Aha! Thanks to Oldcat's post about *Prototaph*, I found *Thinking Machine*, published by Raintree Publishers, which was in a different book in the series put out by that publisher, which led me to *Tomorrow's TV*.

The story is *[A Scientific Fact][1]* by Joe Haldeman II. The catatonia consists of the person endlessly repeating the last word they'd said, and starts with a radio jockey who'd locked himself in the studio, with people initially thinking it was a prank that he kept repeating "hit" over and over again.

For the others, it was indeed *Prototaph* for the one about the insurance policy, *Wapshot's Demon* for the Maxwell's Demon bit. It actually gives answers to yes or not questions. *Man of Distinction* was in the same anthology as *Wapshot's Demon*, *Wild Inventions*.

Man, those were some quality books... I'm going to have to look them up again when I get home.

  [1]: http://resource2.rockyview.ab.ca/ela7/English7D2L/1Unit/ZAnswerKeysExams/ScientificFact.pdf