The classic question - with a twist

[EternalUniverse]

We've all heard of the classic question - what if we saved a genie, and were given 3 wishes? What would you wish for? Well, talking about having 3 wishes might not be good philosophically (since it introduces the idea of trial-and-error). So, this question will have two parts:

a) If you were only given one wish, what would you wish for?

b) If, instead, you were given one wish, but had to choose one other person to decide what that wish would be, who would you choose to have this responsibility?

 

[Marquis de Carabas]

a) I would wish that the genie always forgot immediately after the granting of my wish that he had granted it.

b) the most easily manipulated person I know

 

[Graham]

I'd wish for five o'clock - right now it seems like the weekend is neeeeeeeeeeever going to arrive.

 

[tommjames]

We've all heard of the classic question - what if we saved a genie, and were given 3 wishes? What would you wish for? Well, talking about having 3 wishes might not be good philosophically (since it introduces the idea of trial-and-error). So, this question will have two parts:

a) If you were only given one wish, what would you wish for?

b) If, instead, you were given one wish, but had to choose one other person to decide what that wish would be, who would you choose to have this responsibility?

For a) I would wish for all my subsequent wishes to be granted.

For b) Before choosing, I would find a friend and tell him to wish for a) when I tell him to. I would then choose that person and tell him to make the wish.

I would then be all powerful, muhahahahahahahh!!!!!!!

 

[iain]

I'll try for a sort of serious answer; though I'm not sure how serious you can be when talking about granting wishes

The big problem with the whole wish business is unintended consequences. I don't mean the genie misinterpreting your wish, but just things being too complicated to fix with simple wishes.

For example, suppose I wished for an end to war. That would probably involve either changing human nature or limiting our freedom - neither or which seem good to me. What about an end to world hunger? I can't think of any way to do it that wouldn't have massive effects on the environment and the world economy for a start.

The sensible thing would be to wish for something fairly small that would be of some benefit but wouldn't mess up the world too much. For example, I might wish for a particular set of numbers to come up in the lottery. I would win the lottery and then either keep the money or give it to charity depending on how I was feeling; but at least the magical genie should be able to make sure specific numbers get drawn without messing up anything else (hopefully).

No idea who else I would give my wish to.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

I'd wish for omnipotence. Then the question of further wishes would be moot.

 

[c4ts]

I'd wish for a poison frog launcher.

 

[Dorian Gray]

It depends on whether the wishes could be applied to just me, or could be applied to everyone. If I got only one wish, the obvious wish would be to wish for 10 more wishes.

 

[Yahweh]

I'll wish to remove Nyarlathotep's omnipotence...

 

[exarch]

a) I would wish to become the most evil, ugly, unfriendly, gullible, [whatever other bad stuff you can think of] person to ever exist from now on, without actually changing myself.

Ofcourse the evil genie will make humanity disappear and leave me behind all alone *sigh*

b) I would ask the most friendly, beautiful, skeptic [whatever good stuff you can think of] person I can find to make that same wish regarding themselves.

 

[Bikewer]

Poison frog launcher...an Idea who's time has perhaps not yet come.....

Anyone remember the X-files episode that deals with the wish-granting Djiin? Very funny. After the two utterly dufus brothers frag themselves, Mulder inherits the bottle.

After due consideration, he wishes for World Peace. The Djiin simply removes all human beings from the face of the planet.