Jetée

The "Big Red Button" and all of its connotations; you have heard of it, though, right?
If not, the following will be a short yet sweeping view on how it is perceived in our culture:

The "red button", as we have come to know and see it as, is a real or fictional button with various functions.
The purpose of being big and red is for its quick identification and actuation. In its more ominous forms,
the phrases are often capitalized as the Big Red Button (BRB) or the Big Red Switch (BRS).

It's perceived and popular uses, are, but never just limited to, include:

• Firing or detonating a weapon, typically a nuclear device.
• A shut-down switch for catastrophic circumstances to avert further damage or to cause it, e.g., an "emergency power-off" button.
• Causing or setting in motion a random, almost super-natural or cosmic force that can alter the reality or immediate awareness of an entire universe.
• In hacker jargon, the shutdown button or power switch on a computer, especially the red "emergency pull" switch on IBM mainframe operator consoles.
  The term has also sometimes been used for the power switch on IBM PCs.

Symbolism and enduring meaning
During the 20th-century's Cold War, the "Big Red Button" (sometimes just "The Button") referred to a device used to launch nuclear weapons. A person in charge may be referred to as "having his/her finger on The Button". The disastrous consequences of a full-out nuclear war made the Big Red Button a symbol of the annihilation of humanity.

Because of this potential doomsday use, Cold-War-era fiction often featured a BRB as the final trigger for a self-destruct process. It could also represent a "nuclear" or radical solution to a problem, much like "cutting the Gordian knot", and likely lead to the BRB's use as a reset button.

One contemporary definitions of the BRB gained popularity as a plot device in Looney Tunes. The button became a running gag. A character would at some point be warned, "Whatever you do, do not press the red button." By the end of the cartoon someone would invariably press it, usually resulting in a large explosion. This attached a level of temptation to the button itself, and is often used in religious or philosophical allegory, a modern-day parallel to Adam and Eve's consumption of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.


What I'd like to hear from the audience is, do you still recognize the effective imagery of a one-shot button that can alter future realities with just a flick? Where have you seen or recalled the usage of "The Button" recently? Do you think somewhere, someone, today, actually has the ability and authority to be charged with the task of guarding such a device? I'll welcome any opinions and insight one can offer here.

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Martian

The cold war is over.

When I think of a Big Red Button, I think of emergency cut-off. Most industrial equipment incorporates a literal big red button that will shut down power in case of emergency. Thankfully I've never had occasion to press one, but anyone who's spent any time in a shop or industrial environment will recognize them:

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

Baraka_Guru

Its meaning changes over time. I think much of it started in the heydays of science fiction and the idea of computing machines with all kinds of push-buttons.



Whenever I think of "The Red Button" in a wide sense, I think of the launching of nuclear warheads.

In a practical sense? Yeah, I think of emergency stops in heavy machinery.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

blahblah454

Like the one Martian posted, except with big letters above it that read "ESD". Short for Emergency Shut Down.

Oil Batteries are covered with the things. There could be a dozen scattered around.

Jetée

Fair enough (on the point of the Cold War being over). But another can easily begin anew; there's still some minds here and abroad that think that the People's Republic of China, North Korea (People's Republic), and whatever other foreign nation that is aspiring and accumulating wealth will beceome the next great adversary to the US in order to some intangible title of the next (and perhaps last) Superpower of this world. Are all "red buttons, telephones, or switches" that ever once existed, (if there was ever a citable example of this, which I'm working on) specifically and solely for the purpose to cause some of destruction sequence, now deactivated and done away with just because the USSR economy set itself back by decades?

Though, I'll argue, just because the origins of the symbolic icon have ceased to be pertinent, (and the origins of a big red "indicator" do not necessarily begin with that of post-World-War/Cold War films and comics, as I've only just begun to find out; though they certainly have been the most enduring, at least here in North America) does that also signify that the connotations have, or should be, lessened?

I'm glad you brought up the point of industrial utilization, as many common early 20th century newspaper factories had one installed, and yes, some of them were actually red, (though a few were not actually on the production floor, but in the switches office on a second floor) and we even have modern examples of where we see them. Modern fire alarms are a fine enough example of this practice, as they are red switches used in the event of indicating "panic", or simultaneously halting activity and alerting all around.

I even came across this historical anecdote of where the molly-guard first originated from: molly-guard
We now see molly-guards (or plexisglass interference lids) ubiquitously, usually installed right upon a fire alarm to prevent any false twitches of it. And just as I'm about to wrap this up, the reason and initial premise of Staples' "easy button" is a direct anti-thesis to the notion that there is a panic button (the joke is an implied 'no need to panic, when you have the easy button instead', as represented by the office-supplies company of Staples).



Lastly, I didn't even have to ask:
images and conceptual art of the symbolism of "The Red Button" are more than welcomed here
(so long as the meaning readily applies).


Push the button by INoxKrow

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

MSD

Our labs at work have big red buttons. For physics and chemistry they make sense, maybe even biology. Not sure what's going to happen in a computer lab that requires emergency shutdown, though; seems like if it were needed, the damage would already have been done.

Baraka_Guru

*Ahem*

The Cold War is Over, so Why the Fascination with Russian Spies? - ABC News

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

MSD

Obama says relations with Russia are warming, someone in an intelligence who jerks off to memories of the Cold War doesn't like the sound of that, spies get arrested to stir shit up.

Jetée

We can debate about whether or not Russia is getting turned off of America again, just to turn themselves back on (in terms of military progress) in the future, and I might really like the challenge, but as I recently viewed sometime eariler this week, North Korea really, really hates everything about us (Americans). Sure, the entire country as a whole doesn't warm too friendly to any nation, but from a young age, every child born in N. Korea is taught to hate the US, hate capitalism, and more or less, hate free thought. The conditions there are so beyond our own scope of mind because it's not a free nation, and there is basically a military-instituted "no enter / no leave" policy for all inhabitants, unless you are one of the small elite class that sill has ties there.

I knew, ignorantly, some facts about Kim Jong Il ran his country through many levels of a dictatorship, but until now, I didn't realize how bad it had gotten, and still endures. If I were to rank the nations of which could possibly rise to such an arrogant level, with enough capital and determination to start a second Cold War show of supremacy / arms rae without appeal, I'd rank it a close one-two with China first, N. Korea second (the US owes quite a sum of billions of dollars to the Chinese already, and they have about a billion more working laborers than N. Korea, but on the flip side, their nation as a whole is ambivalent towards the US as a good/bad distant land). I'll also throw in Russia third, and a coalition of Iran / Saudi Arabia and a few other neighboring nations who might want to join in, just to be rid of the American hand of influence that has been in their domain for decades, since before the first Gulf War fully escalated.

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Jetée

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Jetée

She sure likes to look at herself (or have others oogle at her, which is fair, if only because she is hot).

I think the better red button that came into play here was that "snap photo" one on her camera, as is evident from the below:

(NEW PHOTOS) Sexy Russian Spy Anna Chapman // Current

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Baraka_Guru

From Russia...with love....

I wouldn't mind pushing her Red Button....

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Jetée

I love a good pun, not in the morning, but any time of the day is fine, too.
I also will heretofore admit the above smilie (emoticon) is by far my favorite one instituted here on the TFP. I'd almost readily forgotten about it, though, I haven't had an occasion to use it in the past several years.

- - -

just received permission to use this photo, and I hope it serves the theme and discussion here well. Thanks, kirk!


The Proverbial BIG RED BUTTON by Kirk Brown

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

ASU2003

This is more of a key, but it does what a button would do.


This will stop a nuclear reactor by putting neutron absorbing rods in place.

Jetée

ASU2003: The big and capitalized letters that can be easily identified and read as 'Scram!' in your second image; is this an acronym for something (of which you know exactly what each letter stands for), or is this just a company-ervice message for anyone passing by not to touch or fiddle with the button/switch, and should instead: vamoose?

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Orchrist

There are apparently a bunch of different meanings for it and noone knows what the original one meaning was for certain according to wikipedia, but the "official" one at the moment is as follows...

"Also known as a “reactor trip,” “scram” is actually an acronym for “safety control rod axe man,” the worker assigned to insert the emergency rod on the first reactor (the Chicago Pile) in the United States."

Here is the link for reference, check the Etymology section for a breakdown of the different possibilities.

Scram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leisure

There is nothing like a borring job where ones duties are waiting to press a stop button....

MSD

Standing on an elevated platform with the sole duty of stopping a nuclear reactor with an axe if anything goes wrong is the most metal job ever.

ring

Red Buttons, had a very disarming smile:

Jetée

Illustration / comic from our Comrades in the "Great White West" (old 19th-century country descriptor).

Unknown (Russian) author/artist.

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Jetée

Came across this (slightly) old article about such musings of where the ubiquitous BRB comes into pay in one's ordinary walkabout life,
detailing a few features we've already discussed above. -- BBC - The big red button


post-script:
There was also THIS, but it doesn't serve much function, really.

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Jetée

I didn't forget about the mainstream (TV) usage of the BRB, I just didn't know where to find all of the examples of them, until now.
The definition & listing has quite more than I was able to find on my own (2) but I'll to it when I find them (most examples are seen in cartoons).

Big Red Button - Television Tropes & Idioms

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Jetée

Nearly three hours into it, and I think that Home Page - Television Tropes & Idioms is a huge database of the most tangentially relevant trivial matters in all of pop culture doings. It's amazing at how expanse it is, and what's more, this is the first time i've visited the site for more than a minute at a time.

Here are a few more examples, pertaining to a plot device that is uniquely similar, yet still varying, from the issue of a tangible 'push-button' solution.

Attack Its Weak Point - Television Tropes & Idioms

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

boink

__________________
when you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain't the way.

Walt

Maybe it was because of the phone, but I will always mentally associate this with "the big red button".

__________________
Calmer than you are...

SSJTWIZTA

....just, dont fucking press it.

__________________
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for me And there was no one left to speak out for me.
-Pastor Martin Niemoller

Jetée

This description was entirely apt, especially the closing line...
[via.]

- - -
sidenote:

I'll get to posting an animated example of this in the most recent reminder of where I saw this employed
(not as a "total destruction button", but more as "The Big Red Random Generator Button") so I'll be back
shortly after the internet teaches me how to upload a video.

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi