Ultimate wish!

[sanctus]

You all know the type of jokes like the following:

A elder couple (let's say 70 years old) finds a spirit in a bottle, they free it and then have both a wish. She wishes [...] and he wishes to have a twenty years younger woman and so he finds himself being 90 years old....

 

Now I was wondering (in bed last night before falling asleep to be precise) is there a wish which has only one interpretation and it is good for somebody?

 

Sincerely I doubt it.

[Fishteacher73]

I think it would all hinge on being very specific in your wording..

[bumab]

Wish for wisdom (obviously stole that idea....)

 

Other then that, though.... hmmmm.... good question.

[Turtle]

___Wish for more wishes? (obviously stole this; I wish I wasn't so impulsive!) :hihi:

[C1ay]

Now I was wondering (in bed last night before falling asleep to be precise) is there a wish which has only one interpretation and it is good for somebody?

Perhaps a selfless wish for someone else.

[rockytriton]

the only thing that I can come up with is:

 

I wish that you don't give me my wish.

 

The reason this would have no bad effect is that the Genie will probably go into a recursive loop and just sit there pondering what to do for all eternity.

[Fishteacher73]

Any wish that is not comparative. Wish for a million bucks, world peace, etc. Anything comparatively could result in a loss to a level as opposed to an elevation of a level.

[Turtle]

___Ahhh but for the law of unintended consequences! :hihi: Even such a selfless wish (selfless in regard to the one wishing) may result in the detriment of others while benefitting the beneficiary of said selfless wish.

___Given that this is a problem of making mistakes, & those mistakes matter so because of the limited number of wishes, I do think wishing for unlimited wishes is the best answer for Sanctus' question "is there a wish which has only one interpretation and it is good for somebody?"

___In a game theory sort of view, wishing for more wishes seems good for the wisher, who is somebody. Moreover, I don't see just how wishing for unlimited wishes has more than one interpretation. :xx:

[bumab]

Any wish that is not comparative. Wish for a million bucks, world peace, etc. Anything comparatively could result in a loss to a level as opposed to an elevation of a level.

 

A sudden influx of money would cause a small (very small, but existent) jump in inflation, so it would affect others.

World peace would destabilize many regions and cause economies to collapse (althought it would certainly be better in the long run)

 

At least that's why I didn't pick those two, although I thought of them :hihi:

[rockytriton]

Moreover, I don't see just how wishing for unlimited wishes has more than one interpretation. :hihi:

 

Aladin: "I wish for 1000 more wishes."

Genie: "Granted, you have 1000 more wishes."

Aladin: "I wish for 1 million dollars."

Genie: "..."

Aladin: "Where's my money?"

Genie: "I didn't say the wishes would come true. You now have 999 wishes left before you die."

[bumab]

Now that's clever.

[C1ay]

___Ahhh but for the law of unintended consequences! :hihi: Even such a selfless wish (selfless in regard to the one wishing) may result in the detriment of others while benefitting the beneficiary of said selfless wish.

I was kind of thinking of something like wishing someone else to be happy.

[Turtle]

___This brings us back to careful wording; "I wish for unlimited wishes", not 1000. The Genie in rocky's post seems to be changing the rules.

___The law of unintended consequence applies to making someone else happy. No end of Rube Goldberg-esc cause & effects chain of events from a happiness may result in some catastrophe or other for someone else. :hihi:

___My landlord is happy that he gave me notice to get out because I (we) stand in the way of his money; I on the other hand haven't been so miserable, disoriented, & confused in a long time.

[Fishteacher73]

We assume that the mechanism that supplies the wish opperates qwithin the rest of the ordered laws. There is no reason to assume this. T gain something through thios matter would not mean that it had to detract from someone else. A million dollars would not alter inflation, world peace that causes instability would not be a world paece. To apply logic to an illogiical situation can cause erroneous predictions.

[bumab]

Well, you are getting real dollars to use in a real economy, so it only came from an imaginary source...

[Fishteacher73]

True, but does a lotto winner cause a local economy to crash? No There would need to be very large summs of money or a reasonable sum dispersed out among many to really alter the local economy.

[bumab]

I agree. I assumed we were talking about the ideal situation, where in no possible way were other people negitivally effected. For all practical purposes, you are certainly correct. I was thinking in ideals.