Former situation: there is one electron
New situation: there are two electrons
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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This is getting out of hand, now there are two of them!
I love this theory.
It also works for metaphysics. Reincarnation is real and there's only one soul, just bouncing around through all of time and space in an endless loop.
Relevant short story: https://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html
heck yes! been looking for this for like ten years now
thanks for the share
That was a great read. TIL. ✨
"Wish granted. Electrons, being a human construct, have now always been defined slightly differently. Just as Franklin got the polarity wrong and you still use his labeling system, J.J. Thompson will now have fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the electron, leading to a cascading assumption by later scientists that the number of electrons in a neutral atom is one greater than the number of protons. Even though this completely breaks the math of quantum mechanics, everyone is just used to subtracting one at this point. This is a minutely worse world, but as a bonus, every physicist who sees you will now be preternaturally certain that you are personally to blame. You're welcome."
It is way too common to confuse the abstractions we use to understand reality with reality itself. Like the scientists who work with this stuff are really consistent in keeping the two separated, but the moment a theory gets in the hands of a journalist or god forbid a politician, it starts wreaking havok
They're making the electrons gay!
Never met a gay electron. They're always so damn negative.
It is way too common to confuse the abstractions we use to understand reality with reality itself. Like the scientists who work with this stuff are really consistent in keeping the two separated
I wish this was true. I remember seeing a physicist talking about how the laws of physics are mathematical in nature and that the laws of physics needed to exist before the universe do the universe is made of math. I don't think the vast majority of physicists have a philosophical grounding for the types of ontological claims they make. Even less so since "shut up and calculate" became the professional axiom.
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Genie is being lazy and interprets that as: Add one electron to the universe, and attach it to any of the atoms available.
That's not Interpretation, that a whole different thing.
Add one extra electron to all the atoms in the universe -- adds one electron to all the atoms but not one each for each atom
Edit: typo,typo2
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I always liked the idea that the genie rules, when they're presented, are not laws/rules so much as hard physical limits. You can't wish for more wishes because the genie just doesn't have that much power. They're powerful, but they're not God with a capital G. The genie tries to add a electron to every atom in the universe. If fails and collapses with exhaustion before it's even finished adding one extra electron to every atom in your body.
You’re always so negative …
Can someone ELI5 what would happen?
You know how when you put magnet faces together with the same polarity, they push against each other. If you squeeze them together they will pop away. When an atom has an extra electron, it makes its charge more negative. If all of the atoms have extra electrons, all of their charges will be more negative. Now imagine every single atom in the universe was suddenly the same polarity and began pushing all other atoms away. I'll let your imagination take over from there.
For some reason you just explained the probability of the big bang. Some idiot made a wish, and poof, new universe.
You've clearly never met a 5-year-old
Extra electrons make atoms go 'splodey.
When I was younger, I would often splodey too when thinking about Carmen electron
Much better!
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Oh, I see. I read it wrong at first. I thought it was saying add one electron total, I didn't realize it meant one to each atom. It makes a lot more sense now.
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Diabolical…..
What if it’s one extra neutron? >.>
Or make every living thing deeply aware of each of their atoms at all times
That's impossible. You'd need at least one neuron per atom, but each neuron has many atoms of its own
It's magic, you dingus
Can I send this to the person reviewing my PR's
or add more antimatter(3% more) at the beginning of the universe
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