If you could wipe out all mankind with one press of a button

Spaceman Spiff · Post by **Spaceman Spiff** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:06 am

... would you do it?

The idea came to me when I read this thread.

Important: We are not talking about a nuclear strike or somthing like that. Just one press of the big red one and all the human race would disappear...

EDIT: Would be nice if you could comment your vote...

BTW: This question has a serious background. It's about ethic decisions, but it tries to exclude every sort of moral environment.

Post by **klauss** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:54 am

The mere existence of such a button would be a sign of huge stupidity from the human race.

And were it not for the fact that I would go away with the rest, it would deserve pushing - who would be foolish enough to build it? Does that fool deserve existence? Will he/she/it exist for long now that the button exists? "The Button" can be pressed by "Anyone" and "Everyone". It is highly unlikely that "Noone" will, so it's up to the preivous two. And one of the previous two will, eventually, push the button. The chances are overwhelming. So... does it make a difference if I push it or not? Perhaps... not...

PS: Were it not for the fact | that I have been without sleep | for more than enough, | I'd probably make sense | out of at least one sentence | and not try to mantain | the same crazy form when | I don't know what to say.

Spaceman Spiff · Post by **Spaceman Spiff** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:07 am

Don't see it that technical. Maybe this way it is easier to understand. Imagine you take a Magic Marker and draw a red dot on your worktable. In the second you push on that red dot, humanity will disapear.
The fascinating part about it is, that there are no consequences. Nobody will notice, not even you... It also is free of any form of histories jugdment (this is way I said no noclear strike or stuff). It ist totally up to you if you consider humanity wort existing or not... but it's not only that. Your motivation may be highly egoistical. Imagine a guy who is extremly tired of life, but he doesn't commit suicide, because he thinks of his familiy and friends (and this is a very critical point, because for this reason a lot of people who commit suicide kill their families)...
The idea behind this question is, that you have to change you point of view enormously. If you do this, it can tell you a lot about yourself, for instance if you behave as you do, driven by personal ethics or by social morals...

EDIT: BTW, I don't doubt, that personal ethics are shaped by your socialization in the past...

Post by **dandandaman** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:12 am

Spaceman Spiff wrote:that there are no consequences. Nobody will notice, not even you...

That in itself opens a can of worms.
Religious beliefs that depend on an afterlife (ie pretty much everything but atheism, in it's narrower sense) conflict with that statement.
Atheism does not.
Anyone without strong beliefs in that area could not rule out the possibility that there may, in fact, be consequences. (Although most will admit it is improbable, noone has evidence enough to rule it out completely.)

To people in each of these categories, pushing the button takes on a different degree of significance. To me at least, it seems that the atheist who pushes the button is the most horrible (to extinguish that much life, completely), the person without strong convictions is the most careless/stupid (why risk it?), while the person who believes strongly in an afterlife may believe they are not truly destroying anything (and thus depending on how much they value 'life' life, could fall anywhere in between).

My vote though was no. Mainly because 1) I feel no need to die any time soon, but also because 2) I don't have the right to force such a choice on the other 6 billion odd people who may or may not feel differently (well, assuming of course the other 6 billion are not doing something that results in the greater good in fact coming from their destruction ... at this stage I don't see us anywhere near that situation).

Boredom reigns.

Dan

Spaceman Spiff · Post by **Spaceman Spiff** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:22 am

Rats, I never thought about religion. I just thought about ethics and morals morals in the way of "everybody has the right to live" and such. And some way I guess I included religion into morals. But I never geve a thought about believing into something like an afterlife... I guess this is because I'm one of those damn agnostics... I just can't think in that way an I have real troubles to imagine how thinking that way might be...

Zeog · Post by **Zeog** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 2:36 pm

No, I wouldn't.

Nothingness is not interesting. Something is more interesting that nothing. Besides, such beauty should be preserved, even if noone is is watching nor cares!

Further, if that button could be attached to a quantum system, which is in a coherent superposition of two states, one causing the button to be pressed, the other not, then we could produce a giant SchrÃ¶dinger's cat.

About the religion issue: You could add feature to that button that wipes out god and afterlife as well. This would get rid of that issue. Do you want to do that, Spiffy?

geoscope · Post by **geoscope** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:01 pm

Can you imagine having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and looking down on a button like that? If you decided not to push it, but felt slightly tempted, would you stand guard to make sure no one else pushed it, or run like hell?

Spaceman Spiff · Post by **Spaceman Spiff** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:10 pm

geoscope wrote:Can you imagine having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and looking down on a button like that? If you decided not to push it, but felt slightly tempted, would you stand guard to make sure no one else pushed it, or run like hell?

Strange question. Running would be no help and guarding it the rest of your life would be as good or as bad as pushing it yourself...

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 7:29 am

I would, tho, if I could be excluded myself, since I did press the button... So I could gloat.

Then.. I'll find the green button to bring em back again. If ever I grow tired of them same darn faces, I'll reset humanity.

Edit: I did vote No

Nothingness, is unimagineable.So how could we regret ever pushing the button? What have we got to lose? Everything. But with everything lost, what would remain to mourn it?

It's like amnesia, how could you regret forgetting something you don't know you've forgotten?

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 7:39 am

..and

I think I know the one thing that stops even the moset evil of us from pushing it:

Curiosity.

even Morbid curiosity must be satisfied. What good would pressing the ultimate apocalyptic button if it didn;t so much as squeak and you'll never know what happens afterwards anyway.

Post by **ace123** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 8:43 am

Somehow, this thread makes me think of the scene in Spaceballs where Lone Star and Dark Helmet are fighting in front of the self destruct button.

Halleck · Post by **Halleck** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 3:35 pm

Seems like a good premise for an episode of the Twilight Zone. In fact, I think there was one sort of similar to this scenario, where a guy wills the human race out of existance.

Scary thought. Human beings are social animals... and just how lonely would you be if you were the last human in existance?

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:33 pm

utterly alone.

Lots of science fiction dealing with that.

Clarke's short story "the Awakening", where the last man awakens to find the future civilization of cockroaches, and promptly dies.

I also remembered a goosebumps pocketbook (remember those?

They were a craze here when I was in elementary), about a girl who makes a wish and wishes everyone but herself to disappear.a hair-raising thought.

But really, would it be really that horrible. I've always felt that man was totally insignificant. Just imagine the universe, multiply that by several orders of eternity, and man is more insignificant than nothingness.

So, who'd weep for mankind's disappearance?

@Dan:
provided we take afterlife into consideration, regarding atheists and believers pushing the button, there is also one difference:

Atheists and agnostics, imo, would avoid pushing the button, because they do not know what happens afterwards. For atheists, they become nothing. For Agnostics, they are not sure if there is a heaven. The threat of Oblivion,

, is not something a soul can trifle with.

Religious people, on the other hand, will more likely push the button. Fanatics, particularly will believe that they are not really depriving people of their lives, they are just expediting their return to heaven.

Halleck · Post by **Halleck** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:09 pm

Oblivion wrote:I also remembered a goosebumps pocketbook (remember those? They were a craze here when I was in elementary), about a girl who makes a wish and wishes everyone but herself to disappear.a hair-raising thought.

Wait, you mean the children's horror series goosebumps? My cousin wrote those!

Spaceman Spiff · Post by **Spaceman Spiff** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:54 pm

Halleck wrote:
Scary thought. Human beings are social animals... and just how lonely would you be if you were the last human in existance?

You know that Charly "Gun Nerd" Heston movie, where the "out of my cold dead hands" quote comes from? The Omega Man or something like that...
What always gave me the creeps were not the monsters, but the idea to be that alone...

EDIT: What doesn't make any differnce, because you would terminate your own existence as well.

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:26 am

Wait, you mean the children's horror series goosebumps? My cousin wrote those!

Yep.

For real

Haha. Children's novels, yup. In league with nancy drew, but not really connected like a series. More of a collection.

...I'm still debating if it would be childish to ask for an autograph...

it is. forget it.