Opinion What percentage of people would press a Doomsday Button?

[Sketch]

Simple thought experiment.


There's a button. It launches every nuke, just have to press it. Assume it would wipe out enough nearly everyone. .001% chance of survival.

What percentage of people do you think would voluntarily press the button, given the chance? If you want to explain why you think you or some particular person would or wouldn't press the button, go for it. But I'm more interested in our perceptions of others, and what we think other people would do, generally.

Does your answer change if the button is not red?

Also happy Thanksgiving.

FUCKING LOL. This @Fawlty guy is on fire lately. He mocks the abortion thread as trolling a karate forum and then he makes this thread about people pushing a 'button' that wipes everyone out for no reason(s).

Never change my guy, lmao. But seriously, Not many would I think. Unless we have more @Trotsky type people than I think in real life, the real die hard nihilistic types.

 

[Son of Jamin]

n1 = incels
n2 = MGTOW
n3 = Jihadis
n4 = cult leaders
n5 = those who just want to see the world burn

Sequence of operations - To estimate, for example, the cohort of incels which corresponds to men in unwanted celibacy between the ages of 15 and upwards (circa 75% of the population is within that age span):

n1+n2+n3+n4+n5=+0,75= 1-x qa0= SPx/Nn-x=Xn =0-5% in my estimations.

 

[Fatality]

I'd push it. The world is filling up with shitbag people at an alarming rate, technological advancement has stalled and we are regressing socially. Time to use a mulligan.

 

[no fat chicks]

very situational but i still went pretty high. hopefully we never find out

 

[LockardTheGOAT]

I doubt the overwhelming majority of people would even consider pressing it. Even most psychopaths probably wouldn't do it; The emotional weight of something this huge would just prohibit them from bringing themselves to do it.

School shooters and the like are probably amongst the last kind to consider it; Most of them are largely motivated by fame and attention, none of which would be possible if they went and nuked the entire population, killing everybody.

 

[Armbars]

If kim jong mung and his crazy father didn't press any big buttons, no one else would either.

 

[xcvbn]

Probably 0.001% or less
i.e. 99.99% WOULD NOT
i.e. 7,000,000 people would

 

[WhitebeltXL]

Whatever percentage it is, we should be all thankful Stanislav Petrov wasn't apart of it.

 

[Cajun]

I picked 0-1 because worldwide thats still a lot of people

 

[tonni]

Depends if it triggers righties or not.

 

[ObamaPhoneLady]

n1 = incels

It's amazing how easily led some of you guys are by the MSM.

Really? A term you just learned about 6 months ago is suddenly an existential threat to all of humanity because one guy drove a van into a crowd?

Useful idiots.

I'm much more concerned about people like you and how quickly you will don the brown shirt when shit hits the fan to take out the big, scary bad guys whatever leader you're following tells you are a threat at that time.

 

[Son of Jamin]

It's amazing how easily led some of you guys are by the MSM.

Really? A term you just learned about 6 months ago is suddenly an existential threat to all of humanity because one guy drove a van into a crowd?

Useful idiots.

I'm much more concerned about people like you and how quickly you will don the brown shirt when shit hits the fan to take out the big, scary bad guys whatever leader you're following tells you are a threat at that time.

Just to clarify, my initial post was merely facetious given the impossibility of the determine the percentage given in the OP.

 

[Ruprecht]

Just to clarify, my initial post was merely facetious given the impossibility of the determine the percentage given in the OP.

You shouldn't have let him know. It was amusing.

 

[Dirt Road Soldier]

If my ex wife is at ground zero and I get to wave goodbye as she sees me hitting the button, put me in the "I cant press it fast or hard enough" column.

 

[Headkicktoleg]

That dude from Cabin in the Woods. That shit pissed me off so fucking bad

 

[Culombo]

If my ex wife is at ground zero and I get to wave goodbye as she sees me hitting the button, put me in the "I cant press it fast or hard enough" column.

lol nearly spit my coffee thanks

 

[tramendous]

Simple thought experiment.


There's a button. It launches every nuke, just have to press it. Assume it would wipe out enough nearly everyone. .001% chance of survival.

What percentage of people do you think would voluntarily press the button, given the chance? If you want to explain why you think you or some particular person would or wouldn't press the button, go for it. But I'm more interested in our perceptions of others, and what we think other people would do, generally.

Does your answer change if the button is not red?

Also happy Thanksgiving.

I remember a dude with a denzel washington avatar telling me he'd do it because life is a virus and its just 'gladiator games' and 'too much suffering'

 

[Fawlty]

A few points (some have been brought up):


The button itself incites. People who wouldn't consider doing this would now consider it, and curiosity is a factor that I think people are underestimating bigly.

It's not hard to press a button, but it's really hard to plan a murder.

The "kill billions of people" idea does not scale neatly with killing one person, or a hundred. We don't think like that. It might even be a more attractive option than killing one specific person.

Many religious people profess belief in the apocalypse and that it will be a good thing in the end.

Many people are quietly crazy, or unhappy, or bored to a degree that would surprise us.

The mood of the person at the time of opportunity will be a major factor.

If the choice is made privately, the number goes way up vs. if even one person is watching. This wasn't specified though.

Children would obviously press the button in huge numbers, but we're all assuming they're not part of this, which I agree with.


In short, I think our presumptions about human behavior are not calibrated to something like this, and we're very likely to underestimate.

Look at it another way. How many random people would have to be in a room before you'd be convinced that one of them would be likely to press the doomsday button, given an opportunity? I think that, on average, the number is significantly less than 20.

 

[ObamaPhoneLady]

A few points (some have been brought up):


The button itself incites. People who wouldn't consider doing this would now consider it, and curiosity is a factor that I think people are underestimating bigly.

It's not hard to press a button, but it's really hard to plan a murder.

The "kill billions of people" idea does not scale neatly with killing one person, or a hundred. We don't think like that. It might even be a more attractive option than killing one specific person.

Many religious people profess belief in the apocalypse and that it will be a good thing in the end.

Many people are quietly crazy, or unhappy, or bored to a degree that would surprise us.

The mood of the person at the time of opportunity will be a major factor.

If the choice is made privately, the number goes way up vs. if even one person is watching. This wasn't specified though.

Children would obviously press the button in huge numbers, but we're all assuming they're not part of this, which I agree with.


In short, I think our presumptions about human behavior are not calibrated to something like this, and we're very likely to underestimate.

Look at it another way. How many random people would have to be in a room before you'd be convinced that one of them would be likely to press the doomsday button, given an opportunity? I think that, on average, the number is significantly less than 20.

This is like the kind of thing you read on the news when they go into a mass shooter's internet history.

 

[Fawlty]

This is like the kind of thing you read on the news when they go into a mass shooter's internet history.

Looks like we got ourselves a button presser.