In practice those you would like least to press the button would do so, and the ones you would like most to press the button would demur. As a general tendency only - and most of us are in between anyway. Luckily the button is only offered to one person as per the OP.
A world full of modest, hyper-moral, benevolent saints, who rescue kittens, compost religiously, walk little old ladies across the street, and tip 30%?
Sure, why not?
One of my strongest held beliefs is that magic is bullshit. What to do? What to do?
While I truly believe my morals are more moral than the majority, no, I would not press it. Who am I to decide what is better? I think my ideology is correct, but so does MAGA and have you seen how fucked up those people are? I would rather have an independent crowd source solution to what the correct direction is for my country/world even if you sometimes end up with somebody like Trump. For eduction if nothing else.
My morals are a direct consequence of the context of my life - I am both a product of my environment and more-or-less adapted to live in it. Most people in the world, however, live lives that are completely different from mine. If you put someone like me in every single one of those circumstances, would they react better, or worse? How would my potentially incompatible morals affect their actions? I suspect it would be utterly disastrous.
Or to put it another way: I try to be a good person, but it would be sheer hubris for me to assume that I’m a good enough person to serve as the template for all of humanity.
Arguably, pushing the button kills everyone else on Earth and replaces them with automatons. Beings programed to follow your personal beliefs and attitudes with no capacity for choice.
Also, note that when it inevitably turns out you were wrong about something, humanity cannot change its mind. They will be compelled to continue acting as they are programmed to act no matter how disastrous the results.
I wouldn’t press it. I’m not remotely confident enough that my ideological beliefs are correct to want to impose them on everyone. Having a variety of ideas is how we find the right ones and improve society. For anyone who is confident about this, do you hold the same beliefs now as 20, 30, 40 years ago? Would it be good to have fixed all our ideas of right and wrong at that point in time?
This is the only argument that makes me consider pressing the button:
But I suspect many, if not most of the people doing those things know perfectly well they are wrong and do them anyway. So it would only prevent a fraction of these crimes.
No it doesn’t. Having a specific moral system doesn’t make you a carbon copy of everyone else.
Free will’s an illusion.
No. I thnk there are lots of people in the world with better morals than me, and while I personally think my ideological beliefs are correct (or I would not hold them), I also know that I have probably got lots of things wrong, and there would be no way to learn which ones are right or wrong without anyone to challenge them. Besides, I think that diversity of belief and attitudes – however frustrating it may be in the short term – is essential for survival in the long term. There are times when you need people who are suspicious of strangers, for example, and other times when you need people who are welcoming of them, so it’s kind of important to have a society composed of both.
Also, depending on how closely your beliefs (and actual-in-practice consequences of those beliefs) are replicated, there’s a real risk of ending up with a world composed of eight million lazy slackers who only get stuff done when they have an externally imposed deadline, none of whom actually wants to be the person who imposes said deadlines.
The one thing that gives me pause is the two-minute limit on making the decision. That smacks of some evil genie who doesn’t want you to notice the terrible flaw in the plan, and when evil genies offer you a deal, the overwhelming good choice is to decline.
But I’m still much inclined to take the deal, if only to give the powerful sociopaths of the world a check on their atrocity-laden behavior.
Sure. To the extent my primary ideologies involve the rejection of the supernatural, self reliance/responsibility, avoiding waste/excessive consumption, tolerating peoples’ differences, support for generous public services, and trying to avoid interfering with other peoples’ enjoyment of their lives.
I’m not AT ALL trying to paint myself as some paragon of virtue. But I think the world would be better off if we got rid of the people who flatly rejected many/most of those values.
Also, I’m not given the opportunity of giving the button to - say - the Dali Lama. I’d sure rather that I press the button than, say, Trump.
The mere act of pushing the button guarantees that everyone in the world will now believe they have the right to make moral decisions for other people. Pass.
Except… it wouldn’t do that.
My morality doesn’t constrain people from having different interests or opinions. My ideology doesn’t require everyone to believe the same things. The purpose isn’t to make everyone exactly like you, it’s to make everyone share a moral and ethical code. Sort of like what we try to do with laws now.
It wouldn’t even entirely eliminate crime - just because someone knows something is morally wrong doesn’t automatically stop them from doing it. Thieves know thieving is wrong, they do it anyway.
It would, however, get everyone to agree that other than self-defense use of lethal force is wrong, as just one example.
Hard no.
There might be some change for the better, but it would be superficial, probably temporary as well, and things would very likely end up worse than before.
An interesting followup question might be: what if you’re told that, if you pass up this chance, someone else — selected completely at random — will then get made the offer?
Yes, but not because I believe I’m perfect, but because I believe the human race is heading down the road to planet wide disaster, and my beliefs would avoid that.
Really? Are YOU unable to change your mind? If you can change your mind then humanity can change its mind in this scenario.
While my ideas have changed over time I don’t see that as a key problem here. It’s one of the cornerstones of MY “ideology” that others can and should have different viewpoints and beliefs than I do. Since, as long as no one gets hurt, I really don’t care what a different group down the street from me believes or thinks I’m not sure how pushing the button is going to make much difference, other than greatly increasing tolerance in this world.
I think people are assuming things that are not actually in the OP scenario.
Yes, so much for making people automatons and eliminating free will, right? It might provide more consensus on how to deal with such people.
If you’re externally imposing ideology on someone, that forces them to believe as you dictate and think as you do. Nice to know how many around here would deny freedom of thought to “win” political arguments.
It is less about winning political arguments, and more about ending genocide and other atrocities.