• roguetrick@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    First rule: don’t fuck with djinn, hags, or fae. Demons maybe, at least you know what they want.

    • don@lemm.ee
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      5 days ago

      maybe the real you played yourself was the wishes they made along the way

    • then_three_more@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago
      1. I wish to know the true name of the genie who is granting me wishes.

      2. I wish [genie’s true name] to be freed, mortal and without magical powers, now and henceforth.

    • Lumisal@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I think I saw a video once explaining how the only winning move is to make your wish be to let the genie grant you what you desire most.

      Because only the genie as the wish granter has access to all possibilities a wish good grant, but you don’t, so your wish could always be misinterpreted, while the genies knowledge cannot be.

        • Lumisal@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Genie would know you don’t desire to die though, or that you would want it in gold, so that wouldn’t happen.

  • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    6 days ago

    I liked the one from that classic twilight zone episode better wherte the (i believe mathematician) told the genie to “get lost”

    • Godnroc@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Granted, you are now a genie with access to the wish granting API private key. Make all the copies you like.

  • palordrolap@kbin.run
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    7 days ago

    There’s often a rule about not wishing about wishing, either directly or indirectly. This rule’s not in the story of Aladdin (at least, not Disney’s version) because that would prevent what happens with Jafar at the end.

    It’s also not a rule in Douglas Hofstadter’s book Gödel, Escher, Bach…, where Achilles and the Tortoise - characters Hofstadter frequently borrows as protagonists; his Tortoise is sapient and can talk - contrive to wish that a wish not be granted, or something like that.

    And if that last paragraph (with its nested asides) gave you a headache, you’ll love the book.

    • Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      The Genie does say “and ixnay on the wishing for more wishes” after listing the three main rules.

  • De_Narm@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Doesn’t work, since they are fulfilled sequentially.

    Do the opposite of my next wish. -> Fulfilled, he is set to do the opposite next.

    Don’t fulfill my 3rd wish. -> Fulfilled, the wish does effectively nothing and he’s got one left that will be fulfilled. All instructions from the first wish are done with and discarded.

    Ignore my first wish. -> Fulfilled, there is nothing left to be ignored about his first wish anymore since it’s already done. The wish does nothing and he successfully wasted all 3 by trying to be a smart ass.

    • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      If you ask for fame, they make you the FBIs most wanted child abuser.

      If you ask for riches millions of dollars in other people’s money is wired into your account, again, fbi most wanted.

      If you ask for bueaty you see your reflection in a lake and can’t look away, the lake is at Area 51, you are black bagged and dropped into a 50ft abandoned mine shaft and you survive the fall, there’s water pooled at the bottom, you drink it for nearly a weak waiting to die of starvation, a mule deer falls in, you eat it raw for a month even when it’s rotting you’re too desperate to stop yourself as all this does is prolong your misery waist deep in filth, total darkness, the voices come… you talk to them… they talk back… you fade in and out of consciousness… a light… noise… meaningless… who is talking… it means nothing… what is this terrible burning light…

  • Lightor@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Then on the third wish he just says “nah, that won’t work” and you’ve just burned 2 and confused yourself.

    • rbn@sopuli.xyz
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      7 days ago

      Why not? If I wish that someone ignores something, that’s a valid wish IMO.

        • rbn@sopuli.xyz
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          7 days ago

          I dunno. If he told the djinn ‘Give me a nice car’ or ‘Make Trump eat a pile of dog poop’ in response to the offering of 3 wishes, that qualifies as a wish to me even though it doesn’t contain the word.

          • bitwolf@lemmy.one
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            7 days ago

            But then the genie would simply fulfill your next three statements, rather than your next three wishes.