Wish granted: the same electron is added to all atoms in the universe.

This one single electron is created in a quantum state described by a wave function that is uniformly distributed over every atom in the universe. This wave function collapses nearly instantaneously to a single position, and the end result is that one random atom in the entire universe gains one electron.

Nothing of interest happens.

ls this some kind of problem at all?
I mean, it is not wishing to add an electron to each atom in the Universe...

This reminds me of the sketch from Chris and Jack, where one person tries to outsmart a genie with the perfect wish and almost succeeds, but ultimately fails.

my wish is to change the mass of the proton.

Sounds like a case for xkcd's what if

I asked ChatGPT what would happen. Here you go:

If every atom in the universe suddenly gained one extra electron, the result would be instant, universe-ending chaos — in less than a nanosecond. Here’s why:

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1. Universal Negative Charge Imbalance

Right now, matter is electrically neutral — the positive charges in nuclei balance the negative charges of electrons. Adding one electron to every atom makes every single atom negatively charged. The universe instantly becomes dominated by repulsive electrostatic forces.

Coulomb’s law tells us electric forces are ~10³⁶ times stronger than gravity. That means: • Atoms would violently repel each other. • Molecules couldn’t hold together. • Planets, stars, and galaxies — all held together by gravity — would be ripped apart by overwhelming electrostatic repulsion.

Within moments, all normal matter disintegrates into a plasma of electrons and nuclei being hurled away from each other.

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2. Collapse of Atomic and Molecular Structure

Each atom now has one more electron than its nucleus can bind: • The extra electron would either occupy a weakly bound outer orbital or be completely unbound. • Chemical bonds depend on balanced electron sharing — those would fail instantly. • Solids, liquids, and gases all cease to exist in recognizable form.

Essentially, chemistry ends. There’s no more “matter” in the familiar sense — just a roiling cloud of charged particles.

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3. Energy Release on an Unimaginable Scale

The addition of an electron to every atom requires — or releases — colossal energy, depending on the element and context: • Ionization energies and electron affinities differ between atoms. • You’re effectively forcing a global-scale electron capture reaction.

But the real kicker is that the sudden Coulomb repulsion between everything would dwarf any nuclear explosion imaginable. The entire universe’s matter would “explode” outward — far beyond the speed of galactic escape velocities — powered by the electrostatic potential energy now released.

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4. No Stable Matter, No Light, No Universe

With matter annihilated into a universal electron-ion plasma: • Photons would scatter off free charges (via Thomson scattering). • The universe would become completely opaque. • Eventually, as it expands and cools, you might end up with diffuse clouds of charged particles, but never stable atoms again.

You’d basically reset the universe to something like an ultra-energetic pre-recombination plasma — except with the wrong charge balance and no chance of re-neutralizing.

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In short:

Adding one extra electron to every atom would: • Destroy all atomic and molecular structure. • Overwhelm gravity entirely. • Convert the universe into a high-energy, negatively charged plasma. • Likely erase all physical structures — stars, planets, life, everything — in an instant.

It’s not a slow catastrophe; it’s an immediate, total one.

The real question isn't if the universe ends...

It's if the genie magic expands outward from the source at the speed of light, or if it's instantaneous everywhere, which would allow information to be transmitted faster than the speed of light, allowing for violations of causality, and destroying our fundamental understanding of the universe before we all died.

Turns out, there's a rule against exterminating all life in the universe with a wish, but the genie doesn't know what an electron is or what adding one to every atom will do, so you've found yourself a loophole.

just choose an electron somewhere random in the universe, and declare said electron to be the legal property of every atom in the universe. problem solved