Would you press the Big Red Button?
 

Hypothetically, if there were a Big Red Button which would instantly wipe out the human race, would you press it?

I would. Humans are by far the most brutal and wasteful animal on the planet, and Earth would be better off without us. We've lost touch with our own nature, and do more harm than good to ourselves and everything around us.

I would push it when I was on my deathbed!

Better the evil you know than the one you don't?

Who's to say that something far worse wouldn't grow occupy the space we once occupied ourselvs?

^^ im reminded of the time machine, i would not press it. I am quite the optimist, and i see us being a very productive race, so long as we survive for the next 200 years or so..

We're inherently neither more nor less virtuous than any other creature on the face of the earth. We simply have more power. Figuring out how to handle that power is our next evolutionary step as a species. We may not succeed, but if we do the future may be spectacular both for us and the other species of this world.

I wouldn't press the big button but I pray for a plague to wipe out 2/3 of the human race.... then we could start over.

I kinda like a few things about life and I'm too selfish to end it.

I don't think I have enough confidence in the complete irredeemability (?) of the human race to push the button. Nature has a way of finding its own equilibrium (plagues, natural disasters, drough, famine), and if we don't temper our actions accordingly we'll eventually be weeded out.

I don't believe any animal but humans kill for pleasure, and not survival.

Ever seen a cat kill a mouse, even when it doesnt want to eat it?

No, I wouldn't. Even with the reasons given, I can't justify genocide.

doesn't make much sense to give the ego that much energy, so no....

I might, depends on what's been going on, I'm sure anyone who has kids wouldn't, but if I just watched some TV special on some dumb shit humans have done I just might.
And I'd try to do it with syle.

I think there are some other primates - I think chimpanzees - who actually do kill other chimpanzees for no apparent reason - they wage war on other "tribes" of chimps, not defensively but just because. Not that it really matters or detracts from humankind's own brand of barbarism.

we already have horrible diseases, mass starvation, wars and genocide, and natural death. i say we don't need a big red button, we're doing ok with the dying as it is.

Hell, at this rate, it seems we'll wipe ourselves out before too awful long anyway, so whats the point?

cats in my neighborhood leave headless birds on lawns ;/

I agree with your idea that the human race is brutal and in general out of place in this universe, but I don't agree with the conclusion that you should then press the button.

That conclusion exemplifies all the greatest problems with humanity in the first place. The need to take matters into our own hands, the tendency towards irreversible and final solutions, the desire to eliminate instead of understand, the list goes on and on. Maybe we need to start looking at how to take our equal place in the universe instead of having these all or nothing, make or break, do or die, out looks on life.

Maybe you should hover with your hand over it and threaten to press it unless people start behaving a bit better (OK I'd imagine you'd have to define this a bit more accurately when the entire fate of the human race depends on it!)

if you threatened to push it youd probably be assassinated.
then in an ironic twist, one of your assailants would suddenly develope some sort of complex in which they feel urges to press red buttons.

I wouldn't. There's a lot we as a species should regret, but too destroy ourselves would be pointless. In nature, species compete with each other, and species get wiped out. It happens. We're using our trump card (intelligence) to our maximum advantage, spreading and propagating and outcompeting everything. We are recreating the Earth, just like oxygen-breathing life forms, multi-cellular life and vertebrates did before us. We are being true to our nature.

If you gave ants, for example, fire and metal tools, you think they wouldn't sweep across the world and turn it into an ant playground? Of course they would, any species with such an advantage would make as much use of it as they possibly could.

We aren't out of place, or unnatural. We're just winning. We're the Earth's best hope to propagate Earthly life throughout the universe, so its in Her best interest that we survive.

Humans have only been around for the blink of an eye anyway, and though we like the think that we may have some impact on the "big picture" of things in the universe, eventually we will be wiped out and replaced, just as its always happened.

I don't think so...couldn't bring myself to do it.

you mean like those forest fires we keep putting out, and those diseases we keep curing?
Yeah, I'd push the button. Besides, nuclear winter should be really pretty.

I meet more nice people each day, than people I would like to see dead.

To push that button would be nothing but intellectual masturbation with a God complex.

You want the world to end? Off yourself. No need to bring me into it. Or the nice lady in the breakfast shop. Or the doorguard who always waves at me. Or my wife. Or the kids in the kindergarten I used to work for.

*Laughs*

I would love to be there. Just to see how someone goes about pushing a button with style.

I'm sure the putting on of black sunglasses would be involved somehow....

Well said...

I would destroy the button.

Ok. You're right, butI don't believe any other animal creates art, or medicine, or protects the weak among it out of ideas of justice...

And really, is anyone so arrogant to believe he knows the true heart of every human being on earth well enough to wipe them out like a bunch of ants?

The concept itself reeks of "killing for pleasure"

That is because of agriculture. We no longer NEED to kill for survival, but we still have an engrained "want" to kill. Put a tiger in a cage with more deer than he can ever eat. Do you think that he is only going to kill as many deer as is strictly necessary for his survival?

I would press it. Why? Because Jesus is supposed to return and do his thing before humanity can be wiped out. So if I can press it then God don't exist, and I die knowing the answer to that question. If he does come and do his thing, then I just proved a buncha people right. Not like anyone can care if everyone is wiped out instantly.

I'd press it.

Why not?

i wouldnt. i just dont know why i wouldnt.

I'm sure I'd press it, especially if it had a 'do not press' sticker on it.

To everyone who'd press the button - you are still very human. You are part of the problem. Should you really be entrusted with such power, if you don't even trust yourself and those like you enough to continue existance?

We would just have to start all over again, kinda a step backwards don't ya think?

Please, Lions do not need to kill Cheetahs for survival, Nor do dogs need to kill other dogs, like they did to my dads sisters when she was little. That is the biggest crock of a statement i've ever heard.

Wow seretogis, five independant rebutals! Thats gotta be like... a world record or something! ;)

I hate it when people make certain claims about 'human nature'. That we're endlessly evil, cruel, greedy, wasteful. That it's somehow in our mandate to build big cities and crush all the cute little harmless animals that wouldn't hurt a fly! Awwwww, look at da little aminals!

I’m an example. I’m no hero of the great, intelligent, magnificent, human race.

Well, good thing that neither me nor any other individual human has that power, eh? And don't think for a minute that you're not part of the problem either. You eat, breath, and shit like the rest of us. Besides it's really a choice between a slow and painful death of humanity and our planet or one fell swoop.

Humans are animals. The only difference is that we are intelligent (im not saying all other animals are stupid, some have desplayed incredible amounts of intelligence). We are structurally weak, soft skinned, and i bet we taste good also. We dont have claws, our teath are not incredibly sharp. The only form of natural defence we have is our brain, now we just need to get others to think ;)

I would not press the button because there is no reason to. We are still evolving into a more perfect race. But we will not reach that stage untill we learn to conserve our resources.

Okay, so we're going to make a button....to wipe ourselves off of the earth....and what is the reasoning behind this? Not all humans are selfish....take a look at some 3rd world countries...people living like cavemen....do they deserve to die? No they don't. They don't even get an equal opportuniy to press the button because they have no way to know about it....So when you say humans are destroying Earth, you are misinformed or just ignorant...enough ranting for tonight....oh man i could go forever, but i'll spare you all of my thoughts

I read somewhere that human flesh isn't incredibly tasty.

Well, my stance is that the human species in its entirety is more a detriment to the world than a blessing. For one person to decide to play god and press the button is no different than one person deciding to play god and end world hunger. They both can be seen as solutions to problems.

Nature has its own checks and balances which it uses to keep species in line. Disease, weater/natural disasters, and other natural predators. As we developed, we were smart enough to fight against these checks, and have at least tripled our average lifespan in the process. These checks are no longer keeping our population at a steady level.

The question is not whether specific people "deserve to die", or whether there is equal access to button-pressing, but whether or not you, individually, believe that our species is competant enough to be allowed to continue to overcome nature's checks and balances.

Why not do us all a favor and press the red button that kills YOU, we are not all that bad, plus I'm sure if there was a button to end world hunger it would be pressed, only a moron would thinkg by killing all humans the world would be a better place. I just thank god you aren't in some position of power because we would all be smelling flowers and flitting through the forest.

I agree with UnlikedOne that if we could keep earth alive for the next few hundred years i beleive we may evolve to start benifiting the world.

however i also agree with many people's views that people are destructive, selfish, nieve and a parasite to almost everything on this planet, so i would push it.

seretogis you speak of natural checks, disease and disasters to keep everything balanced. However science is constantly trying to overcome these, and humans have now adapted climates to suit them, rather than evolved to suit climates (at the disruption or destruction of other habitats). It seems human life is the only thing valued highly, and that the costs to keep it are limitless.

There are ofcourse always exceptions, and people that always try to do the right thing, but it is my opinion that the world would generally be better off without us.

You honestly value the life of animals and the earth over your OWN?? It means that much to you that you would cause billions of deaths to save some animals that will still adapt and live, it's not like we are making all the wildlife dissapear, The endangered species program is working to bring back some of the problems that earlyier man did, as a matter of fact MOST of the problems we have are from like the 70's and before, I think we are making great strides to conserve our resources soon i'ms ure we will have much more efficiant autos, look at honda's car that gets like 80 miles per gallon. We are shaping up, big red button is just a cop out, Seretogis should still press the red button for herself :hmm:

As much as I might want to at times, I don't think I could ever bring myself to push it. People as a group can be assholes, but individually they're not all that bad. Maybe if the button eliminated certain people, but I don't think I could push that one either.

Hell no i wouldn't press the button! Are you crazy?

I'm not going to eliminate the entire human race just because some people are dickheads.

We aren't overturning some sort of mythical 'checks and balances' that exist as if Nature was some perfect system that we're somehow ruining. We're changing Nature, sure. But Nature is in a constant state of flux. We are no less a part of nature than a bird, or a tree, or an elephant, and like those species we maximise out advantages to outcompete weaker species. We're perfectly within our 'checks and balances'

Where were the checks and balances when the land bridge between North and South America formed and the South American marsupials were wiped out by invading placentals? Where were these checks and balances when the creodonts were outcompeted by more advanced predators? Earth's history consists of constant struggle and specicide, where entire genera rose and fell and fought for dominance.

We have accomplished more than any other species in the history of this planet. Pressing that big red button will be make the last two million years an entire waste of everyone's time.

And besides, chimps or bonobos would probably evolve into our niche and do just as much damage in a few million years anyway. So whats the point?

no way... nothing could justify something like that... killing everyone i know and love... plus... i like my life...

I'm just glad there is no big red button that kills all the humans.

I can just see it:

Choice giver: See this big red button?
DexLargo: Oh wow, what does it do?
CG: It will...
DL: Pushes button, dies.
CG: ... wipe out all the... stupid human.

has anyone mentioned that this is a terribly silly argument? i believe shit can be fixed.

Never...no ONE should have the power to make that decision