MYSTERIOUS STRANGER: *hands woman box* If you press this button, someone you don't know dies
WOMAN: Ok *presses button*
STRANGER: Whoa, I didn't even tell you about the money
WOMAN: I can't afford to pay much
STRANGER: No, you don't pay
WOMAN: Oh good *presses button again*
STRANGER: Jesus Christ
"If you could press a button that would give you a great deal of money, but it would cause someone you don’t know in a distant part of the world to die, then you would have a good model for how our current economy works. Welcome to Night Vale"
Someone you don’t know in a distant part of the world will always die, whether you push the button or not. There’s no way of knowing if that person died because you pushed the button. Not pushing the button simply makes no sense.
However, if you DON'T push the button then you can be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that person's death had nothing to do with pushing the button. Therefore, not pushing the button is the only ethical answer.
So basically “As you, the provider of this death-box, are clearly uncomfortable with mass death, I will continue to press the button until we can come to a more rewarding, for me, financial arrangement.”
A lot of people run around maskless and sick knowing they statistically will kill or disable someone, so I’m just glad we don’t have the button technology because we’d all be dead in 24 hours.
Everyone thinks they are the stranger in this joke, but a virus presents you a real world scenario and the vast vast majority of people quickly prioritized their comfort over the lives of others. If people could get a million dollars from prioritizing themselves? Humanity is dead in a day.
Make the world a better place AND I finally get paid for it? Damn skippy I'm mashing that button for eventual social equality.
It's like having a Death Note without the writer's cramp.
Spoilers (and minor buzzkill): the twist is “person you don’t know” actually means “last person who pressed the button”. So at least you’ll be getting rid of a murderer!
