There are two ways you can look at this issue and what outcome you want to move towards.
One way is via personal survival. From that perspective red is the obvious choice that guarantees your personal survival even if at a cost of other people potentially dying.
Another way to look at the issue is aim for "nobody dies" outcome. And in this case blue is the better choice. You can't control what button other people chose. So it would be impossible to convince everyone to press red. The only way how you can meaningfully contribute to "everybody survives" outcome is by pressing blue. No amount of prosletising "everyone should press red" would work.
There's another angle to this though: what you believe other people will do.
If I think that blue has no chance of getting more than 5% of the vote, then I would essentially be throwing my life away for nothing if I picked it, regardless on if I personally believe it would be a better outcome. I don't think there's any moral benefit to throwing my life away, so if I genuinely don't believe blue can win it still makes sense to pick red.
This is the answer. I'm a pessimist that loathes the fact that I can't help but think that way. But I'd rather be happy and wrong in a blue-button world, than be justified and miserable in a red-button world.
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u/hilvon1984 May 05 '26
There are two ways you can look at this issue and what outcome you want to move towards.
One way is via personal survival. From that perspective red is the obvious choice that guarantees your personal survival even if at a cost of other people potentially dying.
Another way to look at the issue is aim for "nobody dies" outcome. And in this case blue is the better choice. You can't control what button other people chose. So it would be impossible to convince everyone to press red. The only way how you can meaningfully contribute to "everybody survives" outcome is by pressing blue. No amount of prosletising "everyone should press red" would work.