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[TheFerrett]

The goal of the Open-Source Wish Project is to create perfectly-worded wishes, so that when the genie comes and grants us our wish we can get precisely what we want. The genie, of course, will attempt to interpret the wish in the most malicious way possible, using any loophole to turn our wish into a living hell. The Open-Source Wish Project hopes to use the collective wisdom of all humanity to create wishes with no loopholes whatsoever.

The Open-Source Wish Project was inspired by this comic on Home on the Strange.

This wish’s intent is to make the user (and, by extent, the people around him) happy.

And this is how what we would tell the genie to get it:

“I wish that my circumstances would change so that I would figure out the best way to be happy without being ignorant of the events occurring around me.”

1) If you think you have found a loophole (or "bug") in the current Wish wording that could backfire significantly, cut-and-copy the precise phrase you have issues with and post your suggested fix thusly:

BUGGED PHRASE:
…the erroneous part of the phrase.

POTENTIAL MISINTERPRETATION:
An explanation of how the phrase could be twisted to serve that genie's evil ends.

SUGGESTED FIX:
…the reworded phrase.

2) If you think the current Wish wording is lacking something that could be disastrous, then post it thusly:

WORDING OMISSION:
…the suggested phrase you think should be in the wish.

POTENTIAL MISINTERPRETATION:
An explanation of how, without this added clause, our wish could come to ruin.

3) If you think the entire Wish wording is so hopelessly botched that you would need to wish for something else entirely to get what you'd actually want, post it this way:

BUGGED WISH WORDING:
Your new wording, rewritten from the ground up

REASON FOR NEW VERSION:
An explanation of why the foundations of the current Wish wording are so frotzed that it'd be better to start over, with a list of why your changes are better.

Periodically, all of the changes will be looked over by the moderators, and the most reasonable of the suggested changes will be incorporated into the official Wish text, at which point this thread will be closed and the new Wish version will be put open for discussion.

There are other Wish wordings for different goals, which you can see here. If you want to suggest a new Wish goal, go here. You may cut-and-copy the wish with attribution to its original source on Home on the Strange.

That said, let's wishulate!

[Ronfar]

Loophole: Happiness an emotional state resulting from particular brain chemistry, and brain chemistry can be manipulated by drugs, many of which are illegal.

Evil genie response:
You are now a drug addict. You now know the best way to be happy in any circumstance: get more drugs.
_________________
- Doug

[alexmegami]

Loophole: "I wish that my circumstances would change..."

The genie might make you happier by having people you dislike disappear/die (changing circumstances). It doesn't need to make YOU make them disappear - if it can put together a series of events where you have no witnesses to provide an alibi, and leave enough planted "clues" that point to you, the wish user might be arrested. He wouldn't have to be ignorant of what was happening (in fact, he'd definitely know the police were questioning him), but he'd have no really good way of proving it.

I'd omit "circumstances would change" entirely, and just ask for the knowledge of how to be happy. Which brings me to my next suggestion -

Omission: "I would figure out the best way to be happy..."
"...that is legal for me to pursue and is possible for me to accomplish at this point in time" (deals with Ronfar's drug issue and also prevents the genie from telling you that, say, moving to another solar system is the best way to be happy).

[TheFerrett]

[inncubus]

BUGGED PHRASE:
"technically possible for me to accomplish at this point in time"

POTENTIAL MISINTERPRETATION:
It may be that you simply do not currently have the capabilities or position to take the actions that would result in happiness.

SUGGESTED FIX:
I would figure out the best way to be happy that is legal for me to pursue and that is technically possible for me to accomplish at this point in time, ;or the steps that should be taken to reach such a point; and to be given the willpower to make such an event or events occur.

[fuz]

BUGGED PHRASE:
"possible"

POTENTIAL MISINTERPRETATION:
It's possible that certain very unlikely things will happen (i.e. winning the lottery, finding one's Own True Love without a second wish, etc..), but I wouldn't want to know for certain that those are the best ways to reach happiness.

SUGGESTED FIX:
.. possible, feasible, and with nothing to prevent my accomplishing happiness within the next year.

------------------------------------

WORDING OMISSION:
"maintainable"

POTENTIAL MISINTERPRETATION:
This is a more general case of the drug example previous - the Genie could provide you with any number of ways to be happy briefly.

[apostate_96]

“I wish that my circumstances would change so that I would figure out the best way to be happy without being ignorant of the events occurring around me.”

PROBLEM: It doesn't say WHEN you figure this out. You could end up being miserable for the next 60 years and then get it on your deathbed. Or you could figure out the best way to do so is to die.

SOLUTION: ...I would figure out WITHIN XX PERIOD OF {DAYS/WEEKS} the best way to be happy WITHOUT DYING OR being ignorant...

PROBLEM: It doesn't specify it has to be a way to be happy you can actually DO. You could be stuck knowing a secret to permanent happiness that's beyond your ability to perform, which would really suck.

SOLUTION: ...best ay to be happy THAT IT IS POSSIBLE FOR ME TO DO/PERFORM without....

[Quark]

BUGGED PHRASE:
"technically possible for me to accomplish at this point in time"

POTENTIAL MISINTERPRETATION:
Technically, at this point in time, everything we can possibly conceive is "possible" to us seeing as we are making a wish to an almost omnipotent genie, until the moment we actually finish formulating our wish, everything is "technically possible for me to accomplish at this point in time".
We have to somehow substitute the "at this point in time" with something else.

SUGGESTED FIX:
"technically possible for me to accomplish at this point in time as if I never had the possibility to wish for and to be granted wishes"


What do you guys think ?
_________________
English is not my native language, if you can please correct my grammar, thank you.

[ChaoticJosh]

well, i don't mean to be negative at all, but i believe that what your trying to ask is simply impossible to ask for. Even if you had a non-evil good genie that would grant you the best possible wish, it would have trouble with being asked to just give someone instructions on how to be happy.

the fundamental flaw in your reasoning thus far is that the happiness wish is a secret, or a convoluted predetermined set of tasks or actions that is just beyond ones reason. this presents a philosophical paradox.

well, as I see it, the genie couldn't make you happy by just granting you something material or immaterial, because everyone's wants are always unlimited, when you have something you want, you'll always find something else to want. but thats not all.

They way i think, is that individuals achieve satisfaction in life is through navigating the complicated and random twists and turns through life with their own Individual actions. the fact that an answer to everything you've ever wanted is just given to you, sort of makes the answer meaningless in itself. allow to me elaborate to the best of my ability. If someone were given step by step instructions on how to achieve happiness, that person might enthusiastically undergo these tasks, all the while getting their hopes up at the big pot of happiness at the end of said tasks. when said tasks are completed, one might look back, and wonder at how obvious it was before, that they had not thought of it before. this, as crazy as it sounds, might shallow these actions, simply because they had to be told to you.
Some of the happiest people in the world, i believe, are just those, working day to day through, enjoying what life has in store for them, trying to figure out what's around the bend, and trying to make sense of it all on their own, as individual people. or to put it in a simple aesop type context, The journey is more valuable than the Destination.

thats why I propose a revision of this wish, that it be made simpler, and ask for something more specific.

"I wish that all my current out-of-reach desires, wants, and needs, were to suddenly become achievable, under normal circumstances"

[Ronfar]

The "trivial" solution to becoming happy is to artificially activate the happiness circuits in one's brain. There are three known ways of doing this - electrical brain stimulation, drugs, and meditation. If one wants to be perpetually happy, then one can simply wish one's brain into a state of perpetual happiness. Of course, mucking around with one's brain may have other consequences, such as forgetting to eat because one no longer feels hunger.

Becoming happier on average by more natural means may be harder than it seems. According to current research, people seem to have a default "set point" that happiness tends to fluctuate around. Typical environmental influences (such as winning the lottery, buying a new car, getting married, seeing a close friend die, etc.) temporarily nudge the brain away from equilibrium, but it eventually adapts and tends to return to the original set point. As a result, people are motivated to keep seeking out new rewards in a process that has been called the hedonic treadmill. Therefore, wishing to know "what to do to be happy" might not benefit you as much as you think, and you might just get referred to the three methods of increasing happiness that I cited earlier anyway.

We need to refine our goal here somewhat. How do we want to feel? How long do we want to feel it? Does it matter if that feeling interferes with our ability or desire to do things that we currently care about? Furthermore, if we let this genie mess with one's brain, how do we keep it from screwing us up?
_________________
- Doug

[ChaoticJosh]

well, what we're asking for here is how to make us happy, not brain surgery. its true that all emotions are created through chemical synapses in the brain, but i don't believe it would be in the wisher's best interest to be made a joyous lemming. so lets try to steer away from that possibility.

I've been thinking some more, and i propose a re-revision to the wish.

"I wish that the circumstances of my current status, private and public, would be altered into what the envisionment of my greatest desires, and the position and status of everyone else would conform around it, sans needless death."

[Ronfar]

And again, because of various feedback mechanisms, controlling one's happiness is a lot like controlling one's weight. We're not designed to be able to be made happy without cheating the system somehow. Getting what you want may make you happy for a while but you won't STAY happy.


As a practical matter, it seems the best advice for someone who wants to be happier is 1) see if you would benefit from antidepressant medication and 2) practice meditation. I should probably take my own advice, as I'm already on pills.
_________________
- Doug

[ChaoticJosh]

what you say is exactly i think, except in a different format. you said people can't stay happy for your purpose (happiness average, brain chemical stuff), and i said people can't stay happy for my purpose (infinite wants, never satisfied), but they're both the same in essence.

which is a reason why i say this wish is impossible to perform.

turning the world into my own personal utopia though would make me pretty happy. which is how my revised wish works, and its the closest thing to a specific thing one can wish for and achieve a vague, convoluted end, even if only temporarily.

[Quark]

[ChaoticJosh]

I feel the releasing of endorphins idea is self defeating. because, in short, its non-consensual, if say the system of releasing endorphins was constant or autonomous, as the releasing of the endorphins, may not be what you want to feel, or conflicts with situations in your life, or even may make one confused during a crisis (ex. at a funeral, you can't help but be the happiest one in the bunch. If your being beaten by a someone the pain doesn't stop you from feeling pretty happy, or in war, where being shot doesn't affect one's mood at all, and can only smile as your buddies get picked off).

now, if said endorphins were on-command, I feel they would become obsoleted. because endorphins are so natural, and can be achieved through exersize, social interaction, thrill seeking, hobbies, drugs, etc.

for convenience, lets stick to the bare requisites of the wish, being, the wish is "for happiness", not "eternal happiness".