It’s probably been asked here before but would like to know the thoughts of you guys here…
This is based on the film The Box.
If you could press a button that would end your life pain free and instantly but it would also mean the end of all humanity at the same time would you do it?
Now before you all rush to answer “yes”, I’d like you to consider that it would include your friends and family. Your friends and family who may have recently announced that they’re pregnant, had a newborn baby, about to go on their dream holiday, got engaged, just overcome cancer, about to fly off to their honeymoon…. You get my gist. Basically people who have future happiness to look forward to and you actually give a damn about them. Have a think about it for 10 minutes before answering. Would you still press the button?
33 comments
Sure, why not. Maybe the non-existence of the human race would be a change for the better for planet Earth.
Strong opinion ahead. Absolutely NOT, and I believe anyone who would press the button is only proving the common belief that suicidal people are selfish losers who can’t see beyond their nose. Like those suicidal airline pilots who crash their planes and kill hundreds. Like those suicidal punks who shoot up their school then blow their brains out. My life sucks and I’ll throw it away without a second thought, but I’m not a murdering psycho, or worse, someone playing god with billions of people. At least I have some scrap of integrity left.
I don’t see how it’s selfish to think that the human race is a big net negative for the sustainability of life itself. It’s objectively factual at this point.
You seem unable to distinguish the difference between whether someone would push an imaginary button that would hypothetically erase human existence, and whether someone would actively engage in the act of genocide. Participating in a thought experiment does not make people automatically inclined to the latter activity.
Thoughts are not the same as actions.
I would not push such a button, even a hypothetical one, because it is in essence to deny other people the same thing that I am being denied: the choice of whether to live or die. This does not mean, however, that I am not able to objectively observe that humans are in fact very destructive as a species, neither does it stop me from examining the possible benefits to other species and the environment if human beings no longer existed. Does this mean I want to rush out and engage in acts of random murderous violence? Of course it doesn’t.
No. The answer wouldn’t have always been no, but after the mandatory ten minute cool off period and some changes in my overall perspective these past few years, I’d leave things the way they are.
No, I would not press the button. As miserable life might be, I’d not be willing to take away any possibility of happiness for the billions of other men, women, and children on this world.
Hell Yes. Humans need to be eradicated from the face of the Earth. And we don’t need a kill button. We’re doing a great job of killing ourselves so far- pollution, deforestation, global warming, nuclear waste, etc.
BTW- most species on the Earth have an extinction rate of a million years. Modern humans have been around for 200,000. 800,000 more years to go and time to say bye-bye to humans for good. Much less than that given the rate we are destroying ourselves and the Earth.
That’s true, but since the industrial revolution, the background extinction rate has rapidly been eclipsed 100 times over by our activity. We’re killin’ more species than a giant asteroid. Hell yeah, hoomanz!
I’ll leave you two to shoot up the next Columbine. Your “facts” disgust me as does your arrogance to think you are so elite that you can pass judgment on billions of souls you have never met, many of whom are struggling like fucking hell to fix this planet and save it from judgmental assholes. You disappoint me.
Facts are facts, not “facts.” Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s not true. I’m guessing you are one of those people who believe in “alternative facts.” Climate change is REAL. Global warming is REAL. Species extinction is REAL. Humans are destroying the Earth with pollution and oil spills and destroying the ozone. Oh but I’ll stick my head in the sand. OK buddy.
Ok tough guy, start killing people if you truly believe your “facts”. Climate change and the impact of 1 century of industrialization is hardly evidence to condemn a species that has been evolving for 10 million years. Your observations are extremely myopic, like saying cows farts contribute to climate change (“fact”) so we should exterminate them. Suggest you get your head out of your ass before you start talking about murdering others based on your depressed view of life.
1. No one is suggesting murdering someone, you idiot.
2. CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL.
OP posted a question and people answered it. Who is the judgemental one? No one is for taking a knife and murdering someone. You’re the one who mentions and envisions people slitting other people’s throats while they sleep. Who is the sick one?
Well yes, that million year extinction rate for mammals is the normal rate of extinction WITHOUT human interference. With humans mucking up the world, no mammal nor human nor plant is going to last a fraction of time it’s supposed to. We’re going to kill ourselves off before that 800,000 year mark. Possibly in the next 4 months given dipshits like tRump and NK. Hasta la vista, dumb humans.
So I guess that means we don’t have to push the button ourselves at all. Humans who want to avoid pushing the button will inadvertently push the button by trying to protect the button from ever being pushed. Life is odd, isn’t it?
LordsWrath this was an interesting question which sheds light on some of the personalities here. I would add a follow up question to those who are so eager to press the button. That question is: what if it’s not a button, but instead you have to slit the throats of people while they sleep? I’ll even make it easier and say they are drugged so they won’t wake up, and you have a very sharp knife so it’s easy to slice them open. Would these same nihilistic philosophers be so eager to end the human race that way? Or is it just the convenience and anonymity of a “button” that makes everyone talk tough? Funny.
Hell no. But there are many ways to skin a cat. I think the idea of a hypothetical button simply reveals the disdain most everyone rightly should have, and probably does have, for the direction the human race as a whole is headed down. We individually have no say in the matter, but it feels like we should. That’s why some will rightly get emotionally charged about it. It’s the same reason I get pissed off at my car when the drive train breaks while I’m 30 miles from home and have an expired AAA card.
If you’re just blowing off steam like yelling at your car, then that’s cool. Please forgive my strong reaction as I have seen way too much death, murder and apathy toward murder in my line of work. The subject of judging and killing others is a real hot spot which I take seriously. But again if you’re just venting, like kicking the fender of a busted car (not actually lighting on fire just because it broke down) that’s totally cool.
I think you missed my point. We’re all fucked, no matter what the outcome is.
No one is suggesting murdering someone, you idiot.
That reply is to Jumper
Jumper- So you are for the slitting the throats of innocent polar pears, foxes, and baby seals? Are you so eager to slit their throats while they sleep? Or take a sharp knife and slice them up? Because that’s the same thing as your parallel of “slitting a human.” Humans are destroying the Earth and millions of species. WIthout humans, those species will not have to die. So it’s the same as you “slitting their throats” according to you, of pressing a hypothetical imaginary button.
I was originally going to say that pushing the button would kill you pain free and humanity would also die but in the most painful way imaginable
I was originally going to say that pushing the button would kill you pain free and humanity would also die but in the most painful way imaginable.
So you’re changing the question and premise after you’ve already asked and people have already answered? That’s a different question and different scenario entirely.
You might as well ask people if they’d personally kill every other human being on Earth. Doubt anyone would answer yes.
The scenario that you posed, before you just now changed it, was if you press a button, you and everyone else died pain free and instantly.
I accidentally replied to you instead of jumper, my mistake, I apologise. Jumper said what about slitting throats. So I was actually interested in what jumper had to say. But instead replied to you. It wasn’t for everyone else. Slightly drunk right now so not fully in control. But no, my original question still stands. I won’t change it.
Drunk… Hence the double post as you can see
I have a counter-question for your question. If there is an ongoing catastrophe on par with something like 9/11, but spread across a wide geographic area, happening in real time – something you can see with your eyes, and, if you’re unfortunate enough to experience it first hand, feel with all your senses, why is it that nobody has the same gut reaction to it as they would to, say, a war or a terrorist attack, which results in the same amount of suffering and destruction? This has confused me for the last decade. But the practical end result of either possible answer is the same – prolonged, immense suffering. The problem will only deepen every year that passes.
Hi rivets, I’m assuming that your question is directed at me. In all honesty I’ve never given that much thought let alone even question it the way you gave thought about it. If I’m right in thinking that you are describing a man made intentional catastrophe I.. 9/11 as by your example. Tbh, I don’t really know. But I will give it some thought as you’ve posed an interesting question, one that has you thinking about it for 10 years so it’s not one I can answer immediately. I hope to answer your question. Kudos to you for this question, it’s a great question and one that I think you should post on the homepage of SP for others to feedback back. (hopefully by by someone far more thoughtful than me)
You could call a hurricane, a wildfire, or a geographically extensive oil spill a man-made catastrophe that would have been preventable, was predictable, but lacks the same level of intention as a terrorist attack. I.E. I doubt the oil companies are deliberately trying to destroy environments or disrupt the jet stream, and yet those are predictable effects that even their own scientists have seen well ahead of time. I don’t know if intention even matters very much at the end of the day.
Don’t be melodramatic and inensitive. People move on. Life will always go on.
> Your friends and family who may have recently announced that they’re pregnant, had a newborn baby, about to go on their dream holiday, got engaged, just overcome cancer, about to fly off to their honeymoon….
Good for them. Asking people to continue their suffering so others may extend their pleasure is a selfish oversimplification of a complicated problem. They’d grieve if you got hit by a bus too. They’ll still love their babies, go on holiday, get engaged, live their lives and have honeymoons.
While I would be THRILLED to hear news of an extinction level event in our future, I can’t see what would separate me from Hitler were I to push the button, and it is the action of choosing for others that I cannot do.