If Wishes Were Real

[BOOM! Headshot]

If wishes were real, what would the world be like? Post your own personal version of reality based on things that you typically wish for, either secretly or publicly.

And don't forget the forum rules, because really!

If Wishes were real...

Jim Carrey would be 69% more likely to be a road statistic.
I just don't like the man. That's not to say I hate him completely, it's just that when I actively search out a Youtube of him doing something, he manages to irk me.
... I youtube him so I can carry on disliking him. Sue me.

Birds would be made of chocolate.
Okay. I was six and extremely disappointed to find out that real penguins were a type of bird, and far more likely to taste of fish and blubber than chocolate.

World Peace would be achieved once an hour.
Coincidentally, whenever the news is on Radio 4. I'm really not sure what we'd do with it all.

There would be less idiotic behaviour in the world.
I also assume we'd reach a level of idiocy as-yet unheard of. Smart people make much bigger mistakes than stupid people, and they cost a lot more to clean up.

Sheep would float about a foot off the ground, and wouldn't have legs
Well, they should!

 

[Murkrow]

There'd be a huge amount of death in the first week because of people just not liking each other and wishing death without realising wishes come true.

I guess eventually either we'd evolve so that we're less aggressive creatures, or some mad person will wish everyone dies, whether that includes themselves wouldn't really matter.

 

[Superbird]

There'd be a huge amount of death in the first week because of people just not liking each other and wishing death without realising wishes come true.

It's like an alternate reality where everyone has a death note!

If wishes were real, there would be a lot of people with superpowers.

 

[Mai]

Pokemon would've been real a long time ago. Same with most other series of media, probably.

That, of course, will mean someone will wish for Homestuck and most of us would be dead and Earth would be destroyed. Unless someone wished for that not to happen...

 

[RespectTheBlade]

Well, let's see, apart from social equality and financial equality that isn't controlled by the government, as well as no sickness or death or reason for wars or fighting, i'm pretty sure pokemon would be real.

Yeah, definite yes on the pokemon, now that I think about it.

 

[Murkrow]

Well, let's see, apart from social equality and financial equality that isn't controlled by the government, as well as no sickness or death or reason for wars or fighting, i'm pretty sure pokemon would be real.

Yeah, definite yes on the pokemon, now that I think about it.

"no death" hmm, I guess that would prevent people from just wishing death on each other, so long as you wish that it can't be overridden. You'd have to be really careful about how you word it though.

I suppose there'd also be a race to be the first one to wish that you're the only one that is allowed to make wishes.

 

[RespectTheBlade]

I suppose by "no death" I sorta meant to refer to no means of dying other than natural causes, like "no one can wish me dead" or something.

But yeah I do agree there'd be a whole mass of wish-deaths in the first few days/weeks/months. Depends how many people have a vendetta.

 

[Karousever]

Well I don't think it would work...I think the system would implode on itself. There would have to be pretty strict guidelines as to what you can and cannot wish for, how often you can wish, the volume of your wish, etc. Because what happens when people are (as above mentioned) wishing each other dead, or wishing for fictional characters and the like to be real? Could you imagine the population rate? Drastically going up and down as people wishing for more people and people wishing certain people or even entire groups of people dead or just non-existent. And what about when people start wishing that other people can't wish for things? And then their friends take away that person's wishing power and restore theirs. Or what if someone simply wished that they were the only person who could make wishes? And what even happens with conflicting wishes?

Person A: I wish that my wishing power cannot be taken away.

Person B: I wish I were the only person who can make wishes.

What would happen to Person A? Can they wish still? Or not?

It's just a big huge mess.

In my favorite book, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, there is a creature called the Wishmonger who will grant people wishes in exchange for teeth (you find out why for teeth eventually, but it's a secret for a lot of the book). The way the wishes work is he gives them objects (I think they're like different sized beads, maybe?) that are different denominations of currency. They are: scuppy, shing, lucknow, gavriel, and bruxis, with Scuppies being the weakest form of wish, only able to do small things like give other people itches, and bruxis(es? What would the plural be?) can give you an incredible wishing power. Based on the value of the teeth you bring Brimstone (the Wishmonger's real name) is how richly you are rewarded. Although you can only ever get one Bruxis, because in order to get one you have to extract all of your teeth and give them to him. And you can't just pay your dentist to do it for you, you have to take them out yourself.

So anyway, I think wishes would work best under a system of sorts. Rather than just being able to wish for things all the time.

 

[BOOM! Headshot]

Wait. Wait, wait.

Wait.

This thread isn't as entirely silly as I thought it'd be. It certainly isn't the thread that I intended (but nevermind about that)

You're all forgetting those people who'd wish they were god or something, and end up having a snit-fit over all the other people who have the same idea.

 

[Superbird]

I think we should interpret it a different way. Rather than just wishing being real, perhaps only wishing under certain conditions would work. For instance, wishing upon a shooting star, or after you blow all the seeds off a dandelion in a single breath (or birthday cake candles, for that matter).

Pokémon would most definitely be real, though.

 

[Karousever]

I think we should interpret it a different way. Rather than just wishing being real, perhaps only wishing under certain conditions would work. For instance, wishing upon a shooting star, or after you blow all the seeds off a dandelion in a single breath (or birthday cake candles, for that matter)

What's to stop someone using their wish to wish for wishes that can be used at any time?

 

[I liek Squirtles]

How about some sort of Wish Bank? You can store all the wishes you'd accumulated. Of course, if the whole guideline thing happens, dandelions would be extinct in the first month.

Oh, and if someone blows your candles, they get deducted wishes.

 

[Vipera Magnifica]

What if when someone makes a wish, their consciousness gets transported to an alternate universe where the only difference is that their wish has come true?

That way, the only changes you experience come from your own wishes.

 

[Murkrow]

What if when someone makes a wish, their consciousness gets transported to an alternate universe where the only difference is that their wish has come true?

That way, the only changes you experience come from your own wishes.

Would that be provable in any way?

If I knew that would be true, it'd make me sad because the people I know wouldn't be the "real" them if I made a wish. I wouldn't know if they'd ever made a wish but I'd assume they did, and so would just assume nobody I ever meet is the "real" one.

 

[RespectTheBlade]

Plus, that would mean that each wish would compound so there'd be a near infinite amount of realities, different for each person. I think at that point it'd be getting beyond a physical discussion or even a theoretical one into a more philosophical one, a la "what do we consider to be reality if each person's is different" or "how does anyone truly interact if they're all on different planes of existence" or stuff like that. and what about multiple wishes? a second reality shift? at some point you'd think the multiverse would collapse under the pressure or something.

Also, are we to assume any wish is possible, even if it violates basic physical laws? (i.e. could you wish for something to reverse the universe's entropy, even though making wishes would probably contribute to energy becoming more scattered throughout the universe as a whole, in effect voiding the wish in its creation?)

 

[Murkrow]

Also, are we to assume any wish is possible, even if it violates basic physical laws? (i.e. could you wish for something to reverse the universe's entropy)

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

 

[Karousever]

Plus, that would mean that each wish would compound so there'd be a near infinite amount of realities, different for each person. I think at that point it'd be getting beyond a physical discussion or even a theoretical one into a more philosophical one, a la "what do we consider to be reality if each person's is different" or "how does anyone truly interact if they're all on different planes of existence" or stuff like that. and what about multiple wishes? a second reality shift? at some point you'd think the multiverse would collapse under the pressure or something.

Well you know the whole infinite universe theory, one for every possible outcome, etc. Does it really matter, people-wise, though? I mean, if the people are made up completely the same, memories and experiences and physical traits and all, are they really any different from the other them, until the difference between the two realities occurs? It's not like you can try to claim there's an original, should it matter? I would assume that for a second wish it would split paths just like first one did. I like the idea of there being a reality for every possible outcome, so in my mind it already works this way :P

 

[BOOM! Headshot]

Assume an average of about fifteen wishes per second. Now assume the same for every other universe all at the same time and you very quickly reach the point where numbers don't make sense, and you're playing catch-up with the math.

Fifteen is an arbitrary number that sounds 'about right', by the way. The only difference in the numbers is how quickly you reach the 'this is silly' stage, where the Monty Python Sergeant steps in to stop the universe.

... Or was he a Captain? I forget.

 

[RespectTheBlade]

Assume an average of about fifteen wishes per second. Now assume the same for every other universe all at the same time and you very quickly reach the point where numbers don't make sense, and you're playing catch-up with the math.

Wait, though- If we're still going with the assumption that each wish transports the user to an alternate reality so it only affects their consciousness, how would they be aware of what the other wishes of those in that reality were, or how it would change that specific reality?

I honestly think this would cause some causality problems if it were the system. Is each wish responsible for the creation of every other wish that follows, if they all appear in this alternate universe? Forget the math, just finding the start point would be hard. And what if someone were stupid enough to wish they were in an alternate universe, or if every alternate universe merged? Imagine all the paradoxes!

 

[1. Luftballon]

Plus, that would mean that each wish would compound so there'd be a near infinite amount of realities, different for each person. I think at that point it'd be getting beyond a physical discussion or even a theoretical one into a more philosophical one, a la "what do we consider to be reality if each person's is different" or "how does anyone truly interact if they're all on different planes of existence" or stuff like that. and what about multiple wishes? a second reality shift? at some point you'd think the multiverse would collapse under the pressure or something.

Also, are we to assume any wish is possible, even if it violates basic physical laws? (i.e. could you wish for something to reverse the universe's entropy, even though making wishes would probably contribute to energy becoming more scattered throughout the universe as a whole, in effect voiding the wish in its creation?)

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

would you gamble a soul for your that prayer's sake?

the funniest thing is that entropy is like the least fundamental thing

it's like barely a real thing

you want something that violates basic physical laws go break a real symmetry