@robertlasagna1 The best way to see who a person is is to see what they do in real life.
And honestly in this hypothetical, the moral answer is to find out who's making these buttons and kill them.
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Frozen Gale
3.1K posts
Frozen Gale
@Frozengale
Sometimes I make memes Sometimes I don't That's about it
Anywhere but here Katılım Ocak 2009
129 Takip Edilen145 Takipçiler
its a pointless exercise to discuss what the results "mean", "what does this say about people who vote x", because the entire experiment is a trick, like most psychology experiments. It's actually a pretty good one of those. In psychology experiments you often trick the participants into thinking youre measuring one think, while you are secretly measuring something else. you tell them you are measuring a test on a computer where the more right answers you get, the more you get paid for participating. that you make 10 people do, but secretly one of them is an actor and you are observing their social dynamics after the actor encourages the other parties to cheat on the test so they will all make more money. something like that, classic setup. you distract the participants so they arent self concious about what you really want to observe. similar thing here: The red and blue buttons poll is not measuring moral fiber, but basic intelligence and the ability to hold multiple variables in your head at the same time, and run a quick decision tree in your head: what happens if I chose A and everyone else choses B. what happens if I chose A and everyone else choses A. what happens if I chose B and everyone else choses A. what happens if I chose B and everyone else choses B.
the results of this test, vote, discourse, has nothing to do with "selfishness" or "being a good person". It doesnt map to that or measure that in any useful way.
garfieldbot@robertlasagna1
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@RealDianeYap The real moral answer is to find and kill whoever is making these buttons
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Blue is not “more moral”
It is not moral to deliberately put yourself in harm’s way and count on others to come save you.
Joe Reeve - 🇬🇧/acc@isnit0
Guys blue is obviously more moral. Sure, red is logical. But blue is more moral. Anyone who thinks in 2nd order effects should advocate for blue. Just like the people who created our high trust societies would. Red voters destroy our society.
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@RSS_D4 @RealDianeYap If I see a person in distress, I will help. With the button I don't know anyone is in distress, and in fact me pushing blue puts myself in distress. It would be like jumping off a bridge into raging waters because someone MIGHT jump off the same bridge and then I can save them
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@RealDianeYap If you’re getting beat up/robbed/stabbed on the subway would you want people to help you or not?
If I do nothing you get beat up maybe die. If I help by myself maybe both of us get beat up and die. But if half the train helps we are all guaranteed to live.
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@mhartl I do find it strange that people advocating for blue button acknowledge blue will be pushed by accident, immaturity, etc. and are thus willing to apply moral statements against anyone pressing red, but don't seem to acknowledge that red will be pushed for the same reasons
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Thesis: If everyone presses the red button, everyone lives, so you should press the red button.
Antithesis: Some people will inevitably press the blue button—by accident, ignorance, immaturity, etc.—so you should press the blue button to help save them.
Synthesis: Your probability of affecting the outcome by pressing the blue button is negligible, so you should press the red button.
Tim Urban@waitbutwhy
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?
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@BlackDumpling I think the most telling thing is how so many people who would pick the blue button then go on to say how red button people deserve to either be killed, ostracized, or "dealt with" in some manner.
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Publicly announcing I'm not responsible to keep stupid people alive doesn't confront me much. If you select the Blue button you do solely and exclusively to create a responsibility in others to preserve your life for you when you won't do it for yourself. That's not moral.
You force an unnecessarily gutwrenching choice onto others just so you can smugly tell yourself you're their superior because you'd super duper save them if the places were reversed when... NO, you're the only creating risk for others to begin with.
You had a chance to save everyone BY PICKING THE RED BUTTON. You elected instead to create a nightmare scenario for others.
No one is compelled to press the blue button. No one. It is purely voluntary. Which means if you did you KNOWINGLY created a scenario where other people would have to risk death just to save you.
You made the least moral choice possible and if you're willing to create a scenario that risks murdering billions then I have zero problem letting you go.
Unfathomable Studios@NfthmblStudios
publicly announcing you're a redbutton excises you from polite society, you might be useful 3nough to keep around as a side acquaintance, but now nobody can ever assume you'll do anything besides act to maximize your personal stake a stray flea-bitten dog, no more appropriate for an up and coming influencer
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@Davis_TheMann @warriormortal @vers_laLune Except pushing blue is against the social contract. No problems enter the system until someone pushes blue. You are literally creating problems for others when there were none before and forcing everyone else to adhere to your decision in order to "be a good person"
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@Frozengale @warriormortal @vers_laLune That is the social contract.
You don't run red lights because it is bad if everyone runs red lights.
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at the risk of opening myself up to this bullshit question again, I need to emphasize, that only the red option guarantees everyone lives, but your moral posturing is forcing you to kill yourself
Tim Urban@waitbutwhy
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?
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@AniseNot of course if there are kids that can't understand you pick blue. But any other situation just means someone is picking suicide.
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Ok but this test is announced suddenly. Everyone on Earth must take it immediately, including all children from 3yrs old on up
You are not with your children & cannot speak to them before the test is administered
Now what do you pick?
Tim Urban@waitbutwhy
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?
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@dimitri_barron @LionKimbro @CovfefeAnon I don't. So why would I act as though it is. I could delude myself into that and then be the only one who picks blue as well.
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@Frozengale @LionKimbro @CovfefeAnon How do you know you aren't? How do you know that the decision won't be made by one vote?
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This twitter classic "red button / blue button" [everyone who picks blue dies unless more than 50% do; everyone who picks red lives] question is cursed but we've learned a lot about people since it went around on the timeline the last time
First to get this out of the way - there is zero actual reason to push blue - none - there is no "payoff to cooperation" being modeled since the payoff on offer - not dying - is the same for both choices. The only rational reason to pick blue is that you *hope* less than 50% of people pick blue so you can end your life and escape the person who is putting you in contrived hypotheticals for his own amusement
With that out of the way - what we've learned in the 2 years since this hit the timeline the first time is that many, many people are simply next token predictors and when they see this example they say they will pick the "cooperative" choice (which isn't actually that!)
We have also learned that when confronted with the stupidity of this position, they will simply costlessly double down and "argue" about it forever rather than admit error
Really, the question is extremely revealing
vittorio@IterIntellectus
why would anyone even press blue?!?
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@warriormortal @Davis_TheMann @vers_laLune Ok. And what if not enough altruistic people exist? Are you hoping that enough people decided to be suicidal and push blue?
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@Davis_TheMann @vers_laLune Because vers la lune is too dumb to realize altruistic people exist, or that babies will effectively be choosing at random.
He's just not that bright, but can't admit it to himself. He thinks choosing red is best because the "red button explicitly has zero consequence attached".
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@plasmarob If you want to bring theology into this, I would think the blue button would be more akin to "Rejecting Christ"
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I would risk my life and die for people who are bad at expected value problems.
Diane Yap@RealDianeYap
“Would you risk your life for people who are bad at expected value problems?” The answer is straightforward. Either you care about the outcome or you care about looking like a heckin’ good person.
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@LionKimbro @CovfefeAnon I think the biggest issue is everyone that says they will pick blue reads the question as this: "You are the last deciding vote on whether half the population will die or not. Will you kill half the population or not?" They ignore everything else about the scenario.
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"First to get this out of the way - there is zero actual reason to push blue - none - "
-- No, I'm going to stop you right there. The payoff for pressing blue, should blue win the vote -- is that nobody dies.
Nobody.
You wake up the morning, the morning after the vote, and you see in the news that nobody died.
Most people voted not to kill anybody, because most people, most people voted not to commit murder, in order to save their own skin.
Or ...
You press the red button, and so do a majority of people.
You wake up, and millions, maybe even billions of people, have been killed.
And you helped to do it.
That's not a payoff. That's not a positive payoff. That's not anything worth having: That's a nightmare.
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@waitbutwhy To me this seems to be a question of personal responsibility.
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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?
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@Baku88475562 Eventually we'll live in a world where the only people that will care about Western Civilization are Japanese Westaboos keeping the culture alive and better preserved than the West ever did.
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Japanese still hold an idealized sense of wonder & identity about France, and they know what a Frenchman is, unlike the egalitarian worldview of the West.
Catsuka@catsuka
New trailer for "L'Étoile de Paris en fleur" (The star of Paris in bloom) japanese animated movie by Goro Taniguchi (Arvo studio). Coming in Japanese theaters on March 13, 2026. >> youtube.com/watch?v=OWxJtD…
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@AydinPaladin When I played the demo I thought the combat was a pretty cool idea. It's basically a standard FPS but you have to do quick little puzzles to deal high damage. It's a bit clunky at first but once your brain adapts to processing the puzzles and the action it's quite neat.
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Is the dad simulator game actually good as a game, or is it just a good dad simulator? Don't get me wrong, I am all for dad simulators, but I'm curious, cause this looks incredibly adorable.
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@dafiercediety If you like Zelda "stuff" but don't actually play the games then you're a fan of the Zelda Aesthetic. That's fine. But I wouldn't call you a Zelda Fan anymore than I'd call someone wearing a cross for aesthetics a Christian.
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Damn the whole timeline is mobbed in this real/larp Zelda fan nonsense
As a certified Zelda elder (35, bald, still own my original Link to the Past on SNES), here’s a simple rule of thumb:
If you like Zelda stuff then you’re a real Zelda fan
Fierce Deity has spoken
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@RevanWashington @memeticsisyphus It does blow my mind that leftists are perpetually worried about power dynamics and their potential injustices, but somehow that all goes out the window when it's between a teacher and a child.
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@memeticsisyphus The crazy thing about this is liberals think this is an invalid hang-up on the part of right wingers. Like bro you want govt employees running every aspect of our lives, shouldn't you be a little concerned it can't even choose teachers who won't beef with 7-year-olds?
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It’s true, every halfway intelligent right winger I know irl had a massive conflict with at least one elementary teacher over things like: reading ahead, reading too difficult books, not showing enough work, etc etc. it’s the first time we experience the uncaring tyranny of state bureaucracy and it sucks.
Milan Busk@KarolusWangus
This meme explains like 75% of right wing politics btw.
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