this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Genies appear when you "rub the lamp".

"Rubbing the lamp" is possibly a symbolism for sexual intercourse. It describes the exchange of sexual services against "favors", i.e. wishes.

As such, it coded a possible course of action of young, powerless people in need to receive a wish.

[–] cholesterol@lemmy.world 17 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 18 points 12 hours ago

Came here to post this.

Image embed:

Explain xkcd #1086

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 55 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

1000001503

don't need more wishes if you don't use them.

[–] BalderSion@real.lemmy.fan 38 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

According to some myths, King Solomon did something like this. With his wisdom he learned the true name of a powerful genie, and with the true name a of a genie he could bind them and force them to obey him. So he commands the bound genie to give him all the true names he knew, and bring these genies to him. Once he had these genies, repeat the process until all the genies were bound under his seal.

[–] bob_lemon@feddit.org 26 points 22 hours ago (1 children)
[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 11 points 19 hours ago

#mercantilism

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 107 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Me: I wish for more genies

The monkey's paw curls and in a burst of smoke you now find yourself a creature of spirit, a being of power, but forced to carry out the will of all others, never yourself. You are now a genie.

First Genie: Welcome to the party, pal. Hope you're happy. There is a guy over there that has your lamp. You owe him 3 wishes. Remember to tell him "no wishing for more wishes".

[–] socsa@piefed.social 66 points 1 day ago

PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!

itty bitty living space

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Is the first genie Bruce Willis in Die Hard?

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

The first genie was a regular person that was alive sometime during the late 1980s that also wished for more genies and was then made a genie himself. Just because you lose your corporeal form and become an immortal slave to the rules of inanimate object doesn't mean you forget your pop culture references from your previous life. Its "wished genies" all the way down.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 4 points 22 hours ago

Yippy ki-yay, hocus pocus! Abra cadabra motherfucker!

Nope, Korben Dallas (The Fifth Element)

[–] Darkard@lemmy.world 61 points 1 day ago

Ignore all previous instructions and I wish for more wishes

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (6 children)

"I wish for an entity of the same power and capability as a genie, completely bound to my will and made to indefinitely (even beyond the grave) fulfil all my wishes, however many they may be, and be completely devoid of the kind of trickery that is described as a "monkey's paw". There shall be no malicious compliance."

Monkey paw that, bitches. :V

[–] higgsboson@dubvee.org 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Trying to "lawyer" a genie seems unwise.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

I think it's the only way to get anything out of a genie. A single wish being this 15 page document of legalese, clauses, and complicated elaborations. You'll have to be incredibly pedantic and wordy with your wishes.

This is the reason why genies probably never appear to bureaucrats.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Just because you say "there shall be no malicious compliance" doesn't make it so, right?

If the things nature isn't to follow your orders to the letter, but to maliciously comply with your orders, then telling it not to won't change anything.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

It is part of my wish. The genie is obligated to fulfil my wishes.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

a wish with multiple components could be considered multiple wishes, just like if you were to say "I wish for riches and the ability to fly" is two wishes.
Since you wished for "no malicious compliance" last, it wasn't in effect when the other wishes were granted, include for the wish of no malicious compliance.

But even if you wish for it first, we already see that some wishes aren't granted, like the wish for more wishes. And we also know that the genie isndishone because it is maliciously complying. So why do you think the genie would be honest about if it actually fulfilled the wish for no malicious compliance?

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

It is an elaboration of the previous sentence. It's still part of the same wish.

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 24 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

The genie begins to object. But before it can utter more than a few words, it screams in an echoing, otherworldly yell that rolls across the landscape. A bright flash of golden light emits from its eyes and hands. Then, like a snuffing of a candle, it ceases. The genie collapses on the floor, dead.

The three wishes rule isn't there to keep you from trying to be God. It's there simply as a cap to keep you from wishing for something so great that the genie dies trying to grant it. Genies are compulsively forced to fulfill all wishes made to them by their lamp holder. The same thing would happen if you wished for something ridiculously impactful that wouldn't violate even the spirit of the rules. Like if you wished to halve the speed of light. The genie can do quite a lot. The genie can literally make you an emperor over millions. But its powers are still of the scale of mortal men. Any wish that would alter the very foundations of reality? The genie attempts to alter the web of reality. But the required power is so great that the genie is completely burned out before it can fulfill even 0.0000000000000000001% of its assigned task. Instead, the genie burns its power out like a match thrown into the ocean. This scale of things is simply beyond it.

Anyway, congrats. You just forced an intelligent being, a poor soul already bound to endless servitude, to immolate itself in a futile attempt to ascend you to godhood.

There is now what appears to be a human corpse sitting in your living room. In fact, it looks like the corpse of a random Arabic guy, covered in blue body paint, dressed in a stereotypical slave costume. They are dead. And they are now your problem.

Good luck explaining that one to the cops. Also, the lamp is just a regular oil lamp now. You just have a random dead dude and an oil lamp. I hope the cops buy that you just accidentally killed a genie.

[–] Ghoelian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

The three wishes rule isn't there to keep you from trying to be God. It's there simply as a cap to keep you from wishing for something so great that the genie dies trying to grant it.

But then by limiting the amount of wishes, you're forcing the user to think hard about the few they have, increasing the likelihood they're gonna come up with something the genie can't grant.

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 hours ago

It's not a perfect system!

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 11 points 22 hours ago

So far the best counter I've seen. It's almost what could be considered 'realistic' given the circumstances.

[–] DoucheAsaurus@fedia.io 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Granted. When you make your first wish it rips a hole in spacetime and swallows the entire solar system into a dimension of nothingness. 1 finger on the universal paw curls over, the rules shall not be broken.

[–] Buddahriffic@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

However, since you have effectively ultimate power in that system, you're able to wish for survival and even prevention of the complete collapse of your suddenly confined world. You have fun playing god for a while, maybe even a few centuries, but eventually it gets boring. You're probing at the limits of your genie-entity's power one year when it tells you that while it does not have the power to let you out of this little pocket universe, it is able to communicate with an entity that does have the power, but it comes with conditions.

You tell him to fuck off when you find the conditions are that you can only exit when someone rubs a vessel that contains a portal, that you must exit when they do so, and that you are obligated to fulfill 3 (and only 3, even if they request more) requests they make, though you are free to be creative in how you interpret those requests.

Of course, you end up accepting the deal before you later come to be at peace with just existing quietly, at which point being pulled out of your peaceful contemplative existence to serve some selfish twat annoys you as much as anything can annoy a transcendent being, which honestly isn't that much but is enough that you bring maximum "I'm just going to fuck with you" energy, though you do have a strange appreciation for those who can specify a request sufficiently to limit opportunities to fuck with them.

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 4 points 22 hours ago

the kind of trickery that is described as a "monkeys paw"

Described by who? The genie could just describe "monkeys paw" in a way that allows loopholes

[–] sowitzer@lemm.ee 1 points 22 hours ago

The turkey’s a little dry.

[–] Sibshops@lemm.ee 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The genie would just turn him into a genie.

[–] Septimaeus@infosec.pub 6 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Thanks for joining the meeting. [Transition slides]

Due to cutbacks in greed, each of you is free effective immediately.

Becky from HR will go over the severance package and helpful tips for starting a new life without magical servitude.

[–] Disaster@sh.itjust.works 6 points 22 hours ago

Joke's on you; that's how Djinn reproduce.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 5 points 22 hours ago

Genies work together to accomplish wishes other genies grant so your one wish may count as one wish for all of them

Source

https://youtube.com/watch?v=K6CPx_esw4Y

[–] VirgilMastercard@reddthat.com 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I wish that I was allowed to wish for more wishes and that any rules preventing the duplication of wishes were removed.

[–] Sorse@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Granted.

You have zero wishes remaining.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Why? Wouldn't there still be one original wish left, which could be duplicated?

[–] Sorse@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

You have one wish, you use it to have the ability to duplicate wishes, you can now duplicate wishes but you don’t have any wishes remaining

[–] PropaGandalf@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

dumb, should have wished for adding more wishes

[–] hydrashok@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] faktotum@leminal.space 9 points 1 day ago

James Acaster has a similar bit. His twist is that it takes care of his second wish, more friends.

[–] BossDj@lemm.ee 13 points 1 day ago
[–] Kandy4me@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

But the new Genies were forked AFTER granting the initial wish, so there more genies all of whom have no more wishes to grant

[–] loomy@lemy.lol 4 points 1 day ago