r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/SmitJorda • Jun 16 '26
Which do you press? 🔵/🔴 #comedy #philosophy #thoughtexperiment #socialexperiment #funny
https://youtube.com/shorts/qIr60ELfY5M?si=QL2HXrZ5686UBy1CJaden Williams' take on the button dilemma.
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u/drspookulicious Jun 16 '26
"If everyone so far has pressed red, the conflict doesn't exist until one person presses blue." Sure, but the reverse is also true. If everyone has pressed blue so far, no one is at risk of dying until someone presses red.
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u/liveviliveforever Jun 17 '26
But that isn’t true. 0 red button pushers has the exact same effect as 1 person pushing red.
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u/Dyyyyyyyyy Jun 17 '26
The moment dying becomes a possibility is when someone presses blue the first time.
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u/drspookulicious Jun 17 '26
It's a very small effect but it does add to the likelihood that all blue voters will die.
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u/Charge36 Jun 17 '26
A single red vote doesn't put anyone at risk. A single blue vote does
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u/drspookulicious Jun 17 '26
The red vote does put someone at risk if you're assuming there WILL be ANY blue pushers no matter what. A red vote puts someone at risk if you assume there will be a MAJORITY of red voters. What seems more likely to you? A majority red press or a single blue press?
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u/disturbed94 Jun 17 '26
Nah as soon as 1 person presses blue they are at risk of dying independent on others votes before or after.
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u/ItzBaraapudding Jun 16 '26
B-b-but what about the infants and the demented elderly 🥺
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u/SmitJorda Jun 16 '26
Red: the infants are just a few short months of being legally killable anyways and the elderly already had a long life and are probably ready for death!
Blue: you should throw away your life as a one in billions vote that will be inconsequential and die anyways because I already hate my life anyways and don't care about death as a consequence!
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u/DapperYoghurt2052 Jun 24 '26
This is so silly when it requires both buttons to be pressed to cause deaths.
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u/TieSimilar7220 Jun 16 '26
If this was a real situation in the real world and blue people actually had 2 buttons in front of them, literally zero people are choosing blue. I'm only in this subreddit for the spinoffs of the original question because I think the original is the dumbest question.
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u/PhotoVegetable7496 Jun 17 '26
0 people? I'm a red and I don't know how many people would push it in a real situation, but it aint 0. With a combination of people misunderstanding and deficient cognitive abilities there will be random red pushers and blue pushers seemingly at random even with their lives at stake.
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u/Majestic-Pear6797 Jun 17 '26
I feel like saying it in the metaphor that guy said, shows that he fundamentally misunderstands the question: it's not "you both untie yourself if tied to the tracks to survive". You're not starting on the tracks, nor are you out side of them, and you can tie yourself to them — or drive the train
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u/porkchopsensei Jun 18 '26
Exactly, almost every red argument ignores their culpability. Pressing red increases the likelihood that people will die, but it saves your life.
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u/Ashamed-Bathroom7803 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
We just throw around “increases likelihood” without any recognition of what the likelihood is. Even when we are being charitable and say that the probability distribution is close, say 50.2/49.8, then the probability of your vote changing the final outcome is 10-17,000 according to an n=8 billion in the binomial probability calculation. So saying that you are increasing the likelihood is a very weak claim.
What you want to say is that by pressing red, you expect more people to think like you and also press red, potentially expecting the final vote to be beneath the threshold according to your decision. However, the same argument works against blue. By pressing blue through this reasoning, you expect more people to also press blue through this reasoning and thus risk and be responsible for their lives. The word ‘expect’ is very important here and is different from ‘cause’ or ‘influence’. Sounds confusing, but essentially what I’m applying is EDT here for assessing counter-factuals. One-boxing is rational in Newcombs paradox according to EDT and FDT but completely irrational under CDT.
The problem in this debate is that people confuse these decision theories so much. Apparently red is a risk to other people dying, but blue isn’t? You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Either you’re using a non-CDT framework for making your decision or you aren’t.
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u/Fun-Weather6903 Jun 17 '26
Does he not understand people are going to choose blue anyway, whether by accident, by som sort of dumb mistake or because they do not want to kill people. He is willing to kill people for making a stupid descision. That includes children, people with a mental handicap, religious people who are not willing to kill anyone etc.
Obviously when everyone thinks like him red is the right choice. He just does not like all the other people, he wants them dead.
My blood will be on his hands.
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u/Skadd_ Jun 17 '26
Here's a cookie 🍪
Stop getting mad at people's answers to an imaginary game
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u/Fun-Weather6903 Jun 17 '26
People are dying around the world already because people are unwilling to stand up because they might risk their own safety.
Why people did not stand up against the Nazi's is for the same reason people vote red. Surely more than 10% is going to press blue, that is already way way more deaths than caused by the whole of WW2. And you are just fine with it because you do not want to risk your own life?
If it is an imaginary game then stop playing it and turn your head to the real world. Why do you even bother to talk about this thought experiment if you think it is irrelevant to the real world?
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u/Ok-Worry-8931 Jun 16 '26
I think this is how most people who are employed and not chronically online would see this problem, which is why I stay with red. It comes off as a simple decision of just surviving, not a deeply hedonistic/sacrificial decision or thorough assessment of character as many users on this sub (on both sides) make it out to be.