Would you send a bad person to solitary confinement?

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

The button is to ensure God has less accounting to do. Perhaps those evil deeds they miss out on in solitary confinement will shave off a few years of hell. And the innocent will surely be rewarded for their suffering in heaven, is that not how it goes?

Not exactly.
Like not at all. lol

 

[RiceballWasTaken]

The magical girl of various thought experiments approaches you and gives you a remote with a button.

She explains that if you push this button, you would get $100,000 USD.

Simultaneously, it would condemn a potentially "bad person" to lifetime imprisonment in solitary confinement.

When you ask her what she means by a "potentially", she explains that there's a 70% likelihood that the person committed a "bad" crime and a 30% likelihood they've committed no crime whatsoever. The magical girl explains that the moral rules used to determine "bad-ness" reflects your own personal moral system. The identity of this "bad person" would be perfectly random, and you will never know exactly who you sent to jail. She promises that on average, you would be sending a "very bad" person to jail, but she does acknowledge that there is a 30% chance that innocent people could also be affected.

She clarifies that there are absolutely no downsides for you regardless of whether you push the button or not.

Would you push the button? Why or why not?

100k is 100k

presses the button until it breaks

 

[bananapink]

I'd double tap it if I can.
Solitary confinement with occasional lion or tiger visiting...

 

[Deleted member 120990]

This reminds me of that one video where the guy can press a button to get 1million dollars, but each time he presses it, it's a year off of his life. He starts pressing it over and over again.

 

[BigBadBoi]

RNGesus has my back he'll punish all the sinners I believe in him. I'm pushing that button so much the earth is cleansed. It's not even about the money at this point.

 

[GlassRose]

Then what is Evil? even our dark sides are human, a pedo is a human, a serial killer is a human; we were born with better desires to some degree but that doesn't make us any more human than them
evil is commiting bad deeds, the reason doesn't matter, unless it's for revenge or done while out of control,
the rest is you are what you choose

Personally, I believe the opposite, evil isn't in the deed, but the reasons behind it. Stealing because you're starving, vs stealing because you want some extra funds to buy a fancy phone are very different. The only evil deeds are the ones that, by their very nature, have no possible justification, or are so extreme that no reason could be enough. Rape, slavery, genocide, for example.

To me, Evil is to intentionally cause unnecessary suffering of a sufficient magnitude, disproportionate to a reasonable response to any present provocation, where 'necessary' is defined as in order to protect someone's life or basic health, and sufficient magnitude and is basically just, more significant than little petty things that are mean but not a big deal in the grand scheme of things (lots of petty things can build up to a sufficient magnitude though).

Well, evil can be very much human though. 'Humanity' is a flawed term, but 'soul' doesn't work either when you don't believe in souls...

 

[NotaNuffian]

You are worth more than $100k.

Of course.

I just want to die lol.

 

[BigBadBoi]

Of course.

I just want to die lol.

Getting sent to magic solitary is the opposite of death tho. I doubt you can kill yourself in magic solitary confinement.

 

[Corty]

Extrovert one? Yes. Introvert one? No. Those must go to a party.

 

[Daydreamers]

The only evil deeds are the ones that, by their very nature, have no possible justification, or are so extreme that no reason could be enough. Rape, slavery, genocide, for example.

Spoiler: Sorry for going off topic, everyone

I see, thanks for sharing your opinion. I actually agree with a lot of it; I should’ve added the survival exception, I only realize now that saying "out of control" was too vague
Unfortunately though, almost everything becomes justifiable once you put yourself in the other person's shoes, genocide, for example as much as it’s an absolute evil, it’s often framed with countless justifications ( national security) , otherwise, the world wouldn’t stand by, and some people wouldn’t cheer for it. The real problem lies in the belief that there's always a reason strong enough to make evil seem necessary or worse good. Also humans don’t share the same moral compass. If someone is born without the capacity for sympathy or remorse, who are we to judge their reasons? That’s why I believe the action itself matters most, with very few exceptions like survival, which you pointed out, and in some cases, revenge (and even then, it needs to be reasonable; not say, killing someone for eating your muffin).
In short, our views are pretty similar, we both believe evil is human, the only exception is you focus more on the why, I focus more on the choice. If someone kills their partner, to me that’s evil, full stop. There was a better choice like divorce you didn't take it. I don’t care if the partner cheated or not. I won’t fall into that abyss; no thanks

 

[Jailbreak571]

Knowing me, yeah

 

[Macha]

Only 30/70?
Fuck that, I would press that button!
My usual rate is 99/1!

 

[NotaNuffian]

Getting sent to magic solitary is the opposite of death tho. I doubt you can kill yourself in magic solitary confinement.

Dammit.

 

[laccoff_mawning]

I wouldn't press the button, simply because it's not my job to do so.

On the topic of the button, Here's some fun thoughts for you all:

Let's assume you can press the button 3 times a second. In an hour, you can press it 10800 times. There are about 8 Billion people on the world. That'll mean you need to press the button for about 741,000 hours before everyone disappears, which is about 85 years of non-stop button pressing.

Now, let's analyse the scenario a bit more.

We have a 70% chance of a 'bad' person being picked. We have a 30% chance of an 'innocent' person being picked.

The problem? It's not a 30% chance that a random person is picked. It's a 30% chance that a person known innocent is picked.

Why is this problematic? Let's assume n% of a population is bad, and so (100-n)% is good. If n is low, (below 70%) then the button has a bias towards picking 'bad' people.

What happens as n gets higher? if n reaches 70%, then you're effectively just picking a random person to send to solitary confinement. If n gets even higher, (above 70%) then the button has a bias towards picking 'innocent' people.

So the question is, what proportion of people are 'bad' according to your standards? If you believe that over 70% of people do not fit your personal criteria for good standards, then the button's capability to judge according to those standards is worse than a random number generator.

 

[Placeholder]

The button is to ensure God has less accounting to do. Perhaps those evil deeds they miss out on in solitary confinement will shave off a few years of hell. And the innocent will surely be rewarded for their suffering in heaven, is that not how it goes?

"If JRPGs have taught me one thing, it's that we need to kill God." -Pontius Pilate

 

[BearlyAlive]

Do I get a free convict if I do a 10x pull? Or do I get 1.1 Million? Those Gacha odds are like a dream come true.

 

[minacia]

I feel like I'm surprised but also not surprised by the poll.

Should I take this to mean that in a run-off-the-mill society, the natural state of human existence is to have no care for artificial legal constructs such as habeas corpus? Institutions are a very fragile thing...

 

[JayMark]

I would

A. Toss Button. *Haw hell no I ain't playing that game*
B. Confirm Magical Girl of Various Thought Experiments is over 20.
C. Ask The Magical Girl of Various Thought Experiments if she wants to smash. *I'm a very very very very wholesome bull*
D. Smash.

 

[Alski]

Do I get a free convict if I do a 10x pull? Or do I get 1.1 Million? Those Gacha odds are like a dream come true.

You get a garanteed orange person.

 

[BearlyAlive]

You get a garanteed orange person.

I'll take their whole stock!