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PaperclipPerfector  9hr ago (text post)   503 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 1, 2026

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This has resurfaced and been trending for a while

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?

Currently at 42.1% red and 57.9% blue.

What would you choose? (See also r/slatestarcodex discussion)

I was motivated to post because I have a convincing argument for blue:

  1. Stupid people will choose blue. You may not care about the disabled, elderly, generally moronic, etc. but this includes children and people who are "too generous": nice, but emotional, and devote their lives to charity

  2. Thanos snapping a decent amount of the population (including random children, and biased towards selflessness) will probably overall negatively affect society

  3. I probably won't die because most people choose blue, as evidenced by the poll. Even if I do, it may be preferable to living with the survivors (point #2)

There's no person in the world I wouldn't prefer to outlive rather than die. In addition, many of my friends I've polled vote red and they're not that bad to spend the thanos snap apocalypse with.

If Twitter is that close, and assuming that Twitter selects for caving to social pressure and aggressively pro-social signaling, then I don't have high hopes blue wins overall.

Funny thing, I recall that last time this was dropped I was arguing for blue.

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