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The first question the professor posed to her new invention, the consequenceometer, was: "If I can learn the consequences of decisions before deciding, will I be more decisive?" "No," the device said, "you will probe the consequences in ever greater depth, indecisive." She never used it again.

24/8/26, 3:34 pm50 reposts274 likes

Perpetually Perplexed

@perplexed.bsky.social

24 Aug

This is kind of "The Whispering Earring" in three sentences.

Nathan Wilson

@natediggadoggity.bsky.social

24 Aug

Sounds to me like she asked the right question. That's the hardest part to do, imo

Sean Eric Fagan

@kithrup.bsky.social

24 Aug

aka Chidi from The Good Place. 😄

Micro SF/F by O. Westin

@microsff.com

24 Aug

Hah! Didn't think of that. He didn't need a machine though.

Sean Eric Fagan

@kithrup.bsky.social

24 Aug

It would have been a *great* thing to use to torture him, though -- Michael saying, "Here, Chidi, this machine will let you know all of the consequences of a decision, so you don't have to obsess over them anymore" only, of course, HE WOULD.

Lulu T.

@lulululut.bsky.social

24 Aug

☁️ I mean there were hundreds of attempts. He COULD have done that in one of them.

Chris Shaffer, aka MythicFox

@mythicfox.bsky.social

24 Aug

That brings to mind "Nick of Time," an old Twilight Zone episode starring William Shatner as a guy who gets addicted to a fortune-telling machine in a diner. (Which also feels weirdly relevant today with people getting addicted to chatbots, but that's a subject for another time.)