Bob Hopkins

which are you taking?

I understand you are reframing this to say “this is effectively the same as the button scenario, so red is the correct answer to the original scenario” but you will find the reframing has changed the votes dramatically. It is obviously not the same. The whole point of the button scenario is that pushing a button is 1. an action that every participant must do, and 2. a trivially easy action. Additionally, the status quo (what is effectively a normal day) is not altered until the results are in. The act of pushing red can then be easily internalized as actively killing someone, similar to the trolley problem. In that problem, many people would choose not to act and allow three people to be killed than bear the responsibility of killing a single person actively. When you are pushing red, you are an active participant in potential human death, much like pulling the lever to change the tracks in the trolley problem. In your train scenario, however, you’ve framed the red button as specifically NOT acting, and the blue button as an act that requires a tremendous amount of physical effort and mental load. The framing of a train coming eliminates any responsibility pushing the red button may have psychologically. It is also, on the face of it, very difficult to picture not seeing other people on the tracks. It’s important to the button problem that you are completely isolated from anyone else, and that is very easy to picture. In the train problem it is difficult to picture being completely alone, and very easy to imagine seeing only a few people tied to the tracks, looking at other people who are “deciding” and trading glances with them like “I’m not going, are you?” It then very easily becomes an obvious choice and you can retroactively convince yourself, oh, these idiots CHOSE to die. Sure, if you’re a robot, it is logically the same outcome. But we are not robots, we are humans, and we have feelings and empathy and are messy and that is what makes us worth saving. I very often see the argument that “if everyone was logical, they would just choose red. There is no problem until people choose blue.” But that is the thing, we are not logical. We are empathetic. We can imagine someone pressing blue and we can feel bad about that and feel that we don’t want them to die because of it. There IS a problem before anyone presses anything. EVERYONE is being forced to press a button. THAT is a problem. It is my personal belief that anyone using the “logical” argument for pressing red is simply scared of dying, and is using logic as an out to absolve themselves of the responsibility of being an active participant in the deaths of other humans. I am more certain of this after seeing your reframing of the problem, because as an obvious red pusher, you have positioned yourself completely outside the system. This is a problem that is happening over there, out of your control. Of course you won’t participate, it has nothing to do with you. There’s a big scary train, and you’re somewhere else, already safe. You are not a red pusher in your scenario, you are just some guy observing a bunch of people maybe killing themselves. That is the difference. And I want to be clear, that is fine. That is very human. That is the whole point of this problem. It is very human to not want to die. It is very human to want to save others. And it is also very human to justify a choice to save yourself when other people’s lives are on the line. There is no right answer. But if I can say something… I find it a little disturbing that after two extremely viral instances of this problem being posed and both of them resulting in blue winning… people are still arguing for red. Everyone is still alive. Twice. We did it. It’s over. No one needs to be convinced of anything anymore.

Everyone on earth takes 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? BE HONEST.

Everyone on earth takes 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? BE HONEST.

Everyone on earth takes 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? BE HONEST.

Everyone on earth takes 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? BE HONEST.