# Would you press this magic button? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 24, 2025, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093 "2025-06-24T20:39:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/201 "2025-07-02T22:28:38Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m okay with the lot of you pushing yours, though. You have my permission. Really? I don’t trust anybody in this thread or even this board with the button. I’m not sure which board member I’m most ideologically aligned with but I have no doubt they have posted a belief on at least one occasion that I found disturbing. As for those saying they would push the button, those are the ones I would trust the least. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/202 "2025-07-02T22:32:25Z")
I was being half facetious, but, yeah, I think I’d be okay with most people here pushing that button. I mean, I wouldn’t know the difference. Why would I care? ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/203 "2025-07-03T20:05:57Z")
  Having directly experienced how this forum treats those who dare to hold and express opinions that are very much out of line with the opinions of those who run this forum, I am not the least bit surprised that so many here would happily push that button.  Assuming Cecil Adams is real (a matter, I understand, of some mystery), I wonder what he would think of this?   I, of course, would not push that button.  I see freedom of thought and expression as near ultimate-human rights; and this button represents a hypothetical near-ultimate human rights violation. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/204 "2025-07-03T20:27:30Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > …think of the button as a quantum transporter. Pressing it doesn’t alter a single brain; it simply shifts you into a branch of the (infinite) Many-Worlds multiverse where every person already shares your core moral code and ideological beliefs.   So, if I have a neighbor that I find annoying, and am somehow able to get away with murdering that neighbor, can I similarly assuage my conscience by believing that I did not really murder another human being; that all I did was to transport myself to an alternate reality where that neighbor no longer exists? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/205 "2025-07-03T20:27:54Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Again, changing your mind is impossible in this scenario; people are acting under compulsion, they _cannot_ change their mind. No, they can’t change the new _ideology_. Within that ideology they are free to change their minds, disagree, and otherwise grow and change over their lifetimes. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/206 "2025-07-03T20:55:37Z")
I’m going to need to see some credentials from the many people in this thread who are so certain they know how magic works. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/207 "2025-07-03T21:01:14Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Good thing I didn’t say anything about that, then. But it would mean that a woman could walk up to a man and start stabbing him and all he could do about it is quietly say “please st Good thing part of my ideology is that people have a right to defend themselves, regardless of which gender they are and regardless of which gender their attacker is. Which seems to solve that problem - if a woman attacks a man he can defend himself. But since part of my ideology is NOT abusing or harming other people except in self defense I anticipate they’ll be much less human-on-human violence if the button is pushed. Also, I agree with > [@pulykamell](#): > > Well, _I_ agree we shouldn’t let **Der\_Trihs** push his button. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/208 "2025-07-03T22:22:39Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > I’m really not sure what the result of pushing the button would be. Which is why I ain’t pushing it. Also I think the world’s way more interesting with diversity of thought. It’s so hard for me to imagine a world without suffering I can’t even say for sure that what’s lost wouldn’t be somehow worse. What if this _is_ the best of all worlds? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/209 "2025-07-03T22:30:48Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > But since part of my ideology is NOT abusing or harming other people except in self defense That’s precisely why you shouldn’t press the button. There are few things more abusive than deciding for other people what their beliefs should be. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/210 "2025-07-04T02:09:51Z")
> [@Bob\_Blaylock](#): > > > [@Tibby](#): > > > > …think of the button as a quantum transporter. Pressing it doesn’t alter a single brain; it simply shifts you into a branch of the (infinite) Many-Worlds multiverse where every person already shares your core moral code and ideological beliefs. > > So, if I have a neighbor that I find annoying, and am somehow able to get away with murdering that neighbor, can I similarly assuage my conscience by believing that I did not really murder another human being; that all I did was to transport myself to an alternate reality where that neighbor no longer exists? Yes … and no. Nice try, Dexter, but the moral escape hatch only unlocks if you actually hit the quantum-eject button and pop into the _“everyone-shares-my-values”_ timeline. The copy of you who materializes in Neighbor-Free Universe? Squeaky-clean. The version still standing over a corpse in this universe? Guilty as charged and about to discover how little weight _“But, multiverse!”_ carries in court. Better have a good lawyer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093.md?page=10)