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[EviLore]

"Everyone in the world has to take a private vote by pressing a red or blue button. If more than 50% of people press the blue button, everyone survives. If less than 50% of people press the blue button, only people who pressed the red button survive. Which button would you press?"

From Tim Urban on Twitter.

 

[Yesterwynde]

Why would anyone press the red button?

 

[poppabk]

"Everyone in the world has to take a private vote by pressing a red or blue button. If more than 50% of people press the blue button, everyone survives. If less than 50% of people press the blue button, only people who pressed the red button survive. Which button would you press?"

From Tim Urban on Twitter.

You pressed the red button? Is Thanos running Neogaf?

 

[LyricalShrike]

Why would anyone press the red button?

Why would you press the blue one?

 

[Yesterwynde]

Why would you press the blue one?

...Cause I want to live? Why would I risk my own chances of surviving by pressing the red one?

Why would anyone do that?

 

[falconhoof]

Everyone press the Red Button, everyone survives.

 

[Harkonnen]

Bye, my blue friends !

 

[poodaddy]

Blue. I ultimately have to choose to believe in people. I'm more than fine with dying if I turn out to be wrong.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Red button it is

 

[epicurius-seven]

'Only the people that pressed red survive' is the only threat here.

 

[LyricalShrike]

...Cause I want to live? Why would I risk my own chances of surviving by pressing the red one?

Why would anyone do that?

Pressing red guarantees you survive. Pressing blue has a nonzero chance of survival since they die if the minority is blue.

 

[Raven117]

Red. I want to live. I'm not leaving my meager existence up to the masses to do the right thing (which, obviously, includes me). I believe in peoples want to survive far more than I believe in people doing what is "good for others" especially when pitted against each other.

 

[falconhoof]

Blue. I ultimately have to choose to believe in people. I'm more than fine with dying if I turn out to be wrong.

Help me understand why Blue would even be a consideration?

If you want to live, you press Red. If everyone wants to live, they press Red. Pressing Blue is just making the whole thing into a gamble.

 

[Yesterwynde]

Pressing red guarantees you survive. Pressing blue has a nonzero chance of survival since they die if the minority is blue.

I get that. I just don't understand why anyone would not press the "everyone lives" button and call it a day.

The red one is just a distraction. You want to live? then press the button that says "you live", not the one saying "someone might die".

I dunno. I mean, knowing myself I probably wouldn't press anything XD

 

[March Climber]

Is there a secret green button ending?

 

[EviLore]

Help me understand why Blue would even be a consideration?

Remember that everyone must press a button, including women and children. You can't control what button they press.

If you choose red, you are incrementally reducing the likelihood of survival for every idealistic person on Earth.

If you choose blue, you risk your life to incrementally increase the likelihood of survival for every idealistic person on Earth.

 

[Coconutt]

Let's go blue boys!

Reds are the enemy of humanity.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Holy cow, I've not gone back and forth so much.

Red. It guarantees your survival. And gives everyone else the option to do so as well. If everyone does the mental calculus, they'll vote red, too.

Voting blue feels nice, but do you really trust half of the eight billion strangers enough to leave your life in their hands?

 

[epicurius-seven]

it's funny because if everyone is selfish, we all live.

 

[Coconutt]

Isn't this basically that one scene from the dark knight.

 

[badblue]

Some people leave their shopping carts in the parking lot rather then returning them to the cart corral. Even if it's right next to where they parked.

People like that don't give a fuck about any thing but themselves. They would 100% press the red button.

So if you want to live you have to press the red button.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

 

[poppabk]

Holy cow, I've not gone back and forth so much.

Red. It guarantees your survival. And gives everyone else the option to do so as well. If everyone does the mental calculus, they'll vote red, too.

Voting blue feels nice, but do you really trust half of the eight billion strangers enough to leave your life in their hands?

You really think you will last long in a world of people who were willing to kill a minimum of 4 billion people?

 

[Grildon Tundy]

You really think you will last long in a world of people who were willing to kill a minimum of 4 billion people?

Why wouldn't I?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

The poll results on Twitter was Blue won BTW

But don't let that influence you, GAF are a higher intelligence tier than Twitter

 

[nkarafo]

So if you press the red button, you survive no matter what, right? So why would anyone need to press the blue button at all? what's the benefit?

 

[Raven117]

You really think you will last long in a world of people who were willing to kill a minimum of 4 billion people?

That's not how people think. They think at their own survival. That's the point.

 

[EviLore]

So if you press the red button, you survive no matter what, right? So why would you need to press the blue button at all? what's the benefit?

See my post above.

Billions of people will likely press the blue button out of idealism and prosocial inclinations. They will all die if less than 50% of the population goes blue. The majority of that subset is probably women, children, young adults.

If you press red, you guarantee your own survival but incrementally reduce their chance of survival. If you press blue, you risk your own death to incrementally improve their chances.

It's a private vote, so you don't get any social points for your choice. E.g., if you're a politician you'll almost certainly vote red while telling the citizenry to vote blue.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

So if you press the red button, you survive no matter what, right? So why would anyone need to press the blue button at all? what's the benefit?

There isn't any other than suicidal empathy, that's the point

Most people will prefer to do what feels good rather than what is actually good. Like I said, on Twitter, Blue won. Here on GAF, currently Red is winning

 

[GateofD]

i think its pretty assuming if you think most women or children would pick the blue one in the year 2026

 

[EverydayBeast]

 

[jason10mm]

Am I allowed to control who gets the instructions? 'Cause I can definitely think of groups of folks that I would want to press blue while the majority of us press red.

 

[YCoCg]

Politics?

 

[LyricalShrike]

I get that. I just don't understand why anyone would not press the "everyone lives" button and call it a day.

The red one is just a distraction. You want to live? then press the button that says "you live", not the one saying "someone might die".

I dunno. I mean, knowing myself I probably wouldn't press anything XD

It's a really simple odds question dressed up as something profound. If you had to put a gun to your head and pull the trigger would you pick a revolver with at least one bullet in it or one that you know had no bullets? Red is the revolver without any bullets in this case.

 

[Wilhelm_85]

Press Red. Encourage all of the people you know to also press Red.

 

[EviLore]

It's a really simple odds question dressed up as something profound. If you had to put a gun to your head and pull the trigger would you pick a revolver with at least one bullet in it or one that you know had no bullets? Red is the revolver without any bullets in this case.

There are two outcomes at stake: whether you live or die, and whether everyone on Earth who presses the blue button lives or dies. The button you choose influences both outcomes.

 

[jason10mm]

It really needs a "if everyone presses red, then everyone also dies" clause to try to FORCE the altruistic choice, the blue button, over the purely self survival of the red. Plus if little kids have to press, definitely some of them will randomly press blue.

 

[Wilhelm_85]

It really needs a "if everyone presses red, then everyone also dies" clause to try to FORCE the altruistic choice, the blue button, over the purely self survival of the red. Plus if little kids have to press, definitely some of them will randomly press blue.

Yeah, if this isn't allowed to be done publicly and isn't explained properly, and even young kids and people who simply don't have the capacity to understand the situation are also forced to press a button, then I lean towards Blue.

 

[MaestroMike]

No way I'm living in a world with red ppl

 

[IntentionalPun]

Blue. Guess I'd die lol

 

[jason10mm]

Yeah, if this isn't allowed to be done publicly and isn't explained properly, and even young kids and people who simply don't have the capacity to understand the situation are also forced to press a button, then I lean towards Blue.

that.......would be a plus side of this event, an easy way to weed out the 5% or so of the astronomically dumb and just willfully chaotic. Now obviously eugenics are bad...mm'kay and all that but let's face it, dumb people who can't understand even basic instructions kill themselves and sometimes the rest of us every day.

 

[LyricalShrike]

There are two outcomes at stake: whether you live or die, and whether everyone on Earth who presses the blue button lives or dies. The button you choose influences both outcomes.

The only outcome you have direct influence on is whether or not you live or die. Red means you don't. Blue means you might. It's a question of Beast Games tier rigor.

 

[Biff]

But there is a correct answer to this, right? Red is objectively the correct answer. It's a riddle. If everyone in the world presses red, everyone in the world survives.

So you are only pressing blue to provide a 1/8,300,000,000 increase to the wrong answer to help wrong people survive?

Doesn't make sense to risk your life for such an extremely minor increase to the overall vote. The only correct answer is red.

 

[nkarafo]

The red one is just a distraction. You want to live? then press the button that says "you live", not the one saying "someone might die".

I think the blue button is the distraction. The red button is simple, you press it you live, everyone just has to press that and they will all be safe. The blue button adds the element of trust and having to rely on other's decisions.

It's a private vote

This makes things easier. If it's private i bet the vast majority of people would vote red, after urging family members and friends to do the same to keep them safe. The blue button would be a guaranteed suicide.

If it's a public vote though then it would be much more complicated because many people would feel like the red would "expose" them to the eyes of others and blue would make them look like a better person, regardless if they really are or not. But still, my bet would be that most people would still chicken out at the last moment so in the end the vote being public would claim more victims.

 

[BloodFree]

But there is a correct answer to this, right? Red is objectively the correct answer. It's a riddle. If everyone in the world presses red, everyone in the world survives.

There is no "correct" answer there. If everyone presses blue, everyone survives too.

 

[EviLore]

There is no "correct" answer there. If everyone presses blue, everyone survives too.

If 51% press blue, 100% of the world survives.
If 51% press red, 49% of the world dies.

It's fair to assume that a non-trivial percent of the world will choose blue no matter what.

 

[Yesterwynde]

It's a really simple odds question dressed up as something profound. If you had to put a gun to your head and pull the trigger would you pick a revolver with at least one bullet in it or one that you know had no bullets? Red is the revolver without any bullets in this case.

Yeah
I knew maths were going to kill me one day.

 

[BloodFree]

If 51% press blue, 100% of the world survives.
If 51% press red, 49% of the world dies.

It's fair to assume that a non-trivial percent of the world will choose blue no matter what.

No, I understand. It's just that his qualifier was that everyone must press a single color, which is unrealistic as you say. But if 100% of people pick one color, the outcome is the same, no matter what color is picked, that's what I meant.

 

[Fbh]

Red.

But I think Xbox people deserve a button too.
"If 51% of people press the green button, only game pass subscribers survive"

 

[poppabk]

So if you press the red button, you survive no matter what, right? So why would anyone need to press the blue button at all? what's the benefit?

Not murdering billions of people including your own loved ones? The only reason to pick red is if you think humans as a species are so base that not even a majority would agree to not commit mass genocide to save their own skin.