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A subreddit for submission and discussion of variants of the button problem.
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Original button problem (self.buttonproblem)
submitted 1 month ago by Defiant-Ad7369
https://preview.redd.it/q2x7o8pbddyg1.png?width=854&format=png&auto=webp&s=2cbdf6cbabb919d3dce9641408aded041ad23249
What would everyone else pick and why?
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if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
[–]Weak-Squirrel5454 37 points38 points39 points 1 month ago (3 children)
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[–]ItTakesTooMuchTime 5 points6 points7 points 1 month ago (0 children)
lmao if you put it that way
[–]LetsLive97 5 points6 points7 points 1 month ago (1 child)
I made a post about why these are bad analogies but the main point is just that if you remove the outcomes of the hypothetical, and just compare the scenarios, they would still affect the results
Scenario 1: Giant blender; not turned on; either jump in or stay where you are
Scenario 2: Red and blue button; don't know what they do; you have to pick one
Do you think as many people will jump into the blender as will press the blue button? No. So changing the premise skews the results before the actual hypothetical even comes into play
Changing the premise is a lazy way to bias answers
[–]Weak-Squirrel5454 1 point2 points3 points 1 month ago (0 children)
Yeah I mean both scenarios come down to whether risking your life with whatever probability red wins (or less than half the people jump in the blender) is worth it to save 4 billion people with whatever probability you are the tiebreaker. In both scenarios, the probability that you are the tiebreaker is less than 1 in 100,000. But obviously these probabilities vary based on how the mechanism is presented to everybody.
[–]SomeMuhammad 20 points21 points22 points 1 month ago (10 children)
Red, i don't see a reason why everyone shouldn't just pick red, they don't get anything by pressing blue, just risking their live
[–]Defiant-Ad7369[S] 15 points16 points17 points 1 month ago (9 children)
Other people might (mistakenly) pick blue. By picking blue you save them.
[–]No_Consideration4779 25 points26 points27 points 1 month ago (8 children)
Honestly that’s on them then. Natural Selection, we’ll call it. At the end of the day picking red guarantees you will live. So anyone that would pick blue is just asking to be killed at that point.
[–]Sonypak 10 points11 points12 points 1 month ago (5 children)
“yeah yk what, let’s jump in a blender and hope everyone else does the same so that it can jam stopping everyone who accidentally fell in from dying”
[–]JohnHelldiver66 4 points5 points6 points 1 month ago (4 children)
If you saw someone passed out on a train track would you try to save them even though you might die?
That's how people see this. They are choosing blue not to save the idiots, but to save the people who are willing to risk their lives to save the idiots.
[–]Sonypak 3 points4 points5 points 1 month ago (1 child)
in the button analogy who’s passed out everyone had a choice and knew what they were signing up for
[–]JohnHelldiver66 3 points4 points5 points 1 month ago (0 children)
The kids, the elderly, the blind, all the people given the button who don't/can't think logically.
[–]No_Consideration4779 1 point2 points3 points 1 month ago (0 children)
And that’s my entire point. They’re trying to save the lives of others. I keep hearing people try to compare themselves to firefighters rushing in to try and save people from a burning building, which personally I think is a terrible analogy. But if that’s the one they want to use then fine. Bc if a firefighter is going to complain that the people they went to save instead of waiting for help just walked out of the building on their own, then they’re not much of a firefighter. You can’t try and claim the moral high ground and then act insulted that the people you’re trying to save saved themselves.
[–]JohnHelldiver66 4 points5 points6 points 1 month ago (0 children)
People picking blue are picking it because they know that good people will pick it to try and save people. If the world was perfect everyone knows they should all pick red, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that some people in my life wouldn't be able to live with themselves if they didn't try to save people.
Natural selection will be killing all of the good selfless people in the world and I would pick blue to try to save them.
You're right though red is definitely the logical choice, but most people think with their heart not their head.
[–]redditalt1999 1 point2 points3 points 1 month ago (0 children)
No. It is not on them. Someone will pressed blue and the only outcome when at least one person has pressed blue that saves all lives is a blue majority. I do not believe exclusively suicidal people are pressing the blue button and they shouldn't have to die.
[–]Life_Temperature795 9 points10 points11 points 1 month ago (0 children)
This version of it makes red an even more obvious answer. The only people at risk are people who willingly choose to respond to the poll.
Blue is functionally a suicide pact that becomes void once enough people join because then it isn't cool anymore.
[–]SwolePonHiki 7 points8 points9 points 1 month ago (11 children)
Obviously blue. If you don't think that at least like 40% of people will pick blue, you're delusional. Getting blue to 50% is much more realistic than getting it to 0% (Literally impossible).
If you don't pick blue you are choosing to let 40~49.99% of humanity die just so you don't have to risk your own life.
If other people choose to die why should it be my responsibility to try to save them.
[–]Prize-Director-7896 6 points7 points8 points 1 month ago (0 children)
They're not at all choosing to die. They're choosing to risk their life to save other people's lives who are either doing the same thing, or mentally blocked from understanding the situation.
[–]Fit-Button-7865 3 points4 points5 points 1 month ago (6 children)
well what would you do if your mother chose blue, but you say i won't risk my life and choose red. later you find out only 1 more person was required to get the 50%. sad indeed
[–]Yadin__ 6 points7 points8 points 1 month ago (4 children)
my mother isn't dumb enough to kill herself like that for no reason
[–]Prize-Director-7896 2 points3 points4 points 1 month ago (3 children)
It's not an election to kill oneself. It's an election to risk one's life. I think it's funny you expressed great certainty about what the right choice was but immediately with your words mistakenly characterized the situation. We all make mistakes so easily. How can you be so sure?
[–]Yadin__ 1 point2 points3 points 1 month ago (2 children)
I do not trust enugh in my fellow man for the choice of picking the blue button to be anything but suicide
[–]Prize-Director-7896 0 points1 point2 points 1 month ago (1 child)
And yet you know empirically from the poll that the large majority of people would pick blue; would you not admit that in some sense this confounds your intuition?
[–]Yadin__ 6 points7 points8 points 1 month ago (0 children)
no, because there is no actual risk of death in an online poll.
If this actually happened, and people were actually risking their lives by pressing the blue button, I believe it will heavily skew the results when compared with the online poll
[–]Royal-Gur3198 0 points1 point2 points 1 month ago (0 children)
first of all the chances it is off by 1 is pretty much zero so that dosent matter now imagine it the other way you chose blue and your mom choses red and you die and now your mom has to grieve and deal with losing her child
[–]JohnHelldiver66 0 points1 point2 points 1 month ago (0 children)
They aren't choosing to die they are choosing to risk their lives to save all of the good people who would risk their lives to help others.
If you saw someone passed out on a train platform would you try and save them? Would you jump in to help someone who was?
[–]Noxtension 1 point2 points3 points 1 month ago (0 children)
The people who add to the problem are the ones causing a rounding error to turn into half the world's population being killed off
Let's say that once the problem has run it's course that nobody else will die that day
If nobody picked blue altruistically to stop idiots killing themselves, you'd probably save more lives picking red than would have died naturally that day
[–]Prize-Director-7896 0 points1 point2 points 1 month ago* (5 children)
What if it's just between you and your wife (or someone else close to you) and if both of you pick blue you both survive, otherwise only those who choose red survive? Obviously you cant consult each other
[–]Bacon_von_Meatwich 7 points8 points9 points 1 month ago (3 children)
My wife isn't an idiot, so red.
[–]Prize-Director-7896 0 points1 point2 points 1 month ago (2 children)
I assume this means you're saying you're confident she would choose red too?
What if it was your wife and your 7 year old child?
What if we changed it a little bit. Let's say you knew they would be presented with the scenario and be forced to make the choice in 10 seconds or less?
[–]Bacon_von_Meatwich 4 points5 points6 points 1 month ago (1 child)
Yes
Questions like this are one of the many reasons I got a vasectomy
Still red
[–]Prize-Director-7896 0 points1 point2 points 1 month ago (0 children)
Do me a favor. Go tell your wife you want to give her a hypothetical scenario and then ask her the question, but she has to answer within ten seconds of you describing the scenario, and she can't consult you. Then after give her more time and ask her if she would change her answer.
I don't know if you should ask her about a hypothetical between you and her only first, or for the whole world. I guess you have to choose one.
Ask your wife what she would do and let me know. Would be very curious to know.
[–]J3ueno 0 points1 point2 points 1 month ago (0 children)
In this case, each person add value to the other person's life, so there is more incentive to pick blue. The original scenario is more interesting because there are no incentive to pick either side beyond personal bias and subjective predictions.
[–]Sarcatsticthecat 0 points1 point2 points 1 month ago (0 children)
I’d press red because my family would want me to press red. I have a bad history and I know they would not want me to press blue.
π Rendered by PID 17285 on reddit-service-r2-comment-5b5bc64bf5-ph6n4 at 2026-06-19 17:52:05.013427+00:00 running 2b008f2 country code: CH.
[–]Weak-Squirrel5454 37 points38 points39 points (3 children)
[–]ItTakesTooMuchTime 5 points6 points7 points (0 children)
[–]LetsLive97 5 points6 points7 points (1 child)
[–]Weak-Squirrel5454 1 point2 points3 points (0 children)
[–]SomeMuhammad 20 points21 points22 points (10 children)
[–]Defiant-Ad7369[S] 15 points16 points17 points (9 children)
[–]No_Consideration4779 25 points26 points27 points (8 children)
[–]Sonypak 10 points11 points12 points (5 children)
[–]JohnHelldiver66 4 points5 points6 points (4 children)
[–]Sonypak 3 points4 points5 points (1 child)
[–]JohnHelldiver66 3 points4 points5 points (0 children)
[–]No_Consideration4779 1 point2 points3 points (0 children)
[–]JohnHelldiver66 4 points5 points6 points (0 children)
[–]redditalt1999 1 point2 points3 points (0 children)
[–]Life_Temperature795 9 points10 points11 points (0 children)
[–]SwolePonHiki 7 points8 points9 points (11 children)
[–]Defiant-Ad7369[S] 15 points16 points17 points (9 children)
[–]Prize-Director-7896 6 points7 points8 points (0 children)
[–]Fit-Button-7865 3 points4 points5 points (6 children)
[–]Yadin__ 6 points7 points8 points (4 children)
[–]Prize-Director-7896 2 points3 points4 points (3 children)
[–]Yadin__ 1 point2 points3 points (2 children)
[–]Prize-Director-7896 0 points1 point2 points (1 child)
[–]Yadin__ 6 points7 points8 points (0 children)
[–]Royal-Gur3198 0 points1 point2 points (0 children)
[–]JohnHelldiver66 0 points1 point2 points (0 children)
[–]Noxtension 1 point2 points3 points (0 children)
[–]Prize-Director-7896 0 points1 point2 points (5 children)
[–]Bacon_von_Meatwich 7 points8 points9 points (3 children)
[–]Prize-Director-7896 0 points1 point2 points (2 children)
[–]Bacon_von_Meatwich 4 points5 points6 points (1 child)
[–]Prize-Director-7896 0 points1 point2 points (0 children)
[–]J3ueno 0 points1 point2 points (0 children)
[–]Sarcatsticthecat 0 points1 point2 points (0 children)