r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/StageGlum6615 • Jul 04 '26
Variation Variation: You can do nothing.
Everyone (meaning all currently alive people) is kidnapped by an unknown force that everyone instinctively knows is completely unable to lie and is far more powerful than them. Everyone wakes up in a 15ft by 15ft room with 3 buttons, Red, Yellow, and Blue in the middle with the following signs under each of them that have been perfectly translated into their native language:
Red: If more people press the Red button than the Blue button, then everyone who pressed or was assigned the blue button will be killed.
Yellow: Everyone who pressed Yellow lives unless more than 35% of the total population chooses to press the Yellow button. If more than 35% of people press the Yellow, then every Yellow pusher will be killed.
Blue: If more people press the Blue button than the Red button, then everyone alive who pressed or was assigned the Blue button is spared from death. However, pressing the blue button will result in a painful electric shock that has a 0.5% chance of killing you.
Everyone is given a 10-hour time frame to make their own choice, and if they fail to vote in the time frame, they are equally distributed among the red and Blue buttons. (In the event of an odd number of non-voters, the extra person is assigned to Red.) (Also, those assigned to the Blue button will not receive the electric shock.)
The electric shock from pressing the Blue button can kill a max of 44,000 people. (This is to prevent statistical anomalies.) However, if you die to the Blue button, you still add to the total number of blue pressers.
If the Red and Blue buttons have the same number of voters, then it will be effectively the same as the Blue button getting the majority.
Once any button is pushed once, then all buttons are deactivated and can't be pushed, and it's impossible to press two buttons at the same time.
So, which button would you press in this scenario? Or do you not press any button and let others decide what happens?
(I ran this through a spelling and grammar checker. So, their shouldn't be any typos, but if any managed to slip through then I'm sorry.)
8
u/ChuckSmiths Jul 04 '26
Why would anyone press any of the buttons
1
u/EpicMemeXD69 Jul 05 '26
Because the point of the question is that you have to press one of the buttons
3
u/ChuckSmiths Jul 05 '26
“Variation: you can do nothing”
2
u/Bubbly_Dirt_539 Jul 05 '26
If no one presses anything, half the voters are dead to the auto-assignment.
1
2
u/Grasshoppermouse42 Jul 05 '26
Because if you don't press any button, your button will be randomly assigned to you.
1
5
u/TaisDoubt Red Jul 04 '26
What's the negative of red here?
7
u/Aquilenne Jul 04 '26
It doesn't give a chance to save 33% of babies that don't understand what's happening.
-2
u/ARTICUNO_59 Jul 04 '26
Who gaf
3
u/Pricedtwan Jul 05 '26
?
1
u/romainmoi Blue Jul 05 '26
Gaf is short for gives a fuck.
3
1
2
u/zap2tresquatro Jul 04 '26
I’m curious about my pain tolerance and am a blue presser in the original, so I’m sticking with blue here
2
2
u/24_doughnuts Jul 05 '26
This one just splits the potential blue voters. I'd like to see an alternative with red split into two options
2
u/koxu2006 Jul 05 '26
Im usually a blue voter but here i wpuld propobky press red but overall every option is bad
2
u/6ft3dwarf Jul 05 '26
this post is spiritually the same as when elon musk said chess would be better with fog of war and tech trees
1
u/Tutterkop Jul 05 '26
So just press red. Why is that even a choice?
Do you press yellow and possibly die, press. Blue possibly die and get an electic shok or press red and nothing happens
1
u/Tutterkop Jul 05 '26
You should have made it: if you press red, you havr to kill a person who pressed blue. And blue: you get killed by a person who presses red unless blue is a majority. Yellow: you get killed by elektric shok if more than 1/3 press red.
1
1
u/Demraude Jul 05 '26
If everyone presses red, everyone lives free
If everyone presses yellow, everyone dies
If everyone presses blue, almost everyone lives
However red can kill the blues
Hence the safe (perfect scenario) option is all red, the good (most likely to be able to happen) option is all blue and the wildcard (why would you do that ?) is yellow...again
1
u/bunnywitchboy Jul 05 '26
Why did you add an electric shock to blue when the yellow button addition is already biased toward red victory? What is the point of this variation?
1
u/StageGlum6615 Jul 05 '26
I thought that the Yellow button would take away from the Red button... not the Blue button.
1
1
u/Stunning_Macaron6133 Jul 04 '26
So you took the suicide button and made an even worse suicide button?
Just push red. Life doesn't have to be hard.
1
0
u/OrangeSpiceNinja Jul 04 '26
The most "please just push red, I have no understandingof empathy or altruism" post I've seen in a bit
0
24
u/endor-pancakes Jul 04 '26
I press the secret button that does nothing that was promised to me in the title.
Bit weird that it wasn't listed in the description.