Or even the similar story on CNN - "The media is learning what happens when you give a mouse a cookie" (as the article says: "Spoiler alert: The mouse has some more demands")

* https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/19/business/media-business-t...

I saw the title of that article a few days ago and didn't read it, but today I noticed the name of the author. Clemens Setz has written some good stuff.

I had this realization a few years ago after experiencing various forms of manifestation to bring things into my life, improve my health, etc. Tech and especially AI seem to be catalysts that amplify the effect that our inner reality has on the outer co-created reality (if we believe in duality), just like with Arthur C. Clarke's third law:

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-are-clarkes-laws-2699067

So D&D stats like wisdom and charisma that were easily overlooked in our modern world are starting to surpass, say, intelligence when it comes to self-actualization/ascension.

If we follow this to its logical conclusion, then there are magical laws to consider, if such things could possibly be summarized in words:

https://www.themystica.com/the-laws-of-magic/

http://www.neopagan.net/AT_Laws.html

I believe that every use of magic comes with a cost, which is unknown if the wielder isn't mindful of it. In the simplest terms: using magic to satisfy one's ego by acquiring something deprives someone of something - often the wielder.

There are a few ways to minimize the consequence of using magic:

1) Sacrifice something of value for the magic to consume

2) Appeal to a higher power through prayer, the law of attraction, etc like a paladin so that the spirit bears the cost

3) Act in alignment with the heart so that creation has a chance to help behind the scenes (loosely related to #2)

4) Avoid the use of magic altogether and stick to objectivity, that free will is a fantasy, that reason supersedes meaning, etc

I'm sure I'm missing some, as I'm relearning childish notions around magical thinking.

I think what we're seeing when our most wealthy and powerful leaders denounce empathy is the outward expression of #4. Because empathy allows one to simulate the subjective experience of others in the mind, which opens the door to meaning, the golden rule, reincarnation, even the multiverse and parallel timelines. On the one hand they say that magic is dead, but on the other they use tools like psychology/economics/politics that blur the line between science and magic in order to gain control.

The ultimate expression of tech as magic might be something like the Emperor in Star Wars. Total impeccability and plausible deniability from accountability, yet no soul.

What I've come to realize in my own life is that feeling the magic passing through us is akin to shifting realities. It can't be studied scientifically, because the observer may see outcomes that differ from those of other observers in the previous reality. Science may be deterministic on one timeline, but stochastic across timelines. Which ties into consciousness, quantum mechanics, synchronicity, pantheism, the many faces of God as every living thing, etc.

Whether we influence the world through our actions of manipulate it through control of our attention, karmic consequences still come. The inward flow of psychic energy for personal gain creates a sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Whereas the outward flow in service to others creates a sense of abundance. Life becomes a dance of working with these energies, either low-vibration or high-vibration, fear or love.

Where I'm going with this is that this rediscovered power of love has the potential to shift humanity into a reality where our demons can't follow. We are temporarily on this one which seems to be fraught with danger because maybe some part of our soul felt that our help was needed here most. We can shift to a gentler timeline if we wish, or continue playing the life we paid a quarter for in the astral plane and do some world building here.

From a Zen perspective, I've said too much, yet nothing at all. I hope this helps someone find a little peace and light amidst the separation and darkness of these times.

It's crazy how this is almost perfectly readable as a Dutch person.

Right up until the end I'd say it's a good illustration of the hedonic treadmill.

But I'm really not sure what to make of the ending.

> "Oh," he said, "she wants to become like God."

> "Go home. She is sitting in her filthy shack again."

This is ambiguous. The flounder simply acknowledges a change in state without saying whether he actually fulfilled the request or not.

If he rejected the request, then it's a tale about checking ambition, trying to be like God, etc.

But if he accepted the request? Then it's advancing a very different idea of what God is like.

I wonder if the original German is equally ambiguous...

EDIT: I suppose she's not making the sun and moon rise, so maybe I'm overcomplicating it.

Some people are greedy and don't know when to stop when they have enough. The fisherman is notably not one of those people.

Older generations might have been most offended by the "becoming like God" part. The enchanted fish was willing to grant any wish that is in principle achievable by a human being, even the most ridiculous wish of becoming Pope.

But the moment the wish transcends that human realm it is turned down and punished.

I guess the theme of "becoming like God" resonates with the story from Adam and Eve's fall.

That no matter how good your current dwelling is, your wife will always want upgrades.

Unbounded greed will prevent you from enjoying the benefits of your life.

If you give in to an unreasonable person's demands, that person will demand more and more until it all comes crashing down.

Don't go above INT_MAX or you'll overflow back to -2147483648

I think the point is that when one believes that having their desires fulfilled will bring them happiness, or an end to desire itsself, that the material circumstances in which that person lives are completely irrelevant. In the case of the wife, the suffering she experiences from not having her desires fulfilled is the same whether she is living in a filthy shack or whether she is god. Her internal state is identical in both situations, so her becoming god and her becoming a poor fisherman's wife are exactly the same from a phenomonological perspective. The same could be said for the man. His satisfaction was the same whether he was living in the shack or the palace. What changed for him was the burden of having these material things and asking for more, knowing it wouldn't ultimately make him or his wife happy.

Or it could mean that due to the transient nature of all material things, anything gained will invariably break down eventually. All desire leads to loss.

Maybe it's both. I think it's both.

I read it as the fish returning her to her God-ordained state, as she was, from her magical-fish-given states of human appointed positions; that is, wealth and status coming from community rather than any kind of divine appointment—which is maybe also a Protestant dig at Papism?

There's a few potential pretty reasonable morals to draw from it that apply at the individual and various group levels.

The more jaded you are the less of them you'll reject but also the less of them you needed to be told.

If you get into options trading, make sure to have a hard stopping point.

Don't get married.

I think the "straussian" reading is it's the husbands fault. He knows he's doing the wrong thing but he can't say no.

1) Listen to your conscience & speak up unambiguously

2) Something like "Victim blaming is correct in moderation"?

I don't know if I agree with that but it seems like an interpertation

being a deity is a crap job, aim for Pope.

Am I the only one to read it as the fact that God is supposed to be humble, so that's why when she asks to be like God she's back to the shackle?

Thank you! I had no idea this existed, but it has now blown my mind. I didn't realize this kind of art existed back then and was so explicit.

yeah, i think that's pretty clearly nsfw

ha. weird.