we never know the quality of someone else's life, though we seldom resist the temptation to assume and pass judgement

If you could anonymously and safely destroy any one person's reputation online through various postings, would you?

      in a heartbeat

If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about any one thing about yourself, life, the future, or anything else, what would you want to know, and why?

      I want to know if I'm on the right path. That's not a very specific question, and would probably not result in a very clear answer. Crystal balls are, in my mind, closer to a Magic 8-ball than a high definition monitor.

If ads could be tailored so effectively to your personal desires and concerns that they'd be nearly irresistible, would you want to ban them?

      it's quaint that there are still people alive who don't know that ads are personalized in that way, now. Ads are ubiquitous and overwhelming, and the psychological warfare that goes on to assail every person with endless advertising is a billion-dollar industry. It's not "marketing" anymore, which is "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."

I think the key word there is "offerings." Modern advertising is not being offered, but instead being bombarded, targeted, blasted, and "laser-focused" for maximum efficiency - to the benefit of the seller, not to the potential buyer. 

    So, yeah, I do want to ban them. I want to ban cart-reminders ("did you forget to click 'place my order'"?), buy-alikes ("people like you like this!"), delivery updates ("it's 7 stops away!"), endless self-serving satisfaction surveys, and all the rest of the unending flow of commercialism that is thrust down our throats.

Would you buy special high-tech sunglasses that screened out billboards and other advertising to leave a pristine visual landscape?

      definitely! Especially if I could use them as a filter for photography. Nothing ruins a shot like a random road sign, power line - or billboard.

If all online interactions and Web browsing had to be under your real name and would be recorded and archived, how would it alter your use of the Internet and the way you communicate with people?

      good God that would be AWFUL. Not only would I be in boatloads of trouble, but I would also be exposed as the scattered and occasionally dumb person that I really am. How many times a week do I web-search a word in order to verify its spelling? And that's the most innocent example of what I would not want to be generally known!

Would you be willing to undergo a relatively safe surgery to implant a permanent cardiac monitor that would detect the telltale signs of an impending heart attack and summon medical help before it occurred? 

     yup. Pretty sure I'm going to die of a heart attack, so an early-warning system would be welcome.

Do you think kids should be sheltered from unhappiness?

      definitely not. Unhappiness is part of life, and can be fuel for positive change. Even worse, though, kids who have been sheltered often turn out to be brats or worse, incapable of "surviving" adulthood without a lot of help.

    Also, as the image at left puts in such a delicate way, kids who are over-protected develop all kinds of reason to lie. They learn quickly that they don't want to disappoint (or can't risk the ire of) their parents. 

    Where will they be when the parents aren't there with the bubble-wrap?

Does it bother you when people like you because they think you have qualities you don't actually have? 

     well yeah, obviously. I don't want to be admired for an illusion. There's a whole generation of guys who were lured by the Miracle Bra and woke to something completely different. What's the point of allowing that misapprehension to persist? 

     The problem that arises here, though, is that the issue is not usually as apparent as a pneumatic undergarment. How do I know that you like me, much less what the deciding "qualities" that brought that about might be?

     

 [from The Book of Questions; the title quotation is by Tami Hoag, from Dark Horse]