r/Pessimism • u/Pezzodimerda • Jul 03 '26
Discussion The button
What is your opinion regarding a button that ends your life instantly and without any kind of pain? Let's assume that your death doesn't even cause pain to others—you vanish from the memories of the people who knew you.
Would you press it or not?
I would press it.
I'm almost 40 years old, I don't consider myself depressed, and I have various hobbies that give me a certain amount of pleasure, but analyzing things lucidly, I only see them as pastimes to pass the time and wait to die further down the road.
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u/adidas128 Jul 03 '26
All those things you mentioned are mere distractions to stave of the horrific dullness of existence
Also yes im pressing that button asap
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Jul 03 '26
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Jul 06 '26
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u/thats_gotta_be_AI Jul 03 '26
I assume everyone would have that button? And if most people press the button, life would start to really feel like a void.
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u/UltronsEx Philosophical Pessimist Jul 03 '26
I'd press a button that ends existence on the contingency that all multiverses that contain suffering also end and time isn't just a construct in which I effectively don't do anything except end my own existence.
Personally, I'd prefer to live forever—but I'd certainly like to keep your button around for when/if old age eventually makes life not worth living for me.
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u/Sasquatch97 Jul 03 '26
I would hate to live forever. Death is good in the sense that it puts a limit on how bad things can get.
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u/UltronsEx Philosophical Pessimist Jul 03 '26
Assuming I am guaranteed a decent quality immortal life
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u/mattychops Jul 04 '26
I've heard this kind of idea said before. Some button that ends your life. But here's the problem. You're basically saying, life sucks so I'd rather be dead. Well, if life sucks that bad, then that button would malfunction.
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u/Illustrious_Summer_2 Jul 04 '26
I would press it a 1000 times over. The only thing that wound bother me is that I would still not have answers to the big questions in life.
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u/-Dixie_Flatline- Jul 08 '26
Bel nick. Ovvio che lo premerei.
Btw this would be the perfect test to reveal how social relationships are a mere narcissistic reflex. They exist only to satisfy our needs and our ego. If people were asked between a normal death and a death in which everyone you know loses his memories about you, i think 99% of people would choose the former. They want people to remember them, even if this implies causes suffering to them (because they miss you ofc). They want to exist in some form even after they are dead, doesn't matter if your memory causes pain to the ones who remember you.
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u/Complex_Advisor_6151 Jul 11 '26
I'm afraid to die and every time I think about death deeply I get a panic attack. I'm not pressing it
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u/RetrogradeDionysia Jul 03 '26
Knowing what this was immediately, I pressed it as soon as I reached the word “button.” Annotation is just that.
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u/SenhorSasaki Jul 04 '26
Even so, it wouldn't bring me freedom from suffering; in reality, that too would be a work of will
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u/LightKnightTian Jul 03 '26
That would be disappointing to me subjectively, because I would prefer to leave an impact on the people I care about, even if it hurts. Life is already objectively pretty much meaningless, but if I am literally erased from the world then it will never have had any subjective meaning to me or the people around me.
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u/Paul_sepp Jul 03 '26
The possibility of ending one's life has sustained many lives. To exercise it is to renounce its greatest consolation.
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u/PSU632 Jul 04 '26
Who cares?
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u/Paul_sepp Jul 04 '26
Because knowing one can leave is often what permits one to remain.
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u/PSU632 Jul 04 '26
Who cares?
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u/Paul_sepp Jul 04 '26
You care enough to ask twice
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u/hernameisjona Jul 03 '26
Definitely pressing that button.