top 100 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 156 points 6 months ago (22 children)

You find you can no longer lie.

  • source
  • hideshow 22 child comments
  • [–] 13 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    Reason #2801 why vacuous truths are awesome.

    "When I first met you, you promised to give me all your money" is a true statement because I have never actually met you.

    Just be careful not to test this in court.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    That depends on whether you interpret "when" + past tense in English to also assert the reality of the temporal clause. The interpretation which allows the vacuous truth is, in my opinion, not even technically correct (by correct I mean aligns with actual spoken usage). It would amount to formalizing the sentence as

    For all meetings between us, if said meeting is at a past time and it's the first meeting (i.e. before all other meetings), you promised at that time to give me all your money.

    Which is indeed vacuously true, if there have been no past meetings, or even if the meetings aren't well-ordered in time :). On the surface this is a perfectly good interpretation, but it doesn't really align with real usage (though I would love to see an example of "when" + past tense being used this way, e.g. in a legal document).

    On the other hand, most people would interpret "when" + past to assert that the event actually happened, which in this context means

    I have met you before, a "first meeting" can be identified, and at that first meeting, you promised to give me all your money.

    Or even more formally

    There exist meetings between us at a past time, there exists such a unique meeting which is first, and, for all meetings, if said meeting is indeed the first, you promised me at that time to give me all your money.

    And this can be reduced to

    There exists a unique past meeting between us such that [it's first, and you promised to give me all your money at that time].

    I think this interpretation is most closely aligned with how "when" is actually used in practice. "If" feels different, though. It can act as simple logical implication, logical equivalence, or anything in between, so it may be more interesting to study. Also note that all of this doesn't apply to "when" + simple present, which acts very similarly to "if".

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago

    Damn it, I was trying to go for the "When" + simple present to check whether my statement worked.

    I thought:

    "When 1 equals 2, blablabla" is always true, therefore [my statement above] works as well.

    But I should've thought "When 1 equaled 2, ..." which doesn't sound true anymore.

    That is to say: Fuck grammatical tenses!

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 25 points 6 months ago (16 children)

    But can you still be incorrect?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 16 child comments
  • [–] 63 points 6 months ago (15 children)

    No, because you are always right.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 15 child comments
  • [–] 63 points 6 months ago (14 children)

    Massive silver lining then. Having found a way to determine objective truth sounds pretty powerful and useful, even if it's not what you originally wished for.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 14 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Predicting lottery numbers, proving mathematic formula, coming up with options with for ftl and cold fusion if there are any

    Always being right without knowledge on your end could lead humanity forward a lot if you can prove your standing

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    Predicting lottery numbers, proving mathematic formula, coming up with options with for ftl and cold fusion if there are any

    Most of these assume that the power will correct what you are thinking/going to say rather than preventing you from thinking /saying it. It's still busted, but in its weakest form you want to be using it to make choices/giving advice.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    Or whatever they say is right instead. Atomics are fake? No nuclear power. Oops there goes the sun because fissions gone.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago

    Can you imagine? A modern day oracle. Scientists would be lining up to ask questions about how the world worked and everything you said would be true.

    It would be great for just confirming things that science suspected were true. Like, all the rare particles they're trying to find with the Large Hadron Collider. They could just ask the oracle and learn all the particles they were missing, along with all the important data about them.

    Best of all, if you couldn't lie, and couldn't be wrong (even if you didn't know the answer) it could be used to "discover" things without ever having to go down blind alleys, or waste time with research that won't bear fruit. For example, you could ask "is it possible for something like a spaceship to move faster than the speed of light?" If the answer is no, then you can write off working on that forever. If it's yes, you could progressively ask questions to learn the theory you'd need to know to build a FTL ship. It could also finally put to bed whether time travel is possible, and how the paradoxes involved are resolved.

    If FTL travel is possible, you could just ask the oracle where all the various aliens are, making it really easy to contact them (plus the oracle can tell you if it's unsafe to contact them).

    Also, since it was obviously possible to transform someone into an oracle, it should be possible to do that again. You can just ask the oracle the right questions needed to create a second, third, tenth, 1000th oracle. That way the one oracle isn't always so busy, and if the first oracle dies, there are still many more.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    You might only be speaking in math, though.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (-1 replies)
  • [–] 93 points 6 months ago* (28 children)

    You attempt to do this, but you find yourself unable to say you have three wishes, as that would make you wrong.

    And you will always be right.

  • source
  • hideshow 28 child comments
  • [–] 13 points 6 months ago* (3 children)

    I read this in Baldur's gate narrator's voice

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 6 months ago (20 children)

    honestly, not a bad power.

    "next week lottery numbers are _______"

    "The best thing I can do with my life right now is ___________"

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 20 child comments
  • [–] 17 points 6 months ago

    "next week lottery numbers are......... impossible for me to know"

    "the best thing I can do with my life right now is ...... something I wish I knew"

    The curse can be stubbornly unhelpful no matter what.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago (18 children)

    It won't be easy as you'll still have to guess the right thing, but you can probably make it work.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 18 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago (4 children)

    Only have to guess 10 times the number of digits though, quite doable for a lottery win!

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 6 months ago*

    I mean, with lotto numbers you could just start trying to count. Once you can say the number, you move on to the next one. Depending on how the wish works, you could even try just sounding things out.

    The meaning of life is mmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaasssssssssstuuuuurrrrrrrrrrb-“ Hmm… What would come after the B? “The meaning of life is masturbaaaa-“… Oh. OH.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (11 children)

    but whatever I guess will be right.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 11 child comments
  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (10 children)

    No, no, no. You'll be blocked when you try to guess the wrong thing. You still have to try guessing on your won.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (9 children)

    still not hard, the first number is [strained noise],[strained noise],[strained noise],[strained noise],4.

    FOUR

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 9 child comments
  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (8 children)

    The lottery numbers haven't been picked yet, so nothing would be correct until they get picked.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (7 children)

    What if i say "next lottery numbers of [company that does it] [game name] will be ___ ___ ___ 7"?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (4 children)

    will be.... impossible to know will be.... a sequence of numbers between 1 and 69

    You could be compelled to say any number of unhelpful things instead of the numbers.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (3 children)

    It's stil easy you just narrow down, "will be any number between 2 and 30" ok sure, "will be any number between 14 and 20", "will be 16 and 18" yep, it's def 17

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    You are assuming you'll even be allowed to utter specifc numbers at all.

    Think a genie scenario would have you utterly blocked before the first syllable that could possibly be helpful.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

    That doesn't negate that they haven't been chosen yet, so there is no correct answer, and you won't be able to say any number at all for that statement. In fact, it may make you mute until the numbers are chosen as anything you say after that would be incorrect.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago* (1 child)

    Alternatively, “was” is past tense. Meaning everything you’ve said in the past was correct. But that has no bearing on the future. The wish would undoubtedly fuck up a lot of things in the past from little daily white lies compounding (or even bigger childhood lies that could have drastically altered the world) but wouldn’t have any impact on things going forwards.

    A genie would find a way to twist the wish for maximum suffering. And having your 4 year old “watch me, I can fly” lie be true would have some long lasting implications. Likely even leading up to a paradox where you were never even able to make the wish in the first place, because some childhood lie ended up getting you maimed or killed before you ever rubbed the lamp.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    The way this works in reality is with retrocausality. In the same sense that a molecule is controlled by a cell but still influences the cell, phenomequalitesselation is where God or similar conceptualization of retrocausal force (time travel) controls the unfolding of history, but our most human choices influence the strange attractor of the transcendental object at the end of the universe, so we have free will in a deterministic system, which is really illusory, like the self.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

    "If I wish for three more wishes, you will grant them with no catches."

    Keep doing this, over and over again, trying different strategies. It's a way to test and validate genie loopholes (as you will be unable to state that if it's wrong).

    Though if the genie was smart, being "wrong" would be qualified to your own internal knowledge, I suppose. E.g. you can't knowingly lie.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 50 points 6 months ago (10 children)

    Monkey's paw genie: you physically can't verbalize that you have 3 wishes left when you only have 2.

  • source
  • hideshow 10 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago (5 children)
  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 7 points 6 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 26 points 6 months ago*

    Just the bottom 5 panels will do as response.

  • source
  • [–] 13 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    Genie is looking at you like this because it's weird watching only the right half of a human form sentences without issues. It's also weird that the person didn't seem fazed by the removal of their left half.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 13 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    It's more existentially terrifying if the wish operates differently. Instead of adjusting reality to make your words true, it simply constrains you to only be able to speak true and correct statements. So when you try and speak, "no, I have three wishes left," what comes out is "I have two wishes left."

    In particularly powerful forms, this wish could be used to solve metaphysical and existential questions. You literally can only speak the Truth. Want to know the day you die? Pick a random date and try to say, "I will die on ____ from ____." Your actual date and cause of death will come out instead.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    I mean, I get what you are saying, but also like every other comment is talking about how the wish goes wrong by not letting you speak something that isn't true and I just wanted to explore other ways the genie could "monkey's paw" the wish. ie removing the wisher's left half. "They'll be all right."

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 22 points 6 months ago

    Your IQ drops 80 points while deep seated feelings of racism bloom in your soul. A Red hat appears on your head. The Genie says “Now you are always right”. You immediately turn your self into ICE since you are an immigrant. The monkeys paw has struck again

  • source
  • [–] 11 points 6 months ago

    The left side of his body disappears and he falls over dead

  • source
  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago* (3 children)

    Granted, the genie produces a large sword and slices you perfectly down the middle. The left half of you burns away to dust. "You are now... always right," he says to your right half as you flop to the ground. Not that it matters much as your consciousness quickly fades.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 11 points 6 months ago*

    “You will be right for the rest of your life.”

    “I wish you had left me alone!”

    The genie rematerializes your left half. Now your right half evaporates and fades to dust. “You are now left alone.”

    - Tales from Bad Pun Dad Joke Genie

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    Wish granted. For a time, you were always right. You aren't anymore.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

    Does the past change to meet what you believed, or does what you believed in the past change to what was right at the time?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago

    After the wish a maga hat appears

  • source
  • [–] 8 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    You find that all of your "left" muscles have been paralyzed.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    I've never understood how people go straight to "wishing for more wishes" and then immediately give up when the genie tells them no.

    An individual wish is not by default limited by anything meaningful. One wish can easily be worth thousands of other lesser wishes. All you'd have to do is wish for the ability to grant yourself wishes. Or write up a "contract" or something and simply request that the thing you wrote was true, and that contract could have any number of things written on it. You could even go heavy on rules lawyering to get around "monkey's paw" risks when you write it all up.

    Its ultimately just a restriction of language. If you wanted to wish for a boat, you wouldn't wish for each individual component and manufacturing process of a boat in extreme detail, you'd just ask for a boat. You can do that with any arbitrarily defined thing of your choice that you yourself define.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 6 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    That genie looks like it's 5 minutes away from a cardiac arrest

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 6 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    “You’re absolutely right! Let’s begin with your first wish (truly your second 😜🦅😉🙈)”

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago

    Seeing the comments, and generally all the monkey paw arrangements, I remember the genie in that one strip where he clarifies all the various things that needs to be considered when the person wished they could fly.

    I personally feel that he is the best one, irrespective of how tedious it would be.

  • source
  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

    Couldn't a genie interpret this as "You can't say anything that isn't already true"?

    Like you couldn't actually say words unless it was a truth? Not the rewriting of what truth is?

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago

    What if that meant that you could no longer lie?

  • source
  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago

    I feel like the proper response by the genie should be "yes, you're right, what's your first wish?"

  • source
  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago*

    You can always be right without ever being correct.

    Point goes to genie on this one. You're gonna get a cursed wish and need to use another wish to undo it. Way to fuck it up, Chippy, you'll be lucky if you stay alive long enough to fix this.

  • source
  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago
    [–] 3 points 6 months ago

    As a chronic pessimist, this would be a horrible wish.

  • source
  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    That’s some galaxy-brain loophole logic right there 😂

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments
    view more: next ›