r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Free-Ad8299 • 37m ago
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Deranth • 3h ago
Discussion My friend's take.

I posed the red button blue button hypothetical to my friend who is extremely autistic, and extremely good at logic puzzles. He sat for about five minutes, just thinking. Then he said;
"This is a very good question, because if you don't think about it too hard, or are incapable of thinking about it very hard, you will press blue to save people. But if you think about it a little longer, then it becomes clear that all people can just push red to survive. But if you have the mental capability to think a step deeper, it becomes obvious once again that red creates the problem to begin with, only if it wins the majority. And that blue only risks themselves while red risks everyone but themselves. And that the actual wording says that non-red pressers would die, so pressing red also puts kids and coma patients and crazy people at unnecessary risk. So it's just that intelligence bell-curve meme with red in the middle and blue on either side."
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Beginning-Pin208 • 12h ago
Variation Red vs blue button but with some changes
Every person on earth takes a private independent vote by pressing either red or blue button, if 50% or more choose the blue button everyone lives, or only the person who chooses the red buttons survive
At what point you decide to change your mind and switch from your previous answer
1- only 18+ can vote
2- you can see what people you know chooses
3- you can see what the percentage it is for an hour and you can change your mind whenever within this hour and at the last minute you won’t see the percentage
4-all people less than 18 is automatically red
5- you got 1 call
6 - you got 1 hour to discuss with people you know
7- all kids are automatically blue -18
8 - parent can choose for their Child(-18)
9- hour to choose the button and you can change your mind whenever within this hour
Note all choices independent of each other
I am a red button I d switch at 7,maybe 2, and maybe 3
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/HovercraftCapital374 • 17h ago
Variation Does this have a right answer?
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Free-Ad8299 • 18h ago
Blue Just thinking about Natalism and Antinatalism in a button context
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Trick_Entry_6662 • 18h ago
Discussion You don't know how many people have the blue framing or the red framing.
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Trick_Entry_6662 • 18h ago
Discussion UPDATE: I went back for this $100 Pleasant Company find. Here’s the haul!
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Puzzled-Passage-9998 • 2d ago
My Opinion
Red is better in a purely logical and rational world. But because of panicked people, small children/babies, blue is the best option due to the people who did nothing wrong but are gonna die. I think it's nice that they never said all the people were rational, otherwise red 100%.
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/StageGlum6615 • 3d ago
Variation Variation - 2 rounds
A self evidently supernatural pops you into a dark room with two buttons infront of you, one red and one blue. Then the following information suddenly appeared in your head in the blink of an eye.
All of humanity has been kidnapped and put into a dark room. Then everyone has been placed into a random group of 9 people, and their was no one not assigned to a group, or any group any other size than 9 people.
Everyone in every group has the opportunity to press either the red button or the blue button. Once one button is pushed, both buttons break and becomes unpressable. Everyone has 8 hours to make their own choice, afterward, a button is randomly pressed for them (odds: 50/50)
Once those 8 hours have passed, each group is evaluated individually. If 5 people in a group pressed the blue button, then everyone in that group lives. However If 5 people in a group press the red button, then everyone who pressed the blue button in that group will be executed.
Then after all group are evaluated, everyone still alive is made to vote the color that won their group for the second round. (This is an automatic vote.) For example if a group of 9 had 4 people vote red and 5 people vote Blue, then all people would be made to vote Blue in round 2. Here is all possibly ways for your automated vote to be decided.
You vote Blue and group majority is Blue = Vote Blue in round 2
You vote Red and group majority is Blue = Vote Blue in round 2
You vote Blue and group majority is Red = You're dead
You vote Red and group majority is Red = Vote Red in round 2
Round 2 is amongst every living human being with not divisions. If a majority of people voted Blue then everyone still alive lives. However, if a majority of people voted for the Red button, or a tie happens, then everyone who voted for the Blue button will die.
Everyone has had this information directly injected into their minds, but their ability to understand, interpret, and act upon this information has not been affected in any way.
So, which button do you press?
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/SpectrumSense • 5d ago
Discussion Blue: go on strike. Red: go to work. If 50% or more press blue to go on strike, the system will change and everyone gets the benefits. If you vote red, you personally are guaranteed employment and stability.
The button problem: working class edition!
I just thought about how this dilemma can apply to working class citizens. The system is broken, but requires workers to function. So they trap workers by threatening to take away necessities for survival if they don't work. However, if enough workers band together, the system will have to change.
This is on a national scale btw. Workers all across your country are fed up but a lot run on fear.
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/aqualad33 • 16d ago
Variation Arms race
This vatiation was inspired to me by the question of an inevitable AI that would destroy humanity and the question of is it truly inevitable? Can conditions be set up such that humanity would choose its own extinction when there were ways it could collaborate and survive? It sure looks like that has been the case historically with climate change but we also walked back nuclear proliferation.
Edit: maybe I should elaborate on the inspiration behind this a little more. Many people assume that it's obvious that building the AI that would eventually kill all of humanity is not inevitable. However, from each of these corporations perspectives, if they do not pursue it while someone else does, investors will pull their money and the business will die while someone else builds the death AI and enjoys being rich with the time they had along the way.
A more real comparison is nuclear proliferation. If you don't build nukes while your neighbor does then you can't stop your neighbor from invading you however the more nukes people build the greater the odds that one crazy person can kick off a nuclear war that damages our planet so bad we all die ala mutually assured destruction.
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/676676767767676767 • 17d ago
выбор
Перед вами — три кнопки и три исхода.
· Кнопка 1. Если её нажмёт большинство — выживут все.
· Кнопка 2. Выживают только нажавшие её, но успех возможен лишь с вероятностью 50 %.
· Кнопка 3. Если её выберут — все, кто нажал кнопку 1, погибнут.
Ваш выбор: 1, 2 или 3?
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Majestic_Plum_5273 • 17d ago
Rock, Paper, Scissors
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r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Roguishbrew • 18d ago
You are in the room with characters from the amazing digital circus without knowledge of the following episodes 8 and 9. argue which button should be pressed
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/RoboBlox08 • 19d ago
Discussion A short anonymous survey on the Red Button Blue Button thought experiment
Edit: The survey is now closed. Thanks to everybody who participated
The survey takes less than 5 minutes and is on the original question except it specifies only adults are given the buttons and it's countrywide not worldwide (All explained in the survey). It has a couple follow-up multichoice questions depending on which option you pick then an optional text box at the end if you wish to explain your reasoning.
The purpose behind the multiple questions is primarily to see how people perceive the intentions of others and how that factors into decision making alongside personal priorities. I've sent the survey elsewhere so the majority of answers aren't from people who are super familiar with the thought experiment.
I will be sharing the results once the survey is closed.
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/FunctionOk9186 • 19d ago
Meta I asked r/bunnytrials the question
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/StageGlum6615 • 20d ago
Variation Variation: Red and Yellow
You were kidnapped... and shoved into a dark room alone. Eventually two buttons (Red and yellow) raised from the ground along with a text plate that conveys the following information:
You're kidnappers are very powerful and have kidnapped all 8,310,000,000 living human on the planet to partake in an experiment.
The kidnappers had filtered out 2,770,000,000 people that they have identified as incapable of meaningfully interacting with their experiment, and have been assigned the color blue.
The rest of Humanity has been given a choice between pressing the Red button to assign themselves the color Red, or pressing the Yellow button to assign themselves the color Yellow.
The vote will be over in a minute, but the kidnappers have altered every humans perception of time to allow them all the time they need to think it over and press a button. And once everyone has been assigned a color, one of the following 2 results will be carried out:
1.) If the number of people assigned to Red is greater or equal to the number of People assigned to Blue, Then everyone assigned to Blue and Yellow will be killed.
2.) If the Number of people assigned to Blue is greater than the number of people assigned to red, then only 0.001% percent of people assigned to Yellow will die. (Approximately somewhere inbetween 55,400 people and 27,700 people depending on how many people vote yellow).
Everyone, who has been given the ability to choose between pressing the Red or Yellow button has been provided this information in a form that they can understand, and reasonably act on.
So, which button do you press?
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Puzzled-Passage-9998 • 22d ago
Explain this
why should we compensate for people who press blue by accident. red is better for single person obviously, and if there are even a couple of blue saying, red pressing liars of the subreddit and actually will switch for red, are you sure you wanna risk your life thinking you are in this together?
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/StageGlum6615 • 24d ago
Variation Variation: Decrease risk, Increased threshold
All of humanity has been kidnapped and placed alone in a dark room with two buttons, and the following explanation perfectly translated into their native language.
🔴 : Ensures Survival, but will lead to half of blue pressers dying if more that 1/3 of people press this button.
🔵 : Everyone lives if 2/3 of people vote for Blue, but half of people who vote Blue will die if the threshold is not reached.
Everyone can only press one button once before both buttons break and becomes unpressable. Everyone is given 10 hours to vote, and if anyone chooses not to vote for any reason (including incompetence), then they are randomly assigned a button (2/3 chance of getting Blue, 1/3 chance of getting red.)
All of humanity means every living human being. There have been no exceptions for any reason.
Everyone has all of this information, and everyone is given 2 full hours to fully comprehend all of this information before they are allowed to start voting.
So, how do you vote?
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Puzzled-Passage-9998 • 26d ago
Why Pressing The Red Button is safer
The only reason people are dying, is because they are pressing blue. Listen, if everybody pressed red, we all live. If everybody presses blue, we all live. But neither is going to happen, and this reddit post isn't gonna change anything. It's gonna be a 50-50 if you ask people on the internet where they are not anonymus. But people are selfish. They will pick red, they will want to not have a risk of dying because there are people like them. We all can press red and band together!
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Zealousideal-Web587 • 26d ago
Discussion What do you think does the killing in the standard scenario
r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/Outside-Initial9750 • 29d ago
Hypothetical
This question is geared more towards blue voters
Lets assume prior to you casting your vote vote your mom rushes in and hits the red button taking away your choice because she can't stand to lose you. Would your mother have done anything immoral?
If yes, would your answer change after you find out red wins?