http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/fish-3
Alt text
This is more easily executable with a three-wish genie, but it's good to be prepared for all circumstances.
Bonus panel
this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2025
294 points (97.7% liked)
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
957 readers
56 users here now
Posts and discussion about the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Hugo Award-winning author Zach Weinersmith (and related works)
https://www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersmith
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
New comics posted whenever they get posted on the site, and old comics posted every day until we catch up in a decade or so
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
What? How does it become infinite? At T-0, both neighbours receive the magic boxes.
Until the fisherman or the neighbour get any money, nothing happens.
Once the fisherman receive money, one second later, all the neighbours's money is sent to the magic box of the fisherman. That's all.
Once the neighbour gain any money, the two magic boxes, one second later all the fisherman's money is sent to the neighbours 's two boxes (shared between the two, as it can't duplicate the money)
I really don't get this one
Edit: I forgot the fact that the magic boxes will perform the action only two times two times every time it triggers. First because the person got money, the second because they gain the money of the neighbour. No third time can occurs as the neighbour will have no money left, and thus the second action cannot make the person gain extra money. This doesn't change the conclusion, but worth noting
The bonus panel mentions infinite gold created from nothing, so I think duplication is allowed. Each time the neighbor gets all of the fisherman's money, the total amount of gold is magically doubled.
It does duplicate the money across the neighbor's 2 boxes, hence infinite money.
Call me a genie, but that's not what "giving" means. You just transfer funds, which means you don't magically copy it also.
I do get it now, but that could be worded better for less monkey paws
Actually the neighbor should have two boxes. They'll be dead by avalanche of money very quickly.
Did I not say "the neighbor's 2 boxes"?
Did you misread my comment?
An example of what I meant was: original wisher (OW) gets a quarter. 1 second later, the neighbor (N) gets 2 quarters, 1 in each box. 1 second after that, OW gets 2 quarters in their one box, then one second after that, N gets 2 quarters in each of their 2 boxes (4 total), and so on.
And yeah, both of them would be crushed. Infinite anything is a planet and eventually universe-destroying prospect.
Why would N's boxes trigger?
Why would they give N money? Because OW got money. Why would OW get money? Because N got money from the boxes.
The point I am making is the wish panel says "my box gives me my neighbors money 1 second after I get money".
The neighbors boxes never activate unless the neighbor gets money first.
In short, I believe the comic author outsmarted themselves here.
How did I misread that? Sorry about that.
All good lol
No no. The move from N > OW triggers when OW get money. Not N.
There's no infinite loop here
Thank you for saving me the works to type it out!