Thanks, I appreciate it.
You would appreciate Damon Knight’s short story “Rule Golden,” which takes this in some interesting, world-changing directions. And in Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke has the Overlords end the sport of bullfighting by causing everyone watching a bullfight to feel the same pain as the bull.
Fine…then I wish for more genies.
How about if I wish for Aladdin’s ring and lamp?
You are disqualified and get no wishes. Rule 1 was very clear. Sorry you didn’t keep reading past that first sentence, but “you cannot wish for anything that would be equivalent to creating more wishes” and “If you even TRY to get around this rule, you lose all your wishes” are quite clear.
But I’m not trying to get around the 5 wishes rule in my genie contract with you, nor am I with any of the other individual 1,000,000 genies you wish into existence for me. I’m pretty sure I’ve established a pretty solid Djinn legal precedent here.
I want to have telekinesis of sufficient strength that I can easily lift cars with my mind and of sufficient precision and control that I can shuffle a deck of cards using it.
I wish human brains were rewired such that deliberately doing things that you believe will make things worse for other people for selfish reasons is unpleasant in a way that the brain can’t get used to or ignore.
I wish for thirty million dollars to be given to me via an approach that isn’t widely observed but which will withstand scrutiny if somebody (like the government) does find out about it.
I wish that I had the ability to cure illnesses and health problems (up to and including obesity) with a thought. This ability could be used as many times as I liked, and could be targeted at specific people (including myself) or at specific problems - I could cure Fred of everything that ails him, or I could cure cancer (or COVID) in everyone.
I wish that anything currently in the environment that the typical qualified ecologist would call “pollution” would either disappear or turn into something typical for the environment that would be not considered pollution; whichever is more convenient for the environment in question. (I imagine the sudden appearance of large vacuum-filled voids might be inconvenient in some places.)
I’m planning on selling my house in the next couple years. However, the thought of moving fills me with dread. So, for number one, I’ll go out and rent a great apartment, and you,. the genie, will magically move all my stuff. Box it up as I would and transfering the boxes would be okay.
Money. Lots and lots of money. I want it an whatever kind of account that would allow easy access, and a halfway decent rate of interest. At least ten million. I plan on making some donations, as well as enjoying myself.
Fix my teeth so they are in good shape until I die. I like my dentist, but I hate having dental work.
Enable me to eat as I wish, without hurting my health.
Help keep my pets healthy. I guess I can’t speak for future pets, just the ones on hand, but the cat is over thirteen and the dog is eight. Make their years remaining be as pleasant as possible.
Any attempt to get past Rule 1 is total forfeiture of all wishes. No arguments, no exceptions. You can try to argue around the other ones if you want.
I came in to suggest a similar strategy, except I would burn one wish to acquire the knowledge of what wishes would make me the happiest and then have four wishes at my disposal. Not especially specific, but the genie merely said he’d APPRECIATE specificity, not that it’s a requirement.
That is inconsistent with Rule 8. Not disqualifying, so you still get your wishes, but no, you have to make them all at once; holding on to any number of them to see how previous ones go is not permitted.
Usually when faced with this or a similar question, I immediately start looking for loopholes. But you went to a lot of trouble to make it loophole-proof, so for once I’ll try to answer it straitght.
I would point out before you submit your wishes that wishes that violate the laws of physics in specific circumstances are permitted. Therefore, you can, if you wish, wish for a spaceship that travels faster than light. If you would like to have an actual, functioning replica of the USS Enterprise-D, complete with warp drive, artificial gravity, phasers and a tank of live whales (yes, it did) it is yours to have. Might take you awhile to learn to fly the thing but I’m sure if you ask the computer, it’ll set up a training program on the holodeck.
Well, dolphins, anyway, but that’s not canon.
Well, they literally say they’re aboard in the TV series. How is it not canon?
Every month, determine the 100,000 people with Venmo who have the highest account balances. Randomly select a new set of 1,000 of them each month to come up with a reason to send me a random amount of money between $10-$50 on an individually randomly selected day of that month. That should not hurt anyone very much, and hopefully keep me under most radars for explaining where I’m getting my cash from.
Captain America levels of fitness/strength without needing to actually excerise to maintain it.
Immunity for me and my descendants from infectious disease.
Given a choice, all people will tend to do what makes life better for everyone. Their call on what that means, but I think this should bend us towards justice.
Plans for a safe, economical small-scale (power for say 5 average sized American houses) nuclear reactor. Safe - doesn’t melt down, extracting the fuel is extremely difficult (no dirty bombs), waste products are recyclable into new fuel for the reactor. Combined with solar/wind, that should remediate most of the climate crisis, and cheap power should make humanity’s life better overall.
I don’t remember a reference to whales, let alone dolphins, on the show.
I wish to live for 10,000 years at my current (or better still, that of 10 years ago) level of physical and mental acuity.
The ability to be highly proficient, instantly, at any skill or subject.
The immediate mitigation of injustice, abuse and suffering worldwide for everyone
The ability to be able to run through walls, at least fifty percent of the time (for the sake of humility)
Enough money and financial security to satisfy any reasonable whim (of both myself and anyone I wish to help).
If any of these are seen as compound than a reasonable simplification applies to satisfy the necessaries.