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PaperclipPerfector  17hr ago (text post)   773 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)

The obvious reason to choose blue is that many of your closest friends, family, people you love will choose blue, and do you really want to be a survivor in a world populated entirely by people who choose red?

The obvious reason to choose red is that many of your closest friends, family, people you love will choose red, and do you really want to be a survivor in a world populated entirely by people who choose blue?

If everyone commits to pressing red, everyone lives. If you leave it to "push blue?" then there's a good chance people die. If you want to maximise your own chances of survival, push red.

If everyone commits to pressing red, everyone lives.

This is outside the bounds of the thought experiment (children, mentally infirm, etc.) and so irrelevant.

Does it specifically say children, the infirm, etc. are included? It just says "everyone who pushes this colour, this thing; everyone who pushes that colour, that thing". You can just as easily argue that children and the enfeebled are not going to be permitted to push buttons and so they don't come in to the experiment.

Indeed, if only the button pushers die, then everyone who doesn't push a button probably lives anyway, so red or blue doesn't apply to them.

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?

Here is the prompt again, emphasis mine.

Not accusing you of this but a whole lot of people are somehow reading it as 'mentally-competent adults' which is not what it says.

Right, it does say "everyone in the world" which presumably includes children. I think the problem is we instinctively go "well clearly not babies, babies can't press buttons" etc. and that leads to the "does this really mean children, how old is the child" and so on.

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