• Sundray@lemmus.orgEnglish
    0·
    8 days ago

    I feel like this would just result in the genie pinching the bridge of his nose and manifesting an aspirin.

      • MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca
        0·
        8 days ago

        Personally, I’d rather have the wishes to use on anything else. Could cure cancer, become filthy rich, turn into a T-rex, have guns for hands, etc. What’s the point of “out smarting” the genie like this? Fuck, I could even understand evil wishes, at least they do something productive (if terrible).

        • morto@piefed.socialEnglish
          0·
          8 days ago

          If I find a genie, I will wish for we all to enjoy silly and light-hearted humor, instead of overthinking and complaining about it :D

        • Simulation6@sopuli.xyz
          0·
          8 days ago

          These genie wishes are always monkey paws. Better to do something that wasn’t going to blow back, like crashing the genie.

          • bizarroland@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            8 days ago

            In the Arabian Nights, the genie tended to grant people’s wishes as they were intended, and without any trickery.

            The trickery of the djinn is something that has been retconned into the system.

            If they didn’t like you, they would just kill you right away.

            And also technically Aladdin got a second genie originally with just a small ring that granted him unlimited wishes in the form of servitude.

            • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              8 days ago

              I really need to read 1001 Arabian nights again. Quest for Glory 2, trial by fire is still kinda my favorite game and very obviously based on it. even though I have beaten the whole series in every combination of classes except maybe raw fighter, because why when paladin? Anyways I was too young to really process it when I read it and would like to read it for realsies this time

          • KombatWombat@lemmy.world
            0·
            7 days ago

            Maybe wish away their protections then wish for them to be dead? That way you have an extra wish. But maybe you should use that one before killing your genie.

  • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    8 days ago

    I remember as a kid I tried forming a logic quandary like this that so I would gain superpowers in the real world via my dreams by canceling out the dream/real world barrier.

  • Maroon@lemmy.world
    0·
    8 days ago

    IMHO, I feel people here have the Disney idea of a genie rather than the true Middle Eastern idea of a djin.

    Djins grant wishes more like the MonkeyPaw. It can horribly backfire. The protagonist is basically using logic to neutralize anything bad the djin can potentially do to him.

    • Sergio@piefed.socialEnglish
      0·
      8 days ago

      I feel people here have the Disney idea of a genie rather than the true Middle Eastern idea of a djin.

      oooh that makes sense… I had a friend in cybersecurity who was always using the term “evil genie” to characterize how attackers would take any system you developed, and look for a way to use it against you.

    • Wirlocke@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      0·
      8 days ago

      I’d argue the Monkey’s Paw is a bad example because I don’t think the Monkey’s Paw is actively malicious like a djinn.

      I think Monkey’s Paw just works off of path of least resistance. What’s the fastest way to randomly get rich? Workplace accident causing life insurance payout. What’s the least effort way to revive the dead? Just make the corpse start moving again. What’s the easiest way to give a shambling corpse peace? Undo the last wish.

      I feel like a Djinn wouldn’t let you undo the reviving wish. They’d probably just put them in a coma so your son is now in a half dead comatose state forever.

      • samus12345@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        8 days ago

        The Monkey’s Paw seems “programmed” maliciously to grant the wish using a method that produces other results undesirable to the wisher rather than there being any active malice on the Paw’s part.

    • makeshiftreaper@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      8 days ago

      Yeah, even stories of “benevolent” djinn who want to help still backfire and those are the minority. Most are tricksters who want to fuck with you, so giving them some sort of logic loop is more likely that they break logic/causality than you’ll have them blue screen of death and poof away in a cloud of smoke

    • samus12345@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      8 days ago

      How djinns grant wishes varies wildly in stories. Some are actively malicious, some try to grant the wish along the spirit of the wish, some are strictly literal with no actual malice intended. If the djinn is imprisoned and forced to grant wishes it does makes sense that they would “Monkey’s Paw” them if they’re able.

  • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    7 days ago

    For everyone wondering how this wouldnt work, isnt “undo my first wish” a solution? That would break the genie.

    Edit: also it shouldnt be “ignore my next wish” but “ignore my second wish”. Even better if you state each wish starting with “My Xth wish is to…”

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    8 days ago

    Me, presented with a nice man who just offered to do three favors no-strings-attached: “How can I fuck with this guy?”

  • cattywampas@lemmy.world
    0·
    8 days ago

    Genie: “I’m a thinking being not a computer, these wishes don’t make sense so I’m not granting them.”

    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      8 days ago

      Just as likely anything that lives in a lamp for hundreds of years and manifests as a holographic vapor from a spout is indeed a computer.

  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
    0·
    8 days ago

    i heard the 3 wish rule is DISNEY-invention. i dont think theres a limit. but genies might not give wishes you want if you wernt specific. wishmaster, "demon wishes, an