Comment by imtringued
3 days ago
The problem is on your end.
Consider the following scenarios:
There is a red button that orders your euthanasia. Pressing it instantly teleports you to a euthanasia facility and leads to your death unless you say no within 30 seconds. The button reads your fingerprint and can only be pressed by you. (Assume science fiction level technology to make this true)
1. The button is located 5000 km away from you in an unknown location.
2. The location is known.
3. You can order the delivery of the button to you for $50
4. The button is in your basement
5. The button is next to your bed
6. The button is on your keyboard and mouse
7. The button is on your keychain
Now consider there is a blue button with the same rules as above, which makes you feel compelled to press the first button for a day and it can be pressed by anyone.
You'd want the red button as far away from you as possible and the blue button secured in a location that is as inaccessible to others as possible.
In today's society there are too many people obsessed with pressing blue buttons. Also, pressing blue buttons is not a crime, because red buttons happen to be pretty far away from most people.
But now there are people obsessed with pressing red buttons. They want to ship the red button to your house on your behalf, while thinking they are doing you a favor.
This would be okay if the blue button pressing people were a minority and there was a punishment for pressing blue buttons, but it turns out both positions are popular and when averaged together, the buttons will be placed next to each other, thereby turning the blue button into a second red button.
I see nobody obsessing about pushing red buttons. I see people that would like for option #3 to exist. And when death approaches, option #5.
A simple test of how people feel: Consider the twin towers. We saw quite a few people choosing jumping over fire. We do not question people making such a choice. It is the same choice, just on a much more compressed time scale.
(And we have the bonkers case out of WWII: the guy survived apparently uninjured. Someone who made the choice and was still around to ask them why. We don't know exactly what happened, no analysis was made at the time but attempting to reconstruct the situation said he probably hit the outer part of a pine tree and then rolled down a snowbank. He had on heavy clothing and had blacked out during the fall--not exactly surprising as he jumped from 18,000'.)
That is a very good analogue.
> The problem is on your end
followed by
> There is a red button [...] buttons [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] buttons [...] buttons [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] button [...] second red button
Not sure the problem is on their end!