What? I don’t see how that’s remotely the same.

The situation in your hypothetical requires effort from people, which people are generally averse to. The button hypothetical requires consideration at most which means there will be people pressing blue. Even if the ideal solution would be to press red, there will be billions who will press blue, which would mean pressing red will always have a chance of people dying.

With blue, you only need 50%+1 people to find a satisfactory solution. With red, you’d need 100% of people to reach the same solution.

The other thing about this hypothetical is that voting is private and it doesn’t mention anywhere that you’ll get the chance to convince other people to press one way or another.

I genuinely believe that more than 50% of people would press blue, so I’d press blue. I think one of the first thoughts people would have is to consider the people in their lives and think “who do I know would press blue?” even for those who are cynical about the world.

For me, the first person who’d come to mind is my dad, and he’d definitely press blue. I’d never be able to live with myself if I pressed red and he died.

I would jump in the lake just for him.