+69 If there was a button in front of you that, every time you pressed it, would make a random person (who would want it and deserves it) happy for the rest of their lives, but gave you a 1/30 chance of dying, you'd press it at least once, Amirite?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Be a risk taker and press it 29 times.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

If you didn't, that would be valuing your life to someone's happiness at 30 to 1. That would mean you would think your life is 30 times greater than a persons happiness.. It's interesting to think about

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Actually no. He might have been happy anyway. He is in no way guaranteed to be sad without the button's power. Plus, at least he's alive.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I would do it and hope that most others would too.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I'd press it once, then wait until i'm on my deathbed and mash the sh*t out of it until i die

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I'd only press it once. Is that bad?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I'd press it more than once just because

by Anonymous 11 years ago

You'd have to press it 20 (not 15) times to have a 50% chance of dying. I press it three times because 10% is my limit.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

But once you haven't immediately died after pressing it, wouldn't your possibility of living be back at 100%? And every other time you press it you are taking a risk, but the same risk each time? In other words: http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/the-gamblers-fallacy

by Anonymous 11 years ago

The max number of times you can hit the button is 30 and you're guaranteed to die if you hit it that many times (you probably wouldn't make it to 30, there's only a 1 to 30 chance the number that will be fatal is the 30th one). The more times you hit the button, the more likely it is that you're going to fall on that 1 to 30 risk. That can't be compared to Vegas and gambling because there's an unlimited number of times you can make a bet but a limited number of times you can hit the button. In this case, the number of times you hit the button does influence the likeliness of you dying because the number is finite.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

no no, it's just 1 1/30 risk every time. just like flipping a coin, you can get heads 10 times in a row, you can get lucky here and press it more than 30 times and live

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I know the risk is 1/30 every time, it doesn't become 2/30 or 3/30 every time you hit the button, what I'm saying is the odds stack against you slightly more in an immeasurable way since you don't know which number you'd die on, every time you hit the button because there isn't an infinite number of times you can press it- since you'd die. 1 to 30 means that on average there is 1 death per 30 button hits, so you couldn't keep going after that. You're guaranteed to die if you hit it enough times.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

That's true, but the number it would take to definitely die could be anywhere between 1 and infinity (not including infinity), therefore you could be pushing that button until you die of natural causes if you're lucky enough

by Anonymous 11 years ago

You could if you were lucky, but chances are that wouldn't happen.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

You could if you were lucky, but chances are that wouldn't happen.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Actually, //chances// are, that //probably// won't happen

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Chances are that wouldn't happen and chances are that probably won't happen mean the same thing, I'm pretty sure.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Actually, the chance of living is 0.96666666...7(round up). To get the chance you die at or before certain number you take 0.96666666...7^x where x is the number of hits. The chance of life never reaches 0, thus you can survive after a million hits, but the chance of that is so minuscule that most calculators count numbers that small as 0.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

The likelihood of living after one push is 29/30, right? The probability of doing it TWICE IN A ROW, uninterrupted by failure is therefore 29 squared/30 squared, which is a lower ratio than 29/30, which means the chance DOES decrease from the perspective of not having pushed the button yet

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Okay, so the part where I went wrong was thinking that you dying or not is determined immediately after you press the button, and you can't press it more times before you take the risk. And in your first comment that was in response to colebowl, you said that you can press the button a ton of times and live because each time you press it, the risk is independent. So there you were assuming that whether or not you die is determined immediately after you press the button (or you just waited until it was determined to press it again). So it just comes down to if you'd rather take the 28/30 chance of living once or the 29/30 chance twice (correct me if I'm wrong on that).

by Anonymous 11 years ago

There is no combination of pressing that would get you a 28/30 chance of living. The chance of living (29/30) multiplies by itself each new time you press it, therefore there will never be a 0/30 chance of living, though it will grow closer each time

by Anonymous 11 years ago

It's funny how many people are so sure they would risk death to make someone happy when it's a hypothetical scenario yet won't give up even a fraction of their time, money or anything else to help people in real life who need help.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Then what does a JOB do, if not helping people in real life that need help? All our lives, we try hard to get a good education to get the best job possible, and spend all our time at that job helping people who could use that help. Of course extra is good, but when it's almost all we do already, how can you say that nobody would even give a fraction of their time helping the world?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

How do you figure that you have a job to help other people? Would you still do it if you didn't get paid for it?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

It could still be a hobby, and people do volunteer work. In any case, we are not worthy of making assumptions on whether people work for the money or not. In cases like these, you just have to assume the best of people until proven otherwise, just like in court you are innocent until proven guilty. All we have to work on is that they DO help, and they DO get rewarded for it. That doesn't render the initial help meaningless just because it's rewarded. It's still a good deed, regardless of intention. Such deeds make the world go 'round already, and people can be exhausted and stressed by them. Who are we to say that it isn't enough to prove them selfless? They may not be, but we cannot judge solely on that

by Anonymous 11 years ago

MY job helps ME pay MY bills ... and allows ME to spend any "excess" how I wish. I suppose you could argue the taxes go to help others. But that would be a stretch, for anyone aware of how inefficient that is.

by Anonymous 5 years ago

I would never do that. I like to live more than I like other people.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

each instance of happy is probably very unique, and open to a lot of error by the person who thinks they know what makes them happy and the person who pushes the button for instant happiness. You might end up with the personality of a happy robot and whatever makes a robot happy

by Anonymous 11 years ago

The post is made assuming they will be happy in the way things have made them happy before, not just artificial

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Overall, good post, but soooo many variablles.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

what have we yet to encompass?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Knowing my luck, the one time I pressed the button would be the time that resulted in me dying haha.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

No ... why should I care about the alleged "happiness" of a random stranger? Heck, I wouldn't even press it for most of the people I know. And how do we know that what makes the person happy, isn't the death of someone else? I mean, I know it would make some radical Muslim happy if every non-Muslim were to suddenly die.

by Anonymous 5 years ago