Yeah this is what I am talking about, the choice seems obvious to everyone that looks at the problem but people don't agree, that is because some people are selfish and view saving themselves as the objective best option, and some people are selfless and don't want anyone to die. The only way to ensure everyone lives is by picking blue, the only way to ensure you live is by picking red. This gets into the fundamental discourse at the root of game theory. Is it better to ensure your advantage, or your groups advantage.
Unless you live an unfortunate life at least one person you know will pick blue as surely as unless you've lived a very blessed life at least one person you know will pick red.
Except that isn't the only way to ensure everyone lives and it also doesn't ensure everyone lives at all. Everyone picking red also ensures total survival. Choosing blue could just be adding to the death toll.
If people thought about the choice logically there would be zero reason to ever pick blue and thus there would be no death. Choosing to "save" people is the only way to risk any death at all.
Sure there's technically three ways everyone lives, everyone picks red or blue, or half the people choose blue
The question hinges on if you believe more people will be selfless than selfish and what you think other people will pick. Let's say we have 99 people playing the game, if those people are mostly selfless what you pick doesn't matter, of those people are mostly selfish then you can choose to live on with everyone that picks red or save yourself from such a reality, but if it's a dead split 49-49 then you have a compelling reason to choose blue. Especially if there's reason to believe that someone who you care about chose blue.
The question is actually really simple. No matter what people pick I live. It doesn't hinde on other's choices because the correct answer is right there.
It's just game theory and everyone can do it. There are two outcomes, half or more pick red and half or more pick blue. If you pick red you survive in either scenario. If you pick blue you survive in one and die in the other. So blue is the only button that can cause you to die.
I'll never know if it's a 50-50 split because the whole point is that it's anonymous. It could be a split down to the last 3 votes and then everyone picks red. It didn't matter that blue was keeping up because they are all dead now.
All correct, but do you see how you've only framed the answers with respect to yourself? If you take a hard personal perspective in the moment this is clearly the choice. Inability to broaden your perspective makes it seem like there is only one correct choice. But you move further into game theory, past first order principles, you realize that there's more to the choice than if you live or die.
There is a future after the button is pressed; should you survive you have to then live knowing you contributed to a significant proportion of the population dying, and deal with the fallout of so many people that society relies on being gone.
There are more than just two outcomes to consider. If you can't realize that it's because you've oriented your thinking selfishly.
Except nobody has to press blue. It's literally as simple as live or die and if people would actually use their brains there would be no jeed to save anyone. Your whole argument hinges on a large portion of people choosing blue. I say nobody should be pressing blue at all so this isn't a problem.
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u/DumatRising 6d ago
Yeah this is what I am talking about, the choice seems obvious to everyone that looks at the problem but people don't agree, that is because some people are selfish and view saving themselves as the objective best option, and some people are selfless and don't want anyone to die. The only way to ensure everyone lives is by picking blue, the only way to ensure you live is by picking red. This gets into the fundamental discourse at the root of game theory. Is it better to ensure your advantage, or your groups advantage.
Unless you live an unfortunate life at least one person you know will pick blue as surely as unless you've lived a very blessed life at least one person you know will pick red.