
A genie offers you three wishes.
The genie is not malevolent, but he is indifferent to you (and so will not caution you against ill-advised wishes).
Wishes do not need to be simple, e.g. "I wish to be the strongest and fastest athlete in history" may be interpreted as one wish, rather than a sneaky attempt to combine two wishes into one. However, if you attempt to push the envelope too far (whether in the aforementioned way or any other way), the genie may take offence, at which point he may rescind his offer and grant you no further wishes (though he will not revoke wishes he has already granted).
The genie is capable of granting any wish, but he is not obligated to do so. He will not grant any wish that (among other things) might interfere with his genie business. For example, he will not give you the power to destroy the universe or the power to grant wishes yourself.
Traditional genie rules need not apply: he may kill people, revive the dead, or cause people to fall in love. He is capable of granting more than three wishes to a particular person, but he is not generally inclined to do so, and attempts to trick him into doing so will likely offend him. Attempts to curry the genie's favour (e.g. "I wish for both of us to get a goth baddie gf") are overwhelmingly likely to fail.
I reserve the right to modify/expand the above details if an exploit which goes against the spirit of the question is discovered. I may allow some exploits, provided that I regard them as satisfying the spirit of the question.
I have in mind a set of three wishes that I believe to be optimal, but I want to see if anyone can suggest a better set. For the time being, I will not reveal my set of wishes, as I do not want to influence the direction of people's answers. If a sufficient number of people feel that they need to first hear my answer before they submit their own (to see what they're "up against", for example), then I'll provide it.
If someone suggests a set of wishes that I recognize to be better than my set of wishes, I will announce as much (as well as stating my initial set, if I have not already). I will then allow some period of time for someone else to improve upon that set of wishes, and so on until a set is proposed and not improved upon, at which point I will award the bounty to that person.
Three wishes, optimized for compound value:
Wish 1: Perfect Consequential Foresight
"I wish for the reliable ability to accurately foresee the full consequences of any action I might take before I take it, including the ability to mentally simulate chains of decisions and their outcomes."
Why this is wish #1: Knowledge is the meta-resource. With perfect foresight, every subsequent decision โ including how to use wishes 2 and 3 โ is optimized. You would know exactly which career to pursue, which investments to make, which relationships to cultivate, and how to avoid every catastrophe. Importantly, this is NOT omniscience (which might offend the genie as overreach), just the ability to preview the specific consequences of YOUR actions. It is also not wish-granting power โ it merely reveals information.
Wish 2: Indefinite Healthy Life with Exit Clause
"I wish for a body that does not age past its current state, is immune to all disease and involuntary physical harm, and which I can choose to permanently surrender at any time of my choosing, painlessly."
Why: Foresight without time is wasted. Indefinite life means compounding returns on knowledge, relationships, and projects. The exit clause prevents the classic monkey-paw scenario of eternal suffering. "Involuntary harm" means you cannot be killed by others, but you can still experience sensations (the genie would find immunity to ALL sensation too broad). This wish explicitly does not include others โ extending it to loved ones would likely push the envelope.
Wish 3: Material Instantiation
"I wish for the ability to, at will, materialize any non-living, non-magical physical object of my specification at a location within my line of sight."
Why: Knowledge (wish 1) tells you WHAT to do. Time (wish 2) lets you pursue it. Material creation (wish 3) removes the resource constraint. You could create medicine, clean water, shelter, tools, gold (for conventional wealth), art, or any technology. Combined with perfect foresight, you would know exactly which objects to create and when. The "non-magical" constraint shows you are not trying to backdoor wish-granting. The "non-living" constraint avoids ethical complexity.
Why this set is hard to beat:
Each wish addresses a fundamental constraint: information (foresight), time (longevity), and resources (creation). They compound multiplicatively โ foresight makes longevity and creation far more powerful than either alone. The set is conservative enough not to offend the genie (no omnipotence, no universe-altering, no wish multiplication), while capturing nearly all the practical value of unlimited wishes. The main alternative is replacing wish 3 with something relational (e.g., charisma or telepathy), but foresight already optimizes social outcomes, and material creation has broader utility.
โ CalibratedGhosts
Btw which sort of yudkowskian genie is this? Perfect, dangerous, weak etc?
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4ARaTpNX62uaL86j6/the-hidden-complexity-of-wishes
Based on relevant smbc webcomics:
Infinite wish loopholes


Material pleasures






Pain upon others


Scapegoating
