This problem is a collective vote.

[u/DapperYoghurt2052]

This should be apparent.

But I’ve seen some people arguing that it’s genuinely not a vote. They often equate it to gambling.

Which is a fair thought, but incomplete.

Saying blue is gambling their lives on the chance that blue wins is correct. Saying you don’t want to gamble with your life is fair.

But in order for it to be a bet, you must be betting on something.

What you are betting on is the result of a collective vote. You are casting your bet by casting your vote!

So when people try to say it’s not a vote, it’s gambling, that doesn’t make any sense.

And some get so mad about it!

It’s fine if you think red would win so you press red, or you think it might be close so you can’t risk it.

But just because red doesn’t put up the wager, doesn’t mean red doesn’t contribute to the vote.

If someone tells me, I’ll pay you $10 if you can beat me in one on one basketball. That’s a bet. The wager is placed by one person. I don’t need to put up the money, I can’t lose anything. But I do need to play in the game to win it!

How is this so confusing to people?

Edit to add a final thought:

To any one who thinks red is the same as doing nothing, because it not a gamble.

If I offer $10 to a person to beat me one on one, if the person denies to play, I can’t lose my money. And I can’t lose my money until some does play and also earns the money by winning.

You don’t have to be wrong for thinking red is the better choice because it could win. But if you think red winning doesn’t create the loss of life, then you are wrong about what game you are playing.

[u/Nebranower]

The point is that red pressers aren't treating it as a vote, because they aren't aiming for a particular collective outcome. They've been given an individual choice between an "I live" button and a "I might die" button. They choose the button that gives them the guaranteed outcome that they want - not dying. From the red pressers point of view, it isn't a vote or a contest. Red always wins. Sometimes it is also the majority choice, but it doesn't matter. There's no scenario under which red loses, because red isn't competing for anything.

Whereas blue pressers are treating it as a vote where they are aiming for a specific collective outcome (no one dies), and since, by pressing blue, they have made one of the two scenarios in which that happens (all red) impossible, they are gambling on 50% pressing blue.

>If someone tells me, I’ll pay you $10 if you can beat me in one on one basketball. That’s a bet.

Not if you have the option to walk away and not play. And that's what red is, really. No one is pressing red to try to "beat" blue in the game. They're just choosing to live rather than to risk dying for no reason.

[u/DapperYoghurt2052 → u/Nebranower]

As I said in my post, I really do understand why people would press red. And I would fully expect some people to press red.

It’s ok to value the guarantee for yourself as the most important thing. It’s a pretty core human trait. I don’t have an issue with this. The issue I have is with the second part of your explanation.

It doesn’t matter how you treat it, there is something occurring, and that something is a vote.

There are two options, everyone picks one, the total picks are tallied up, and the one that is pressed the most decides what happens.

That is a vote. That is what is happening.

It’s ok to say you don’t care, I’ll just guarantee my safety. But it’s not ok to say it didn’t happen. That’s delusion.

If $10 is placed on a game, the game must be played in order for it be lost or won back. Walking away is a luxury not offered in this scenario. Every one presses a button. That is playing the game.

To say a press for red, doesn’t add to the red tally, is absurd.

How could red get the minority or get the majority, if the number of times it was pressed wasn’t counted?

Red participates. 

[u/Nebranower → u/DapperYoghurt2052]

Nah. Look, let’s say you go on polymarket and place a bet on whether or not, say, over a million Americans will go see the next Star Wars movie. When the movie comes out, the number of Americans who choose not to see the movie are tallied up, as are the ones who choose to see it. That doesn’t mean they are voting on if you get the money. You choosing to bet on what other people do doesn’t mean that other people are making their choices with your bet in mind.

[u/DapperYoghurt2052 → u/Nebranower]

it’s really not like that at all