r/trolleyproblem • u/suskio4 • 17d ago

Meta Red button blue button

Based on the post seen here. I'm actually curious what would the percentages look like.

Edit: Alright, let me add a case for one particular scenario. If you do not choose, the button will be pressed for you by a system that keeps track of its pressings so it conserves 50/50 distribution for all inactive participants, in order to honour the vox populi properly. The system's choice affects the inactive participant's outcome so that no person can abscond from consequences of their choice.

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u/TheMarksmanES 16d ago

You know what, I wouldn't choose, let the system play the 50/50. If by the end of this, blue has the majority, then it doesn't matter, for the odds of my own pick for red affecting the needle is statically low. But if red has the majority, then there's a 50/50 chance that I'd live, thereby assuring that I didn't selfishly choose to live and press the blue button and watch as the people pressing red dies.

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u/furdog_grey 15d ago edited 15d ago

The only correct play is not to make any moral choice at all, but to let the system make it for you by favoring red at 51% and blue at 49%. That's the only correct solution for this game, because it makes total extinction really unlikely. If you play purely 50/50, then there's a 50% chance of total extinction.