Which Of These Ten Magical Items Would You Choose? And Why?

[Felstaff]

I'd set the van to switch between either sides of a court so I can play tennis with myself.

The annoying thing is; I hate losing.

[Kovvy]

It's fun reading everyone's thoughts on these. So far pretty much all of my own thoughts have been mentioned by one person or another.

I'd probably go with the chocolate, with the van as my second choice.
Though that necklace for absorbing knowledge is kind of tempting when I think about learning languages or musical instruments.

[Kimra]

[*]A no fuel required, maintenance free, eight person van that can take you anywhere on the planet within one second.
Could be fun, and is a nice thought. I could go holidaying with my family at anytime anywhere. But besides from seeing the world it offers little.

This one has a fair bit of money making potential. You don't think there are suits for big corporations that would pay a mint not to have to sit in a plane for 14 hours? What's a first class ticket to Japan from the US? $1500? Even with a meagre mark-up of 30%, you would make a lot of money. I think it would be reasonable to expect $10000 for an 8 hr day.

Money making potential would put you in the public eye. This was my greatest concern for it. Because once your in the public eye someone will want what you have.

[Amerika]

Sorry but the watch (#3) has the biggest money making potential, if that's what we're maximising. Any number of high stakes gambling can be changed this way, and if you didn't win this time, go back and pick a different horse or different roulette number. Stocks are pretty nice, if you are always hearing any sudden changes, you can get out quick or hop on the bandwagon. And think, now you'll use your minutes differently, knowing you can go back and redo them. You can take more risks and get literally only the times they succeed.

However, I long ago resolved* that I would prefer to live an average life in a better world than a better life in an average world, so let's maximise world improvement. Now, I'm guessing the magic can't be researched and duplicated so we'll leave out possible technological benefits.

1. That's a tonne of food a day, that's a drop in the ocean.
2. Perfect weather? I guess ideas of perfect are different, but I'm reading 196,000 square kilometres of perfect agricultural land. Maybe take this down to somewhere with a famine? Currently the winner.
3. Necklace of learning. This is extraordinarily powerful, but not for the world. Ideally a kind of tour would be good, compile a list of books for the world and then get everyone up to speed. I'm thinking a couple of seconds per person? e: just worked it out as 11,415 years without travel time and assuming it works 24/7. Maybe just politicians?
4. Sex perfume. This helps no one.
5. Mistake Reversal Watch. Advantage to the person wielding it, this could do good just by virtue of it landing in the right hands. That's unlikely though.
6. Fixing Bell. The LHC was down for months for repair, and for space missions you could use the bell on the shuttle before take-off.
7. Youth Chocolate. I'm pretty sure this appears at the end of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, although I don't know why Wonka didn't eat any of the pills, I guess he was comfortable aging. Anyway, this could be used for exploration of the deep sea, or maybe other planets. Pretty useful.
8. Mystery Machine. I can't think of applications because of the restriction that it can only travel on this planet.
9. Body Mods. Turn into a dragon and confuse people? Maybe as an angel? That would be pretty cool. I'm not seeing the global applications though.
10. Golden Retriever. That's not that much gold.

I think 2,6 and 7 are the good ones as far as altruism is concerned. A lot of them seem like they'd only be of use if it was some kind of world-threatening situation that was also required to only have a small team of people try and solve. But yeah, 5 is the way to go for the big money.



*just now decided

[Oldrac the Chitinous]

Okay, so my earlier idea for the bell was lame. Here's a better one.

Buy 80 AAA batteries and hook them up in series with an electric motor. Then tape the bell to the motor. The bell continuously recharges the batteries so they produce a constant 120 volts, no matter what else you connect to them. Sell the electricity for cheap and make billions.

[FengharTheNord]

Personally I'd go for the book absorber. Absorb a million textbooks and research journals and stuff like that or books that I wouldn't be interested in reading and then bam take it off when I want to read something for enjoyment.

[Asherian]

Honestly I'm surprised more attention hasn't been paid to number 2. "Perfect" Weather for you just means what you need/want right then, and it's amazing the shenigans you could get up to if you alone could control the weather with your presence. Ending or causing famines, and floods as you see fit. Protecting areas from tornadoes, or calling down destruction upon that coffee place for totally getting your order wrong. No limits on this were given, simply perfection which is such a flexible concept as to be an open book. Even if its only on set on one weather condition thats 'ideal' to you you can still travel and either rescue or damn people. A sunny day, at a nice 79 degrees(F) is nice once in a while, but just imagine it never changing. If nothing else crops are screwed, drought and famine destroying whatever area it is you live in. What if your someone who prefers a constant drizzle? Continuous is the big thing, it is always there to be a nightmare or a blessing.

Otherwise I love the van idea, the concept of no fuel ever and ability to travel anywhere with no paperwork is a goldmine idea. Not even shipping people about, but just things across country lines with no tarrifs or inspection. So long as it could be driven normally it'd be amazing. Only issue with it is its a van, I hate driving those things.

[Lethal Interjection]

I didn't mention it before, but Kimra's line of thought about the knowledge necklace is pretty much how I feel.
I can immediately gain the best practical knowledge about how to play the piano, but that doesn't mean I'd be able to sit down and play like a concert pianist. Especially not if I was tone deaf. Learning straight out of a book like that has only abstract use (and, like Kimra said, would ultimately only be okay if you like being a disliked know-it-all. But then again, you could be a pretty stellar Jeopardy contestant.
And that's not to mention that there is nothing said about knowledge retention.

[DonRetrasado]

Well, then you could print everything you knew to an infinitesimally small booklet in your pocket and you'd just have to touch it to remember anything. But we're pulling at straws here, it's better to assume that anything you learn from the necklace can't be forgotten. Even if you wanted.

[Sahan]

I'd still like the necklace, I have a tendency to read things, understand the gist of it, but then need to find the text again to recall the specific details. That necklace would save me so much time, particularly in the week before exams.

[PyroPrav]

You know for the choc bar one, if you did take that one and gave it to your 12 most liked/trustworthy friends/family, how do you know that they wouldn't just turn evil and then you would have made an youthful and invincible enemy until 160.

Also what if the effect could stack so if you ate all 12 pieces, you would live to be nearly 2000 years old.

[Kimra]

Strangely enough, even thoughI can see potential for the necklace (I might actually learn some Japanese!), I still don't think I'd like it on the whole. It has a lot more potential to change who I am than a million dollars would. Because I define myself by what I've learnt and what I know it... I can not imagine a good outcome from this for me.

[FengharTheNord]

I'm just assuming the magical items work in the best possible way, not like super realistically. So if you absorbed a particularly good piano book and it taught you enough theory and "how" to play then you may not be able to immediately apply that knowledge as you'd have to actually play a lot to build up dexterity and timing but you would still be able to bang out a simple song even though you had no experience beforehand.

So you aren't just getting the facts you are also getting whatever context and deeper understanding that you can possibly glean from the book as well, relative to whatever knowledge you have in your brain. So the more books you absorbed the better you would be at absorbing them I guess. Just like reading anything.

[Tundra]

Either the dog, or the van. Dog would help me live my life in a comfortable way (poor dog though), and the van would mean instant travel potential which would be just plain brilliant.

[Apocalyptus]

Van fo sho. I would save so much money on airfares and would have a meal in a different continent every day. The immunisations would get expensive though.