Post #1626237

2026-03-21 22:51 UTC

@dearlove Ideally the spell does it deniably, eg. by giving them an aneurysm or an unfortunate fall from a Moscow apartment window or something not obviously magically-induced. At one per day, in one week we could get rid of Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and quite probably Vladimir Putin and a couple of other deplorables. I'd call that a job well done! The snag is, what if the spell has no termination clause and keeps going. After a few years we run out of billionaires …

Replies (6)

@flippac@types.pl 2026-03-21 23:13

@cstross @dearlove Gift Economy From Hell

Open ##1626238
@Pionir@masto.bike 2026-03-21 23:15

@cstross @dearlove I don't know, if it's clearly magically-induced and everyone knows about it, then I reckon it'll turn into a global game of Brewster's Millions

Open ##1626242
@bruce@darkmoon.social 2026-03-22 00:31

@cstross @dearlove Maybe that's how the Star Trek universe conquered capitalism.

Open ##1626243
@CassandraVert@indieweb.social 2026-03-22 01:11

Then you have to tune its frequency to billionaires.

Open ##1626264
@isaackuo@spacey.space 2026-03-22 11:51

@cstross @dearlove Depending on the way inheritance and the way Capitalism continues to function, we may never run out of billionaires. The question, to me, is whether or not the billionaire class ever figures out what's going on, or if they just obliviously continue the same. If they ever figure it out, they'll just set up a lottery with winnings just above the richest of them.

Open ##1626265
@dearlove@mathstodon.xyz 2026-03-22 12:49

@cstross I thought about the no termination, but decided that my wizard considered that acceptable collateral damage to avoid recurrence. I also had some thoughts on gaming the system, but decided that things would be more interesting if I left that - and whether the spell is known, unknown but deducible, or unknown - out for others to comment.

Open ##1626266