r/redbuttonbluebutton

The people that pressed most pressed button will survive, and people that pressed other button dies.

people didnt pressed any button till 24 hour timer will counted as pressing random button.

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Red = If the majority pick red, everyone who picks blue dies. Red is guaranteed to survive, and if you choose it you get $10k.

Yellow = If the majority pick yellow, everyone survives. No one who picks it gets any money, but everyone who picks yellow survives regardless of majority.

Blue = If the majority picks blue, everyone survives. If you pick blue and survive, you get $10k.

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Think about it if you stop paying taxes and go revolt and 50% or more ppl do the same you will "save" everyone but you could also just clock in and live your life (red button) and guarantee to be "safe"

Basically the original variation but everyone remaining has knowledge that a certain percent of people have already voted blue, and they have been every single vote so far. What percentage gets you to press blue, just so we can see what level of risk people are willing to take

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I am curious about whether the red voters are even possibly right about everyone picking red and surviving. For the sake of the experiment, please pick red.

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(Not trying to debate the original problem, just a fun thought experiment)

Same basic scenario, red guarantees your life, blue saves everyone with at least 50%. But here's the catch: regardless of the outcome, immediately after the vote, every corpse that died in the last month will turn into a zombie.

Does the risk of making the zombie apocalypse thousands of times more threatening sway red voters?

Does the threat of your own corpse threatening those near you sway blue voters?

We shall see.

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I have seen people Talk about the buttons and call either side stupid. But both Blues and Reds only say that the blue button people make the choice because they are unable to understand the question or want to save people who are unable to understand the question, and Reds dont want any chance to die and think that if you understand the question and ignore people who dont understand red is the obvious choice

But what about people who choice Blue beavuse they want to die. How does that affect your choice, and if it does have you at all been affected by suicide in your life.

This started from talking with my boyfriend about how The Burroughs got canceled by netflix (because of course), and we realized watching netflix is basically the real life, low stakes version of the button problem:

A new show just came out and from the synopsis you know you'll love it, but it is very likely to get cancelled after the first season.

If enough people watch it, than it will get another season.

But if you watch it and it gets cancelled you got emotionally invested for nothing.

What would you choose?

If red has over 50% blue dies

If blue has over 50% green dies

If green has over 50% red dies

Everyone picks as they want, no accidents, everyone understands the questions.

Pick your poison.

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Everyone seems to assume that one button is inherently safer or more dangerous than the other, but this is false because if everyone picks the same button they are actually equally safe to push whether you are looking out for yourself or looking out for others.

But if I pick red I will be safer!

You are not in danger since everyone will pick blue, there is zero reason you should not pick blue, it's the winning strategy.

But if I pick blue no one will be killed!

You cannot kill anyone since everyone will pick red, there is zero reason you should not pick red, it's the winning strategy.

This means that there being no benefit to everyone pressing either button, even if everyone is perfectly rational and thinking everyone else will be perfectly rational there will be a split between the buttons as people pick at random, ironically making disagreement completely unavoidable and both buttons dangerous.

It's tempting to think that you can avoid disagreement by everyone rationally looking at the benefits of each button, the problem is that neither benefits actually apply unless disagreement exists in the first place, you inherently have to assume there is a posibility of disagreement to believe that either button is better than the other.

This makes introducing danger to the situation even with rational actors unavoidable, which then collapses any logic of either button being completely safe (both for yourself and others), turning it into a trust and moral argument of what you are willing to risk(yourself or others) and what you think everyone else will value.

In a rational situtation of course, since there are many red pressers who cannot understand this and assume everyone else will pick red.

The difference of opinion boils down to where people see the danger coming from in this scenario.

Reds see the danger as the situation itself, and try to leave the situation.
Blues see the danger as the reds, and try to change the outcome.

Both have a valid fear and address it in a way that seems best to them. Reds aren’t evil for leaving a dangerous situation. Blues aren’t stupid for trying to avoid the danger in the first place.

Reds see the situation as a room on fire with a clearly marked exit that everyone can access in time, and wonder why anyone would stay behind.

Blues see the situation as a room that is being lit on fire by every red that leaves, and wonder why anyone would contribute to the flames.

Idk just be nice to each other it’s not that hard to see the other perspective.

Hear me out. What if <insert crazy guy with the board here> some of the blue pressers decided to die, instantly and pain-free?

What if we see this hypothetical as "If I support each person's choice and I don't want to die, I press red" kind of thing? In an average society it's no way that more than 50% would make this decision. So with enough blue pressers we just denying people to make their own minds.

I get it, you just say well what about those people who just acted rashly and didn't really mean it and bla-bla: ok, but what about those people in real pain, who aren't allowed to die by current laws or societal norms? Like by relatives, or by inability to speak or whatever. This hypothetical is their only way out then, isn't it? By pressing blue you force them to live without their consent.

TLDR: Leave the blue button for the, realistically, very small amount of people who have real reason to press it, in a perfect world it's a win-win.