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Friday Free Thread: Red or Blue Button?

Which Button?

  • Red Button

    Votes: 30 46.9%

  • Blue Button

    Votes: 34 53.1%
  • Total voters
    64
I do not see how you can claim that red saves everyone.

The problem clearly states that everyone survives IF something else (% of blue button) happens first.

But..IF something else happens, then only red-button pressers survive.

What IF the people who have enough huevos to press no button in a hypothetical premise just take up their nail guns (thanks, @VeloClone) and go after those selfish reddos?

The red button pressers can also get hit by a truck right after voting. That would not bother me. They are selfish pigs to begin with.

Present company excepted, of course.
 
bluestarcyclone said:
I mean, the fact is, you could rephrase this question as simply: press the red button and live, or press the blue button and die unless 50% choose to risk the blue button with you.

No one is making anyone pick the blue button. People who pick blue are playing russian roulette hoping enough will pick blue, when they didn't have to take that risk in the first place.
Click to expand...
PURE GOLD!
 
pourcyne said:
I do not see how you can claim that red saves everyone.

The problem clearly states that everyone survives IF something else (% of blue button) happens first.

But..IF something else happens, then only red-button pressers survive.

What IF the people who have enough huevos to press no button in a hypothetical premise just take up their nail guns (thanks, @VeloClone) and go after those selfish reddos?

The red button pressers can also get hit by a truck right after voting. That would not bother me. They are selfish pigs to begin with.

Present company excepted, of course.
Click to expand...
If you choose red, it's impossible for you to get killed. If everyone chooses red, it's impossible for anyone to get killed. There is no condition presented that kills red pushers.

Of course, the hardest part is convincing people, and all the other random factors around it (how is this button push happening? When? How much time before? When does the kill occur after, if there is one? Who is all allowed to push? etc).
 
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I'd like a revised scenario where if more than 50% of people press red, only 70% of the people that selected red survive.

Otherwise, there's not really a reason to pick blue without some kind of potential consequence
 
  • Winner
  • Agree
Reactions: dahliaclone and MeowingCows
MeowingCows said:
If you choose red, it's impossible for you to get killed. If everyone chooses red, it's impossible for anyone to get killed. There is no condition presented that kills red pushers.
Click to expand...

Where is the guarantee that this is so?

MeowingCows said:
Of course, the hardest part is convincing people, and all the other random factors around it (how is this button push happening? When? How much time before? When does the kill occur after, if there is one? Who is all allowed to push? etc).
Click to expand...

Also, WHY?

Why will one group be punished for their choice and the other group will not?
 
pourcyne said:
Where is the guarantee that this is so?



Also, WHY?

Why will one group be punished for their choice and the other group will not?
Click to expand...
In the condition -- there's no condition where red-pushers are killed. Only blue-pushers have the risk of being killed. That's what it says.

Why? 'Cuz society loves overly-simplified hypothetical choice problems, of course.
 
coolerifyoudid said:
I'd like a revised scenario where if more than 50% of people press red, only 70% of the people that selected red survive.

Otherwise, there's not really a reason to pick blue without some kind of potential consequence
Click to expand...

Here's the thing. Everybody dies sometime.

Make it so that the red button pushers live forever with eternal youth and agony-free. Then again, if you've read "All Men are Mortal" by Simone de Beauvoir, you would probably know that's not a good choice, either. Also thinking of Mark Twain's assessment of Paradise...he said if it was anything like church, most people would hate it.

In your scenario, and even with an absolute guarantee, I do believe you would still get people who would push blue, just to watch the world burn. It's a fact that there are people who consistently vote against their own best interests in real-life scenarios.
 
bluestarcyclone said:
Why is red winning a death sentence to most people? If red wins, mathematically most people didn't pick blue.
Click to expand...
Because I think it would lead to societal collapse.

You’re probably going to lose about half of the world’s children under the age of 5. You’re going to probably lose about a third to half of the world’s population. Food chains will collapse, public order will collapse. There will be famine and disease. And a lot of people who do survive will be traumatized because they’ll feel responsible for the deaths of their loved ones who pressed the blue button.

If red wins, a majority of the world’s population will survive initially, but I think a majority/most will end up dying because they pushed the blue button or due to the chaos, famine, and disease that follows
 
Why wouldn't everyone just push the red? then everyone survives. In the question, I don't see a negative result if everyone pushes red. There needs to be a stipulation added that if no one pushes blue, X happens.
 
I don't think the question makes sense either. Red means I survive for sure. Blue means I might, if everyone else does.

It'd be a better thought experiment if I died after pressing Red, and more people pressed blue.

But as currently phased, there is not one benefit to pressing blue, and not one penalty to press red.
 
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Reactions: pourcyne and Clonefan94
Clonefan94 said:
Why wouldn't everyone just push the red? then everyone survives. In the question, I don't see a negative result if everyone pushes red. There needs to be a stipulation added that if no one pushes blue, X happens.
Click to expand...
Because some people won’t understand that they should press red.

One of the only rules is that everyone needs to press a button/vote. So the month old baby that is just flailing their arms. They’re pressing a button. The two year old who loves the color blue? Pressing a button. The elderly person with dementia? Pressing a button

You know there are going to be people that press the blue button. The negative result of pressing red (if red wins) is that all of those people die.
 
coolerifyoudid said:
It's in other peoples' hands either way. Red doesn't guarantee you survive. We're a damaged society, but I think there are more people with families that are going to try to maximize their votes to save them.


*edit - reading is hard. I think a guarantee of people's survival means red gets the majority of votes
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Yeah, I’d quit reading if it said press one and go with red. I’m a cyclone. Red is always the choice.
 
CascadeClone said:
Recent studies indeed show people trusting their neighbors is at an all-time low.

but my theory is that people that don't trust others, its because they themselves are untrustworthy. I think as a society, we are just pretty terrible people right now. needs to change.
Click to expand...
My neighbors wouldn't be complete strangers to me.
 
coolerifyoudid said:
I'd like a revised scenario where if more than 50% of people press red, only 70% of the people that selected red survive.

Otherwise, there's not really a reason to pick blue without some kind of potential consequence
Click to expand...
And yet, MANY people are finding reasons to pick blue.
 
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