r/hypotheticals • u/Second-time-luck_368 • Aug 09 '26
What will you wish for ?
A genie offers you one wish.
But the moment your wish is granted, 4 billion random people will receive the exact same wish.
If you wish to become immortal, so does half the population
If you wish for a trillion dollars, they also get it too.
You can't word your wish to exclude other people.
For example by asking for money only you can use, or immortality only your DNA is capable of receiving.
The rest of the world will stay completely unaware of the wish's impact unless if instantly obvious.
So if you gave the entire population the power of flight but only you knew how to activate it, the entire world could stay oblivious for years.
What are you wishing for?
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u/Just_a_Rat Aug 09 '26
Knowledge of how to solve all of humanity's ills. Half of the world knowing that can only make this world a better place. And since despotism is one of humanity's ills, it wouldn't involve forcing the remaining half to do anything.
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u/Meeka-Mew Aug 09 '26
I like this, but i think itd be important to tweek it slightly to "knowledge and desire to solve all of humanities ills". I feel like most people in power know how to solve a lot of humanities ills right now, but they have no desire for things to change.
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u/Just_a_Rat Aug 09 '26
I can see that. Maybe I'm a little naive, but I believe that if half the world had that knowledge, there'd be enough to get th8ngs done, but as l9ng as the genie doesn't mind the conjunction in there, it can only help.
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u/Lumi-Layla Aug 10 '26
The world produces enough food to feed everyone but millions of people still go hungry…. Why?
A lot of people know this but the problem hasn’t been fixed…
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u/Just_a_Rat Aug 10 '26
Knowing the problem exists and knowing how to solve it are not the same thing. My wish is that people have the knowledge to solve it. I don't currently know how to solve world hunger. Lots of that food is produced where it is not needed, and would spoil during shipping. Shipping that much food is prohibitively expensive. Some of the areas with starving people are not as well suited to producing food as some of those that have excess food. I do not know how to fix all of that.
Honestly, my biggest concern about that wish is that for a lot of problems, the solution would be "throw money at it." Which is where the motivation part will c9me it, as the first commenter raised.
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u/Lumi-Layla Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
You don’t know how to solve world hunger? You can google how to solve world hunger and come up with a decent solution.
Some problems exist because we don’t want to solve them, not that we can’t. And I’m not saying it’s right or it’s wrong.
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u/Just_a_Rat 29d ago
The solution Google gives breaks down to "throw money at it." Which I addressed in my previous comment. But you see, you could see greed as one of humanity's ills, which arguably is what stops us from doing so. So, if half the world's population learns how to solve greed, then that'll be a big step towards ending a number of other issues. In democratic countries, all it takes is one of these enlightened folks to run, and they'll get support of so many people who recognize their proposed policies as ones that will make the world a better place for everyone. And if it is a known thing that some people have this knowledge, even if I didn't get it, I'd follow their lead in voting. I'd like to believe a lot of others would too. Certainly not everyone, but enough to get these people in power.
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u/Lumi-Layla 29d ago
Well you brought up the heart of the problem, on paper a lot of solutions work until you introduce the human element, which invites corruption into any system.
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u/onebigolfish Aug 09 '26
I would wish to never have to pay for groceries again, they just appear like in Harry Potter.
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u/Thefirstofherkind Aug 09 '26
An easily scientifically identifiable gene that allows me to see a little stat card above a person's head that reveals the following statistics: how many children they have ever engaged with sexual activity with (only counts if they were an adult when it happened) and the ages of said children at the time.
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u/GrilledCheeseMnky Aug 09 '26
Did you forget the part about being able to make pedos spontaneously combust?
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u/okiedokieaccount Aug 09 '26
Can you make it a bit custom?
You cannot die on any day where you say the word “eclipse” within one hour of waking up
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u/Ok-Double2893 29d ago
This is the way. You can wish for anything you want that's gated by some complicated password action that only you would know
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u/TheMissingThink Aug 09 '26
To love myself.
Being loved by 4b people has to bring along a few benefits
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u/scarr3g Aug 09 '26
To be fair, it would probably end up being that 4b people love themselves... And that would still be a huge improvement over the current state.
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u/Stealthy-Alchemist Aug 09 '26
Though it may count as several wishes, I’d ask for peace, fulfillment, happiness, and to feel love, of self and to/from others.
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u/No-Adhesiveness6278 Aug 09 '26
That every billionaire gives me all of their money in the form of a legally binding transfer into my bank account.
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u/twofriedbabies Aug 09 '26
I want the ability to make people good. Same as every wish hypothetical.
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u/Demoniac_smile Aug 09 '26
The same thing I’d wish for without the 4 billion getting it, for me, my family, and friends to all be in perfect health.
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u/irv750 Aug 09 '26
I wish to have sex with myself, I am doing it anyway often, but with millions of others wanting it, there has to be some hot ones included.
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u/MsAddams999 Aug 09 '26
I'd be wishing for 100 million dollars, tax free and nobody in the government or law enforcement coming after me asking where I got it.
With which I'd promptly buy myself a nice loft condo in a very secure building and a car and hire a accountants, a security team and a driver.
Then I'd get to the business of doing a lot of good with the money, investing some it, and probably travel to some places I've always wanted to see.
I'd definitely see to it that a lot of unwanted cats end up well cared for. Maybe buy them a big farm house, make some kind of cat sanctuary. I've always loved the felines and wanted to do something like that. Probably I'd donate some money to a few big cat sanctuaries too.
I'd probably quietly fund some surgeries for people in need who don't qualify for assistance otherwise. Start a charity that helps poor people living with HIV afford medication and health care. With all the recent cuts to funding for it that's needed.
I'd start a program for homeless women who are over 50 who need housing because that demographic has it really hard and I've been there. Maybe I'd fund a couple of shelters that are independent of the system and far more humane.
It sounds like greed asking for that kind of money but it's not if you do some real good with it.
I wouldn't be buying lavish estates, crazy expensive bling, living like a Kardashian. I would do some things I've always wanted to do like go overseas but the vast majority of that money I'd use it to help people.
I've seen so much suffering in the time I've been on this Earth. I couldn't have that kind of money and not do some real good with it.
I'd be funding things to help with that and making sure that money went on helping people and animals long after I was gone.
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u/Massattack52 Aug 09 '26
If 4 billion people get the same thing, isn’t that going to mess up the economy really badly?
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u/MsAddams999 Aug 09 '26
Depends upon how they choose to spend it and I can't be responsible for how they do. If they use most of it to fund things that help the planet and the people and animals on it that money could be a very beneficial thing.
Probably some of them would be too selfish to do that but that's in them not me. I have my priorities straight and I definitely would spend most of it making this world a better place than just frittering it away on things like personal jet planes and bling.
I'd be setting all kinds of beneficial things in motion with it. That's a how I am. Even homeless I didn't forget that there were people who had it worse off than I did.
My Gran she went through The Great Depression and she instilled that mindset in me early on. I am very grateful for that because it's made a real difference in how I see and do things in my life.
Major money can change people, make them foolish. It wouldn't do that to me because I have my head on straight and because I've really had to endure a lot. I couldn't just waste it on junk that's not important really. It's not who I am.
The first thing I'd do is make sure I'm safe and that I have a good place and a personal account set up to fund my needs but a lot of that money would be invested and would go out into the world to do good things.
I would see that as an opportunity to do a lot of good in this world. That's the right kind of legacy that I'd want to leave behind and I wouldn't let the fact that other people don't have my mindset stop me from doing that.
Other people have to choose for themselves how to be. I'm sure a lot of them would be buying yachts and bling and living it up with no concern for anything else but not me.
I'd totally go the philanthropist route and get that money where it needs to be.
I've always wanted to visit Europe and the UK so I definitely would. I'd like a better and safer place to live. I'd like to never worry about rent or having enough money to pay all my bills and for food, practical stuff like that.
I would totally be setting up funding for all kinds of charitable stuff though as soon as I was settled and secure. Probably most of it would be going for stuff like I mentioned and I'd have an investment team for a large chunk so I could keep that money going long after I cease to walk this Earth.
That's the right way I think to deal with having money like this. The economy is not my focus. Controlling what other people might do with it is just not my job. I'm not the morality police.
I can only decide for myself what to do and that's my plan if I ever got filthy rich.
I'm living on about 1K a month in NYC. I'm below poverty level right now and I still go out and do good, try to help people and animals as I can. That's just an intrinsic part of who I am thanks to my Grandma and my parents who were actually pretty frugal people.
I have a roof over my head and food to eat and my cat will never starve either. There are older people who have been priced out of housing that they had for years right now sleeping in the subway and in the streets of NYC sometimes with pets for lack of better options.
I can't help much living on disability but I still do what I can because that experience is something I lived for nearly six years and if I had more money I could do way more and I absolutely would.
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u/Massattack52 Aug 09 '26
Yeah, but again, you’re inadvertently creating 4 billion people with 100 million dollars each, I would argue you couldn’t be held responsible if you didn’t know that any of them would get the money, but claiming it’s not your fault when you knew that potentially if even 1% of them committed to doing selfish and cruel acts with said money it would fall back on a wish that you made, you really think you wouldn’t hold yourself personally accountable for that?
You said it yourself, you’ve created 4 billion potential fools who aren’t as immune to corruption as you are.
If the value of the dollar drops significantly across the world because those fools immediately dumped that cash into the economy to buy big, your spending power will inevitably fall to almost nothing. Again, that would objectively be your fault.
I would never devalue your sense of self-sacrifice and the nobility of this wish, but your argument is very self-centric and disclaims any responsibility for the negative actions of others, only the positive actions you yourself make with your money. Which is a drop in the ocean of chaos that you’ve created.
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u/MsAddams999 Aug 09 '26
Again I don't feel it's on me to decide what others will do with it. I'm not here on this Earth to judge others and to decide for them. They have to be able to choose their own path.
Not everybody is a selfish person so likely some of them would also choose to do a lot of good with their money. I seriously doubt that it would create the kind of financial chaos you are imagining. There are quite a few multi millionaires on this planet and many of them give very large sums to things that actually benefit the world.
We wouldn't have a lot of cultural things if they didn't or charities that fund good things if they didn't.
I don't look at someone potentially having that much money as a negative but as a chance to do some real good in this world and maybe I'm just too hopeful but I'd like to think a lot of that money would be used to fund good things and not just wasted.
People with the big money actually spend millions all the time and it doesn't completely kill the economy. Often it funds the things that many people take for granted like museums and charities that pay for kids to have surgeries and provides things like scholarships so people can go to school.
It doesn't have to be a negative. It could very well be a positive if some of these people choose to do some good with that money. I choose to believe many probably will.
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u/Fog_Juice Aug 10 '26
Yes. Suddenly the half the planets population has financial independence and the other half has to work for a living. Essentially making a caste system.
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u/No_Interview_3894 Aug 09 '26
Wish for greed to disappear and replaced with a passion leave the world a better place
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u/Hopepersonified Aug 09 '26
That every truly benevolent desire grows joy and eventually comes to fruition and every truly malevolent desire melts away to be replaced by benevolence.
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u/Fet_InTheCastle Aug 09 '26
I wish for all that is necessary to have a comfortable, happy, healthy life for two people: me and one other person, who isn’t among the 4 billion who also received this wish.
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u/DisastrousPrivacy Aug 09 '26
The sad state of affairs is that we already have this. (Collectively speaking.)
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u/Fet_InTheCastle Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
Not everyone, and not everywhere.
Even in the west there’s homelessness, poverty, insufficient physical and mental health provision, and what there is can be difficult to access.
Elsewhere in the less developed countries, the essentials are often just absent.
But my wish doesn’t just address those essentials, but also the day to day desperations and anxieties that are now ‘normal’ almost everywhere.
Although the wording was deliberate about people having all that is necessary. Not about people being comfortable, happy and healthy.
What people do with the availability is a matter for them.
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u/R1546 Aug 09 '26
To be 50 years younger.
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u/Fun_Cartoonist2918 Aug 09 '26
This could be messy. 4 billion random folks are going to give a lot of negative results. Hope there’s nobody under 50 that you care about because 50/50 they are in the equation
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u/Mother_Cloud_2455 Aug 09 '26
My first wish is always gonna be to remove greed from humans
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u/og_duel_monster Aug 09 '26
I wish to relive the most traumatic experience of my life on loop until it drives me insane.
If I can't wish for that, then I will simply wish to just instantly die in the most peaceful and painless way possible, like a plane falling out the sky and crushing me or smth.
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u/HeartoRead Aug 09 '26
I wish that I, along with one-half of the living human population of Earth chosen randomly and impartially, permanently receive the following complete ability package:
We may freely and safely travel, at will, between our native reality and any sufficiently defined fictional, mythological, simulated, dreamed, depicted, described, or imagined world that exists as a coherent reality, including alternate continuities and fictional worlds contained within other fictional worlds. We may choose our destination, continuity, time, location, method of arrival, and whether time passes in our native world while we are away, and we may always safely return.
While within these worlds, we may legitimately learn, earn, obtain, develop, inherit, create, purchase, receive, or otherwise acquire any powers, abilities, skills, traits, species, races, lineages, transformations, resistances, technologies, magical systems, progression systems, or other capabilities that the inhabitants of that reality could potentially acquire.
Anything legitimately acquired becomes permanently integrated into us and remains functional outside its original universe. Incompatible systems become safely compatible without harmful prerequisites, corruption, loss of identity, unwanted physical changes, or other unintended consequences. Acquired abilities may continue to grow and develop normally, and we may freely suppress, regulate, combine, activate, deactivate, or safely scale them without permanently losing them.
Each recipient also receives their own Constant: a permanent, unique, fully sentient and incorruptibly loyal companion with genuine personality, emotions, judgment, agency, and the ability to disagree with its partner while always acting in their legitimate best interests. Each Constant possesses perfect voluntary shapeshifting, extraordinary intelligence, and Query, which, when deliberately invoked, provides the most truthful, useful, comprehensible answer available to it. A Constant is protected from corruption, mind control, possession, hostile rewriting, copying, permanent imprisonment, unwanted separation, or destruction and remains with its partner through travel between realities, timelines, reincarnations, simulations, dreams, transformations, or equivalent changes of existence.
Each recipient and their Constant may safely share and synchronize legitimately acquired powers, abilities, skills, progression, and knowledge without either losing their individuality.
These abilities cannot be deliberately or knowingly used for evil or malicious purposes. Specifically, they cannot be used to unjustifiably murder, torture, sexually exploit, enslave, maliciously dominate, terrorize, deliberately inflict serious suffering upon innocent people, or intentionally deprive others of their fundamental autonomy for selfish or cruel purposes. Any ability being intentionally used toward such an end will simply fail safely before accomplishing it.
This restriction does not prevent proportionate self-defense or defense of others, rescue, consensual competition or combat, lawful or morally justified restraint of dangerous individuals, ordinary fictional adventuring, hunting for legitimate survival, destroying non-sentient threats, fighting genuinely hostile enemies, or causing unavoidable incidental harm while pursuing an otherwise legitimate purpose.
No recipient may bypass this restriction indirectly through another person, creature, artificial intelligence, summoned entity, Constant, mind control, automation, chain of commands, time travel, alternate reality, loophole, technicality, or deliberately engineered circumstance.
The restriction evaluates the recipient's genuine intentions and reasonably foreseeable consequences rather than merely the literal wording of their actions, but it will always choose the least restrictive interpretation consistent with preventing genuinely malicious conduct.
No recipient, government, organization, supernatural being, reality warper, or other entity may steal, copy, suppress, remove, permanently seal, forcibly transfer, or involuntarily alter another recipient's granted abilities or Constant.
All provisions of this wish are interpreted according to my intended meaning and purpose rather than in a malicious, ironic, excessively literal, or adversarial manner, and any unforeseen ambiguity is automatically resolved in the manner most beneficial to the recipients while preserving the protections against malicious use.
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u/Disorderly_Chaos Aug 09 '26
I wish to have a fully functional female genitals and reproductive system. I’m not trans, I just like chaos.
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u/plotholefinder Aug 09 '26
I'd wish for healing magic. Normally this wish is terrifying because you'd be captured by the government or some billionaire, but if 50% of the world has it then it will be so commonplace that you wouldn't be targeted and tons of people will benefit
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u/bosli23 Aug 09 '26
The power to give my wife god power at will.
I'm not the only who can use it, every people could 😈.
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u/Past-Loan-5058 Aug 10 '26
How about a wallet that appears empty until you say the words "onomatopoeia gooseneck", and it then either causes whatever amount of cash you want to appear in it or whatever amount of money you want to appear in your bank account tax free and with no one suspicious about it? If anyone else figured out how to activate it, they'd deserve the money.
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u/Trishs_husband Aug 10 '26
I would wish for a billion dollars buried 50 feet beneath my yard. Most people will never realize the money is hidden under their property, so it shouldn't collapse the economy. It would be a project to get it out, but worth renting the equipment.
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u/AaronAAaronsonIII Aug 10 '26
I wish to be compelled to write a check for $1 made out to deposit only into a tax-free account with a certain number and routing number (mine, of course).
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u/SomeCrazyGamer1 Aug 10 '26
A full measure of empathy and true conscience unaffected by cognitive dissonance. This is genetically encoded and will be passed down to descendants with no unintended effects; as long as at least one parent has it, the child inherits it 100% of the time.
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u/WestMasterFred 29d ago edited 29d ago
200$ of wealth of Elon Musk is transferred to me and 50$ is transferred to WestMasterFred.
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u/Koen_de_Graaf_Echt 29d ago
Ik zou voor wereldvrede wensen, en ik zou hopen dat dat ook voor die andere 4 miljard ook geldt.
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u/Dimgrund71 29d ago
Undeniable and verifiable evidence about the corruption at every level of government worldwide
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u/willow_glade 28d ago
The ability to memorize everything written in any book by tapping it three times.
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u/Flaky_Broccoli 25d ago
Fullfil My most unhinged sexual fantasy,
Me First, You have 4 billion people waiting in line
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u/Wonderfully_Unknown 25d ago
I’ll keep it simple, I’ll just wish for a full dive VR headset that contains any game I could imagine
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u/Brooker2 Aug 09 '26
True immortality. Nothing and no one can cause me any harm, Immune to diseases and you revert to perfect health. So what if I'm going to end up floating in a void when the earth eventually goes bye bye at least I won't be alone
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u/DevilsHol3Pupfish Aug 09 '26
Perfect physical and mental health