# Avoiding a monkey's-paw-type wishing scenario. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 30, 2017, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182 "2017-11-30T20:28:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2017, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182/41 "2017-12-02T03:20:01Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Sure. “I wish that every time I roll a pair of dice, they add to 7” One week later: “Man found dead in Las Vegas desert with forty seven gunshot wounds in his back. Police say no foul play is suspected.” ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182/42 "2017-12-02T03:32:32Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > . . . My favorite was probably granting all the knowledge - with no comprehension. Rote knowledge only. That could still be handy… What’s the specific gravity of quartz… Who’s the Member of Parliament from Tunbridge Wells… Recite the color-code list for resistors… There’s a lot of rote knowledge that would be mighty useful to know! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182/43 "2017-12-02T17:40:35Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I think it was…Frederic Brown?..who wrote the short story where the woman wished that the wish-granting demon would fall hopelessly, deeply, and unselfishly, in love with her. That turned out pretty good for her. Wouldn’t surprise me – Brown wrote quite a few deal-with-the-devil stories, although I don’t recall this one. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2017, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182/44 "2017-12-02T18:29:50Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I think it was…Frederic Brown?..who wrote the short story where the woman wished that the wish-granting demon would fall hopelessly, deeply, and unselfishly, in love with her. That turned out pretty good for her. Brown also did one about wishing that, with no change in _himself,_ he’d be the world’s stupidest and most selfish and most miserable person. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182/45 "2017-12-02T20:15:15Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > The only one I couldn’t skip was “Make my life better.” Buddhism\* believes that complete detachment makes your life better, so everyone you love, and everything you like is now gone. \*[sub]May not resemble actual Buddhism.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2017, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182/46 "2017-12-02T22:06:25Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Sure. “I wish that every time I roll a pair of dice, they add to 7” Not a good wish if you play role-playing games. Or for that matter, many board games. > [@Trinopus](#): > > That could still be handy… What’s the specific gravity of quartz… Who’s the Member of Parliament from Tunbridge Wells… Recite the color-code list for resistors… > > There’s a lot of rote knowledge that would be mighty useful to know! The Infobahn already provides at least 98% of that. It would come in useful if it included stuff that hasn’t been discovered yet, but there’s no guarantee you’d get that. There was a short story of the enemy-gets-twice type where the guy asks for a woman who’s the perfect mate for him. The implication (it wasn’t shown) being that the enemy gets two such women, who promptly start fighting over him or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2017, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182/47 "2017-12-02T23:50:27Z")
My favorite movie with this theme is the original Bedazzled with Dudley Moore trying to come up with the perfect wish to have his love interest and Peter Cooke as the devil. Here’s Stanley Moon’s (Dudley) 7th and final specific wish. Needless to see it didn’t work out. > [@](#): > > Stanley: Let me get it quite clear. I want to be a warm, loving, tender person… and Margaret exactly the same. I want all the fun of meeting her for the first time and falling in love with her. I love her, and she loves me. We’re in love forever. Surroundings? Serene and far removed… from the false glitter… the raucous music and the neon lights of this modern world. We’re both young, white and in perfect health. > > Devil: Stanley, I’ve gotta hand it to you. That’s real specifying. You’ve come up with the one formula that I, as the devil, really dread… mutual love and spiritual values. > > Stanley: I want peace and quiet… and… and no other men in her life. I’ve never done a spoiler before so I apologize in advance if it doesn’t work. 🙂 And I hope the quoted part isn’t so long as to run afoul of the rules. So the devil turns them both into nuns who have taken a vow of silence. [Read more](https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=bedazzled-1967) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2017, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182/48 "2017-12-03T04:08:41Z")
**brossa** : sorry for the late reply. To be sure, this is a known problem in game theory/philosophy, called “[Newcomb’s Paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcomb's_paradox).” The issue is that from the predictor’s point of view, your thought processes are simple enough so that your subsequent choice is essentially determined in advance. The ultimate answer is that it is best to avoid messing with freaky prophets. Footnote: in theology the issue of free will arises in the doctrine of predestination. In the original short story, the monkey’s paw was set up by an old fakir as a trap for suckers, and the answer is to [properly de-curse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXzUOh9PlNw) before using. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182/49 "2017-12-16T14:07:52Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The demon, who didn’t like being a slave to the sorcerer, still figured out a way to get back at the sorcerer, despite these limitations. In addition to your story, its part of the theme of the _Wishmaste_r films: [Wishmaster (film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wishmaster_(film)) You can ask for information, or just the see “wonders.” But the demon’s just going to give you an object lesson – horribly mutating your courtiers, or trapping you in the demon world, or just killing people at random – then you have to waste a wish to get it to cut this crap out. Three wishes, and its free. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182/50 "2017-12-16T20:32:35Z")
“Instead of Three Wishes” is a short story by Megan Turner, in a collection by that title. Selene does a favor for someone who turns out to be a wish-granter. She’s genre savvy and knows how this kind of thing turns out, and refuses. He makes a pest of himself trying to talk her into it. I don’t remember the ending, but I do remember it’s happy for Selene. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182/51 "2017-12-16T23:41:20Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Then there was the stoner who asked the genie to roll him a joint of the best weed ever, that would replace itself as it was being burned. He took a single hit from the joint, was stoned af, yet the joint remained whole. > > When asked his second wish, of course the stoner asked for another magic joint. That totally sounds like something you’d do. OTOH, once our stoner gets un-stoned enough to count to 4 I bet he’ll notice that his second joint (or access to it) can be sold for a \*very \*nice price. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avoiding-a-monkeys-paw-type-wishing-scenario/803182.md?page=2)