Our genie problem

The djinn go back millennia, powerful and elusive creatures of the supernatural. They show up across time and culture.

Three hundred years ago, Charles Perrault retold a short story about a headstrong woodcutter and his wife. On being granted three wishes from Jupiter (archetype for the genie of legend), he accidentally blurts out that he’d like sausage for dinner. One wish, gone. His wife calls him a fool, and he responds by turning her nose into a sausage. Now, with just one wish left, he’s torn between being rich (but having a wife with a sausage attached to her nose) or using the third wish to end up right where he started.

Marital harmony and common sense prevail, and he ends up where he started, but filled with regret for what could have been. Ever since, we’ve been telling stories about people who screw up their wishes.

The persistence of genie morality in our culture is bigger than a Disney marketing ploy. It’s an important reminder about responsibility, long-term thinking and how often we fail to recognize how much agency we actually have. The three are woven into a narrative that often leaves us with a sausage attached to our noses.

In this moment, the biggest technology revolution humans have ever lived through, we’re all at risk of getting our wishes wrong. Careful what you wish for. But don’t forget to wish.