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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   3731 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 1, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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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)

STOP DOING THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS

  • FAKE THINGS WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DISCUSSED SERIOUSLY
  • MILLENIA OF HYPOTHETICALS yet NO REAL WORLD USE FOUND for discussing made up scenarios
  • Wanted to talk about something that hasn’t happened for a laugh? We had a tool for that. It was called GUESSING.
  • “Yes please give me A WORLDWIDE VOTE USING A SET OF BUTTONS THAT HAVE THE POWER TO INSTANTLY KILL PEOPLE BASED ON WHAT BUTTON OTHER PEOPLE PRESSED.” “Please give me A TRAIN TRACK THAT FORKS IN TWO, SOMEHOW IS UNABLE TO STOP, FOR SOME REASON FIVE PEOPLE ARE TIED TO THE TRACKS AND ONE PERSON TO ANOTHER ONE, AND FOR SOME REASON YOU HAVE A LEVER TO CHANGE THE TRACK THE TRAIN IS ON BUT CANT JUST UNTIE THE PEOPLE” - Statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged.

LOOK at what Philosophers have been demanding your respect for all this time, with all the books and charts we built for them.

This is REAL philosophy done by REAL philosophers (and internet wannabe philosophers)

Chinese_room.jpg

Violinist.jpg

Veil_of_ignorance.jpg

“Hello I would like to talk about what I think I would do in an entirely impossible imaginary scenario”

They have played us for absolute fools

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