# 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:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/101 "2025-06-28T00:57:14Z")
But that’s exactly what’s needed here. Do we have any volunteers? 🙂 In a later post, I was going to say that there are a pretty wide range of scenarios consistent with the OP, with varying degrees of free will (or whatever you want to call it - varying degrees of mental domination would work). Even now, it’s pretty open, though perhaps less than yesterday. I was also going to repeat LHOD’s point that the 2 minute deadline pretty much _guarantees_ that an evil genie is involved. But maybe we should blame governmental regulations or something. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/102 "2025-06-28T23:11:34Z")
Hell, no. I’m happy being me but the world doesn’t need too many more hedonistic iconoclastic nihilists. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/103 "2025-06-29T05:58:01Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > And for most purposes, the people themselves die; the program running their bodies isn’t _them_ anymore in any real sense. They’re just meat puppets. I guess that requires a belief in free will to begin with. I’m not sure I believe that. Seems like we may already be meat puppets, programmed by god(s), cultures, evolution, parents, etc. The “them” they perceive seems more like a symptom than a cause, in an emergent consciousness sense. It’s also inherently unstable in a Ship of Theseus sense, subject not only to continuous cellular replacements but lived experiences and ongoing learning and flawed memories and the occasional trauma, etc. I’d argue the idea of a fixed self is itself a dogmatic faith-based belief, the kind that my moral framework seeks to explore more. > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > They can’t do that, because their morals and beliefs are locked in. They _cannot_ experiment, cannot change. I don’t think that’d be a very, well, ethical framework, as well as being utterly impractical. Societies change, and morals with them, even if they started from largely the same beliefs. I don’t see why it’d be any different after a reset. The idea of a fixed, stubbornly unchangeable set of thoughts and beliefs would require more than reset button, I think, but ongoing genie powers. Even if you reset them all to some sort of strict dogmatic faith, their ideologies would still naturally diverge over time given their different environments and social circles and circumstances and such. Even if you locked all of them inside a sterile room, they’d still have genetic and physical differences that would affect their thoughts, beliefs, and personalities. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/104 "2025-06-29T06:36:15Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > I guess that requires a belief in free will to begin with. Again, no; choice has nothing to do with free will and is in fact incompatible with it. Choice is deterministic, based on cause and effect. As I said earlier, any simple computer program with an IF/THEN statement can make a choice and it’s not even conscious or alive, much less “free wiled”. > [@Reply](#): > > The idea of a fixed, stubbornly unchangeable set of thoughts and beliefs would require more than reset button, I think, but ongoing genie powers. The OP states that the new beliefs will be lifelong ones. Whether or not that requires ongoing magic or targeted brain damage is up in the air ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/105 "2025-06-29T07:48:29Z")
This is a really tough one. Throughout most of my 50+ years i would not have considered it. But we are in a terrifying place right now and on the brink of terrible suffering all over the world. To head into this era era of climate change and fossil fuel scarcity with the belief that all humans are equal and every human life is precious could make all the difference in how we survive it. But there are deeper considerations. Iam the daughter of an elite soldier, and my chosen morals and values are very diffetent to the ones i was raised with. My life has been a process of raising deeply held beliefs up to the sun, shaking them out and choosing to change them. So, is that drive to find better morals and values my “ideology”? Will it get passed along too such that every person begins to deeply consider their life and its impact on others? Or is it possible that the sludge of childhood teachings might just get foisted upon the world and set in concrete? Would my current morality become the starting square from which people continue to grow? Ok, i think we’d be overall better off if the powers that be skipped ahead a few squares in their moral development. It’ll be a sad reset for some folks, but i can’t think of one in a really powerful position who wouldn’t be improved by it. That’s not arrogance, it’s a reflection of the sad state of American democracy. It’s just a stayement 80% of himans could make accurately. But what is my ideology? I really couldn’t tell you. A world of confused seekers would be ripe for the picking, i fear. Still, as someone said above, an end to rspe and child abuse, this alone is worth the risk. A generation without war or poverty, universal healthcare for the world, a cooperative ligistical approach to climate change, equality for women in our lifetime. . . I think it’s worth the risk. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/106 "2025-06-29T07:54:10Z")
Unless the accommodation of changing one’s mind is part of the button-presser’s beliefs and ideology. Person A is firmly of the opinion that there is, and can never be, any better ice cream flavour than butterscotch, and that all other ice cream flavours are worthless and have no reason to exist. Person B has a current slight preference for blueberry ice cream, but now you mention it, that green apple flavour they tried last summer was pretty good, and they’re also excited to be travelling to a place where they heard there is an awesome Cornish Cream Tea flavour; in fact, their whole preference system comes with the expectation of trial and change built-in. Maybe they’ll settle down to a firm favourite one day, but it hasn’t happened yet. If person A presses the button, Butterscotch becomes the only flavour of ice cream that humanity produces. If person B presses it, the domain of ice cream does not collapse to a single flavour - arguably it gets broader and more experimental. People are still being coerced in either scenario so I am still out on pressing the button myself, but it is not a foregone conclusion that pressing the button makes everybody monolithically the same forever. ---
**Author:** ![colinfred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colinfred/32/21338_2.png) [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/107 "2025-06-29T08:34:10Z")
I am of the firm belief that Stracciatella is the best flavour of icecream and I don’t think I’m likely too be budged. However that is not a moral or ideological point so if I pressed the button the Stracciatella available in the world will not increase. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/108 "2025-06-29T10:51:04Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > To head into this era era of climate change and fossil fuel scarcity with the belief that all humans are equal and every human life is precious could make all the difference in how we survive it. Destroying everyone else’s personality in order to impose their ideal on the rest of humanity is the opposite of treating all humans as equal. And _we_ won’t survive it; new people wearing our old bodies will. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/109 "2025-06-29T13:59:18Z")
We are not talking about changing whole personalities though, at least not as i have interpreted the question. Greedy people will continue to develop in a greedy direction, they’ll just get a re-start at my level of generosity and devolve from there. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/110 "2025-06-29T14:06:55Z")
I am autistic. I am _also_ the lowest IQ among the 99ers on the SDMB. Still, that puts me above the 50% mark for Mankind In General. There are **no** perfect solutions, only **imperfect** solutions. I’d go with it. ---
**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:** [June 29, 2025, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/111 "2025-06-29T14:14:36Z")
I’m not a religious person but my personal ethos and ideology can be summed up with the Golden Rule. There is no way in fucking Hell I would want someone pushing a button that would change my beliefs, so there is no way in fucking Hell I’m going to push one that changes their’s. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/112 "2025-06-29T14:46:03Z")
I suppose it depends on how much of what you do and what you are is, in your view, driven by your beliefs and ideology. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/113 "2025-06-29T15:11:58Z")
Well, again, i see personality as a lens or track that tends to pull us in certain directions. The button is going to bring everybody to my square. But the Pope will quickly evolve past me both spiritually and ethically/morally. He is going to move from there in his direction at his rate of growth. So i’ll have given him a bit 9f a setback, but nothing permanent. Likewise a person who gets their dopamine from cruelty and power plays is going to devolve - probably less quickly as such people tend to be morally stagnant. But as i said above, i’m not saying i think this is great idea, or that my way is best for everybody all the time. I’m just saying that given the current crisis this reset beats the hell we are headed toward. It’s the better of the available evils. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/114 "2025-06-29T20:47:04Z")
Absolutely. While there would no doubt be unforeseen negatives, swapping a world without bigotry and violence with one where we prioritize economic justice would be worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/115 "2025-06-29T22:55:27Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Greedy people will continue to develop in a greedy direction, they’ll just get a re-start at my level of generosity and devolve from there. Again, the OP says “No one will know if you press it and their new beliefs will be with them until they die if you press it.” So no, they won’t be greedy; they cannot be greedy. Their own opinions and desires have been destroyed, replaced and lock in by programming/magical compulsion/brain damage/whatever. > [@TruCelt](#): > > But as i said above, i’m not saying i think this is great idea, or that my way is best for everybody all the time. I’m just saying that given the current crisis this reset beats the hell we are headed toward. It’s the better of the available evils. Because you are imagining being the person pressing it. Not the person who just had much of their personality ripped out and replaced according to somebody else’s desires. A button that just killed all of humanity off would be morally superior to _this_ as far as I’m concerned. I know _I’d_ far prefer death. I suppose that means that if I pushed the button everyone on Earth would commit suicide, their new programming would demand it. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/116 "2025-06-29T23:09:33Z")
They will continue to evolve because evolution is a core morality of mine. And they will evolve in their own direction because personality and morality are not the same things. Values and priorities will still be their own. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/117 "2025-06-29T23:21:10Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Values and priorities will still be their own. “Values and priorities” are largely shaped by beliefs and ideology, which are now unchangeable. They either change to align with their programming, or they go insane and likely suicidal. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/118 "2025-06-29T23:31:32Z")
To all those who say “no” to pressing the button, who I assume are reasonably good and moral people who don’t kick puppies and don’t delight in the misfortunes of others, I invite you to look closely at the entire makeup of the Trump administration – unscrupulous venal reprobates, every one, evil to the core, entirely devoid of empathy for anyone but themselves. There are millions of others just like them, and this is why we can’t have nice things, why we can’t live in a peaceful and just society. Yeah, I’d press the button without a second thought. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/119 "2025-06-29T23:32:04Z")
You certainly seem determined to catastrophize this. I agree that you should not push the button. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/120 "2025-06-29T23:38:07Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Yeah, I’d press the button without a second thought. You’d murder every one of your friends and family, not to mention 8 billion other people, just to stick it to Trump and his supporters? (and then replace their minds with a person willing to murder 8 billion people) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093.md?page=7)