Home On The Strange Forums

phoenixredux · Joined: 11 May 2006 Posts: 10

Ok, I missed the "legally". But even so, do you always really want everything you desire? So you're at the zoo, and you feel a tinge of longing to have a tiger. You muse on it for a while - a tiger! How cool! What would it be like to have a tiger in the house? How useful that would be for keeping Jehovah's Witnesses and thieves out! how it could take care of your neighbor's stupid little yappy dog, et cetera. Then you move on to the next thing and forget about it. The next day, a truck from the zoo pulls up and drops off a tiger. It stalks and eats your children as they get off the bus.

Point is, there should be a fail-safe mechanism so that you don't get everything you DESIRE, just the things that you really truely want.

inncubus · Joined: 10 May 2006 Posts: 15

I can see the problem. Unfortunately want is fairly synonymous with desire, so a simply change of word wouldn't cover it. How about

REVISED WORDING:
I wish that I shall obtain; now and at all times hence; legally and without harm to others or myself, all such material possesions as I, being of sound mind, desire, and that recipt of same should occour within twenty-four earth hours (one day) of the desire becomming known to me. UNLESS DURING THAT PERIOD I DECIDE,OF MY OWN FREE WILL, THAT I DO NOT WISH TO RECEIVE SAID ITEM OR ITEMS.

As a side thought, do animals actually count as material possessions?

phoenixredux · Joined: 11 May 2006 Posts: 10

It's just a hypothetical example. The question of whether or not animals are material posessions is, well, immaterial. The dilema remains that you're not always going to really want to have everything you desire. You might want the Mona Lisa, but you rationally recognize that it's better off in the Louvre. Is that a better example? Anyway, I think that point is made.

This wording does place a burden on the wisher to recognize unconscious desires and consciously refute them. Isn't there a better way, in that you'd be granted only the things that you concsiously desire? So that you'd have to say, "I want a Bose Wave Radio with an iPod dock" in order to get one, and you wouldn't end up with, say, a 50 gallon drum of herring if you suddenly get a craving for stinky fish?

inncubus · Joined: 10 May 2006 Posts: 15

" It's just a hypothetical example. The question of whether or not animals are material posessions is, well, immaterial. "

I realised that, I just thought it was an interesting thought:>

Dictionary.com says:
de·sire ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-zr)
tr.v. de·sired, de·sir·ing, de·sires
To wish or long for; want.
To express a wish for; request.

n.
A wish or longing.
A request or petition.
The object of longing: My greatest desire is to go back home.
Sexual appetite; passion.

which doesn't give any impression of a transitory fancy, for the word desire.
It does however leave us with the problem that the genie could give us only those items we wish to have sex with.

inncubus · Joined: 10 May 2006 Posts: 15

BUGGED WORDING:

Material possessions

POTENTIAL MISINTERPRETATION

Items made from cloth.

I'm beggining to wonder if the only way to do this IS the contract suggested by phoenixredux. I also wonder if it's possible in English, what with it being so wildly variable depending on where one is from, and other such problems. A contract would need to be better than any used in court, judges use sense, the genie malice.

Aliza · Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 28

BUGGED WORDING:

I wish that I shall obtain;

POTENTIAL SUBVERSION:

I get the items, then someone takes them away from me, or they become defective, or I have no ability to use them.

Examples:
I order a computer. It arrives DOA, as does its warranty replacement.
I buy a nice camera, it gets stolen the next day.
I wish for a car, but without a title I can't get tags.
I wish for shoes and then I lose my feet.
I get a new car, and then the world economy collapses and there's no gas available.

SUGGESTION:

I wish that I shall continue to live in a society that is at least as affluent, law-abiding, protective of personal liberties, and ecologically sound as the one I live in now, but that, in a manner that does not appear out of the ordinary, I shall have the resources to legally obtain any goods and services that I desire.

inncubus · Joined: 10 May 2006 Posts: 15

BUGGED WORDING:

Desire

POTENTIAL MISINTERPRETATION:

Same as mentioned above, could be taken to mean the goods and services you want to have sex with. Although still possibly a positive thing, it's not what is being aimed for.

Aliza · Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 28

[...] I shall have the resources to legally obtain any goods and services that I choose, said resources to be conveniently available to me in whatever form is most typical of the society in which I am living.

(This protects against
1. the enormous numbered Swiss bank account owned by the person too poor to get on a plane over there, or who has forgotten the number
2. huge wads of stock I'm not yet vested in
3. owning one huge asset for which I can't find a buyer)

This does not protect against malicious interpretations of "convenient."

phoenixredux · Joined: 11 May 2006 Posts: 10

There again, we get back to where those resources come from. And, I could be mistaken, but then we're infringing on another forum where they're wishing for wealth. Now, it is possible that the two might overlap, but I don't think that was Ferret's intent.

Jacob Orlove · Joined: 10 May 2006 Posts: 8

Edit: nevermind.

samldanach · Joined: 25 May 2006 Posts: 57

One fundamental flaw in thinking here. You are attempting to wish to be infinitely rich. Why? Why not simply wish for enough cash, that you can reasonably purchase any thing that may come to mind.

PROPOSED WORDING:

I wish that the next lottery ticket I purchase will be the sole winner of the highest prize possible.

Now, simply wait until the Powerball gets to a point you like, and buy a ticket. Boom, a couple hundred million dollars, obtained legally and without fuss. And no one asking awkward questions about genies.

Aliza · Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 28

samldanach · Joined: 25 May 2006 Posts: 57

Personally, I don't think that the genie stealing your wallet should be allowed. I mean, that goes against the whole principle of the exercise. It's about the genie twisting your words, not about the genie screwing you. Otherwise, you'd better have "and don't kill me" as part of every wish.

Once it gets to that level, I'd rather sell my wishes on eBay.

calieber · Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 2 Location: Brooklyn, NY

Surely the key is to know a means of getting things I desire, without automatically getting them. The Genie can drop into my head knowledge of how to steal the Hope Diamond or lift a tiger from the zoo without my having to deal with the consequences of doing so.