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Would you destroy the Earth?

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I wasn't sure where to stick this thread, so I hope it's okay in General Discussion.

This was just a sweeping thought I had the other day, in which I pondered the following question:
---
"If, in front of you was a large red button (it always has to be a big red one) that would destroy the Earth in a matter of minutes, would you press it?"
---
I don't know my science, but 10 minutes after pushing the button, the Earth explodes like something the Death Star has fired a big green laser at.
Residents of Earth would not know anything has changed during the 10 minutes. Only you have the button, and only you are able to make the decision.

My answer: Yes

I didn't have to think about it long either. I'm not a believer in any sort of 'afterlife', and would just like to experience it.
I also wouldn't mind a zombie apocalypse scenario. I'd just like to see what happens.

I think if I was given a giant red button that would destroy everything I knew personally, I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Oh well, maybe it's just me that's sick in the head!

@G-Thomson,

@VideCorSpoon,

Quick thought;
Would you destroy that which not only created you but destroy that which will kill you?
Can you escape death or destruction by bringing it upon yourself?

@sometime sun,

sometime sun;119405 wrote:

Quick thought;
Would you destroy that which not only created you but destroy that which will kill you?
Can you escape death or destruction by bringing it upon yourself?

@VideCorSpoon,

I think that before you push the button, you should go sit on the north rim of the Grand Canyon for a while. Smell the juniper and play a flute.

Or if you can find a 500 year old hollow oak tree, sit inside it for a while.

Or watch a crow sitting on a telephone line.

Get a puppy. A really cool breed is Brittany Spaniels.

@Arjuna,

I think the question, do you have the right to push that button? comes into it especially considering you are this world, this world is you, or is that just your world? not the world?

Another question would be, if there was a big green button to press that would create a completely new world (one that you may or not be part of) would you push that big green buton?

Red says "stop"
Green says "go"

@sometime sun,

sometime sun;119438 wrote:

Red says "stop"
Green says "go"

Are you in a room with both a red AND green button?
If so, are you only allowed to push one?

@G-Thomson,

G-Thomson;119388 wrote:

I wasn't sure where to stick this thread, so I hope it's okay in General Discussion.

This was just a sweeping thought I had the other day, in which I pondered the following question:
---
"If, in front of you was a large red button (it always has to be a big red one) that would destroy the Earth in a matter of minutes, would you press it?"
---
I don't know my science, but 10 minutes after pushing the button, the Earth explodes like something the Death Star has fired a big green laser at.
Residents of Earth would not know anything has changed during the 10 minutes. Only you have the button, and only you are able to make the decision.

My answer: Yes

I didn't have to think about it long either. I'm not a believer in any sort of 'afterlife', and would just like to experience it.
I also wouldn't mind a zombie apocalypse scenario. I'd just like to see what happens.

I think if I was given a giant red button that would destroy everything I knew personally, I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Oh well, maybe it's just me that's sick in the head!

So, where are you when the earth is destroyed, Death Star-style. Presumably, there would be nothing left. Are you orbiting in space?

@TickTockMan,

TickTockMan;119448 wrote:

So, where are you when the earth is destroyed, Death Star-style. Presumably, there would be nothing left. Are you orbiting in space?

Oh no, I'm going down with the ship. Orbiting in space would be pretty lonely. Especially knowing that I've just caused the death of 7 billion people. :nonooo:

@G-Thomson,

G-Thomson;119452 wrote:

Oh no, I'm going down with the ship. Orbiting in space would be pretty lonely. Especially knowing that I've just caused the death of 7 billion people. :nonooo:

So, why not a big red button that only destroys you? You wouldn't notice the difference, would you?

@TickTockMan,

TickTockMan;119455 wrote:

So, why not a big red button that only destroys you? You wouldn't notice the difference, would you?

I knew there would be small print on that red button!
But, yes. That's a very interesting point. One that I can't help but agree with.

@G-Thomson,

G-Thomson;119440 wrote:

Are you in a room with both a red AND green button?
If so, are you only allowed to push one?

You sound as if you mean end one and start another, hopping planets, like stepping stones.
Allowed to end a world, allowed to begin one. Allowed still means there is granted, that a choice is given, if so does this take away intention because the idea and the access was granted rather than you taking the weight of the world upon your own shoulders.
Meaning loosely; did you build the bomb or did you build the world? Even, did the bomb build you to push it?
Was the button put there for you to push or did you put the button there yourself?
Do you push the botton or was it always going to have to be pushed in the last place?

(Thinking out loud)

@G-Thomson,

G-Thomson;119388 wrote:

I wasn't sure where to stick this thread, so I hope it's okay in General Discussion.

This was just a sweeping thought I had the other day, in which I pondered the following question:
---
"If, in front of you was a large red button (it always has to be a big red one) that would destroy the Earth in a matter of minutes, would you press it?"
---
I don't know my science, but 10 minutes after pushing the button, the Earth explodes like something the Death Star has fired a big green laser at.
Residents of Earth would not know anything has changed during the 10 minutes. Only you have the button, and only you are able to make the decision.

My answer: Yes

I didn't have to think about it long either. I'm not a believer in any sort of 'afterlife', and would just like to experience it.
I also wouldn't mind a zombie apocalypse scenario. I'd just like to see what happens.

I think if I was given a giant red button that would destroy everything I knew personally, I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Oh well, maybe it's just me that's sick in the head!

If it happens as you say, you will die pretty much instantly (when the thing goes off in 10 minutes after pushing the button). If you are dead, then you are not going to experience much, are you? So what is the experience that you are hoping to have?

Now, someone might reason like this: The world is full of suffering and misery, and in order to end that, the only way one has is to push the button. If one fails to push the button, one is allowing all of the misery that ever happens on the world in the future (after the 10 minutes). If one fails to push the button, all of the murder, all of the torture, all of the rapes, all of the pain and suffering of every type, that ever happens in the future (after the 10 minutes) will be because one refused to push the button. True, one would also eliminate future joy, but one is not being presented with the choice to prevent only pain; one is faced with either preventing practically everything or practically nothing. (I say "practically", because if one does not push the button, one can try to help others in the normal ways, but it is unlikely that one is going to be able to do much regarding this.) If we look at the lives of most people, they probably suffer more than they get pleasure, so from a weighing of one against the other, the best choice may very well be to push the button.

If it matters to anyone whether one is actively doing something, or allowing something to happen, the original scenario can be altered as follows: If one fails to push the button, then the earth blows up in 10 minutes, but if one does push the button at any time in the next 10 minutes, the earth does not blow up and things go on as if there never were any such button.

@G-Thomson,

GT,what about an enhanced radiation weapon such as a neutron bomb? That would take care of living tissue but leave the earth in tact, or do you just want the bang?
What if your mind scape altered after pushing the button and you had second thoughts.....why not start with one continent at a time....it gives you an out should you have that second thoughts.:bigsmile:

@sometime sun,

sometime sun;119438 wrote:

I think the question, do you have the right to push that button? comes into it especially considering you are this world, this world is you, or is that just your world? not the world?

Who could say he has not the right to push the button? =)

I mean, what arguments would one use? You dont have the right to kill millions of other people? Why not?

TickTockMan;119455 wrote:

So, why not a big red button that only destroys you? You wouldn't notice the difference, would you?

If he wouldnt notice the difference, why destroy only himself? =)

Pyrrho;119525 wrote:

If it happens as you say, you will die pretty much instantly (when the thing goes off in 10 minutes after pushing the button). If you are dead, then you are not going to experience much, are you? So what is the experience that you are hoping to have?

I suppose he will spend 10 minutes experiencing the feeling of have condemned irreversibly everything he knew to a shift, instantaneous destruction.

Pyrrho;119525 wrote:

If we look at the lives of most people, they probably suffer more than they get pleasure, so from a weighing of one against the other, the best choice may very well be to push the button.

That is really a matter of perspective. If you are a sadomasochist, you may just choose to leave that button alone =)

Psycobabble;119533 wrote:

GT,what about an enhanced radiation weapon such as a neutron bomb? That would take care of living tissue but leave the earth in tact, or do you just want the bang?

What? and make the ecologists happy? NEVER! =)

Psycobabble;119533 wrote:

What if your mind scape altered after pushing the button and you had second thoughts.....why not start with one continent at a time....it gives you an out should you have that second thoughts.:bigsmile:

That also would give you the opportunity to watch the bangs =)

I think I would not press the red button. That would be suicide, and I have decided to not suicide already, and I dont like to reconsider topics like that because if I do reconsider then I spend the whole day doing that =)

Another question I find interesting: If there was an afterlife afterall and everyone in the world came to question you about that whole world destroying thing, what would you say? "Looked like a good idea at the time"? =)

I wish a had a red button to instantaneously destroy all panda bears and other ultra-rare species that cant survive 10 meters away from the ideal conditions. I try to convince myself its to save precious workforce, but it might be just to piss off the ecologists =)

@manored,

Would I push the red button and destroy the world?

No. Absolutely not. I rather enjoy living, which is why I continue to do so.

For the same reason I've consistently chosen not to drive my car off of a cliff, strap explosives to myself and run into the marketplace, or work around Biosafety Level 4 hot agents.

Call me cuckoo, but the choice seems a fairly obvious one.
:a-ok:

@JLP,

JLP;120036 wrote:

Call me cuckoo, but the choice seems a fairly obvious one.
:a-ok:

To me as well. I doubt the people who say they would push it, they are not picturing the proposed situation with clarity.

@Jebediah,

Jebediah;120039 wrote:

To me as well. I doubt the people who say they would push it, they are not picturing the proposed situation with clarity.

Maybe they are just picturing the proposed situation with an opposite opinion from the norm.
Maybe they are picturing it from a perspective in which everything is pretty worthless.
Maybe they are just saying it to see what other peoples reactions are.

manored;120034 wrote:

Another question I find interesting: If there was an afterlife afterall and everyone in the world came to question you about that whole world destroying thing, what would you say? "Looked like a good idea at the time"? =)

"Well, I mean. It was going to happen sometime! You heard what the mass media was saying about global warming!"
Or I could just bake everyone a little cake of apology. Very Happy

But really, I'm all a bit apathetic about the Earth and everyone in it, apart from the people I know, love, encounter.
If there is a huge natural disaster in some other country or town far away from me, it really doesn't concern me. I don't look at the 24 hour news channels with my mouth ajar saying, "That's awful!"

@G-Thomson,

G-Thomson;120043 wrote:

"Well, I mean. It was going to happen sometime! You heard what the mass media was saying about global warming!"
Or I could just bake everyone a little cake of apology.

I think the most likely outcome is that you would have your etheral ass kicked at least seventy billion times. Its a thing to be proud of! =)

G-Thomson;120043 wrote:

But really, I'm all a bit apathetic about the Earth and everyone in it, apart from the people I know, love, encounter.
If there is a huge natural disaster in some other country or town far away from me, it really doesn't concern me. I don't look at the 24 hour news channels with my mouth ajar saying, "That's awful!"

Yeah. I hate how people watch the news and think the world is going downhill, without realizing that its not that more bad news are being generated, but that more bad news are reaching then.

In the ancient times, and perhaps just some two hundred years ago, people and empires treated each other like fish treat smaller fish. How was that more peaceful? =)

@G-Thomson,

since this is a philosophy forum i will say that if i was a nihilist then yes i would push the button. in fact i would feel that my soul objective in life would be to find such a button and push it to end this terrible accident that is life. but since i am not a nihilist no i would not push the button.

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