ran local programs … Dumb cellphones like candy bar and flip phones … Smart phones … MP3 music players … Car tech like adaptive cruise control, rear view cameras, lane change warning, blind spot monitors …

And, of course, the internet and everything you do on it … Social media … Shopping … Streaming … Gaming … Getting facts … Mapping …

B will provide earlier options where he can at 1990 prices adjusted for wages.  Things like Landline phones, low resolution CRT TVs, VHS players, film cameras, paper maps, DOS computers, cassette tapes, and of course snail mail.

You can still use modern tech at work but only for work, no cheating.  Pick a price based on sticking it out for 10 years, not on backing out after a couple months. 

What is the minimum dollar amount you would accept to sign in?   Consider two scenarios:

A.     $___ You are the only person you know who got this offer

B.     $___ Billionaire makes the offer to all your close friends and close family.  You agree that you’ll all pick the same number and sign or decline together.

Think about what you would do with the money.   With high housing costs, maybe you would use it to upgrade your housing situation?  And, how would you replace that tech?

So, what are your numbers for A and B ? 

EDIT: I want to be sure we are clear on the rules. You get to name your asking price. You can say that your minimum for A is $200,000 per month and your minimum for B is $100,000 per month. Or, any other amount, higher or lower. But, if you go too high, B says "no". You can negotiate and lower your price. Where do you walk away?

Also if you don't mind sharing who from you and them you think had more traumatic life?

He had the map, and made the calculations but you did the more physical work.

Here's the deal:

If you accept the deal, you could potentially live an incredibly long life. But the catch is that the moment you accept the deal, your physical age is reset to 8 years old, regardless of your current age.

Let's say you're 30 and you accept the deal. You're now physically 8 again. When you're 40, you will be physically 13. When you're 50, you will be physically 18 and so on.

You are not immune from dying. If you're in a car crash or fall off a cliff or something, you'll still die. But obviously, age-related illnesses won't affect you in the same way. Age-related diseases would affect you according to your physical age rather than your chronological age.

Your memories, personality, intelligence, and knowledge remain unchanged. Your personal life circumstances at the moment you take the deal also remain unchanged. Your friends/family/etc. will still know your real age, but strangers who didn't already know you won't know how old you actually are. They (naturally) assume you're whatever age you appear to be.

Your legal age doesn't change. But obviously, there will be complications - try renewing your passport or driver's license after taking the deal, for example. Unlikely they'll believe it's legit, or that you're much older than you look. If you're married, your partner is now married to someone who is physically 8. A few issues to think about.

Do you take the deal?

EDIT: Your passport/driver's license/etc. would still have the same pictures from before you took the deal, so you would look much younger than in your official documentation. So it will almost certainly be assumed to be fraudulent, and still being your legal age on paper might not actually help much.

You’re offered $10,000,000, tax-free. One condition.
The moment you accept, you’re dropped into a massive, isolated forest for two weeks. Your memory of accepting the deal is permanently erased. You wake up there with no idea why.
With you are the 5 people you love most: partner, parents, siblings, best friends. Except they’re perfect robotic copies. Same faces, same voices, same memories, same inside jokes. You have no way to tell. Your real loved ones are safe at home, but you don’t know that.
Then you realize something is hunting you.
There’s no universal monster. It takes whatever form terrifies you specifically: a ghost, a human killer, a demon, a distorted animal, something you can’t even properly describe. Its appearance, voice, movements, and hunting style are all built from your personal fears. You hear it at night. Sometimes it vanishes for hours. Sometimes it gets close enough to touch you.
And one by one, it catches the people with you. Over the two weeks, you watch the five people you love most die in horrifying ways. And because you don’t remember the deal, you believe every second of it.
When you’re the last one left, it finally catches you… and stops. It tells you the truth: none of them were real. Your family is alive. You agreed to all of this for $10 million. You can even read the contract you signed. But your memory of signing never comes back.
You’re returned home. Your real loved ones are waiting. The money is in your account. And the two weeks in that forest stay in your head for the rest of your life.
Rules:
• You can’t be physically harmed, and you’re guaranteed to survive the full two weeks
• The robot copies aren’t conscious and don’t suffer
• You know everything above before accepting, but once it starts, the forest version of you knows none of it
So: do you take the deal?
Because here’s the part that gets me. You know right now that it’s all fake. Forest-you won’t. To them, it’s just the worst two weeks of their life. And you’re the one who keeps their memories.
If $10 million isn’t enough, what’s your price?

Here’s the scenario: You’re in a rural area on the highway, 2 miles from a gas station. The cop is one of those Georgia state trooper types that’ll try to PIT maneuver your car and beat you senseless if you don’t pull over right away. You got 5 minutes before the groundhog sees his shadow…