This question is getting a fair bit of traction on social media, I’m curious what you folks think.
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?
Blue
Red
0voters
Please don’t look up how people have answered. This is a private vote, so try your best to assume you’re just spontaneously forced to make a choice with no explicit knowledge of how anyone else will vote.
I’d press blue. I think so many would be confused by the second part a majority would hear the positive in choosing blue and choose that, a good number thinking red was just the opposite of blue.
Setting aside my judgment of humanity there, I’d press blue. I think enough would press blue if they understood.
Why would it make a difference which you pushed? Well, if you push red, you live, period. If more people pick blue, everyone lives. If more people pick red, you and those other red pickers live. So, there’s a big difference. On the other hand if you press blue you are potentially contributing to everyone surviving. So, there is altruism vs. self-focus. But there’s also a figuring out what you think people would do. You might choose just from a moral or self-interest urge. You might also have estimates of what people will do in general affecting your choice. The stakes are enormous.
I don’t get it. Anyone pushing the red button lives. So, is it a question about if you would risk your life for the sake of stupid people? (Stupid people that don’t push the red button, for example). What’s the catch?
Just not immediately.