h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It seems you don't have much choice. Sit there forever or press the button...

...having said that I probably wouldn't in that situation IRL...

Is it o.k if my brain just plain stops working and I start to decompose without ever having pressed the button?

yes - given you are in the room on your own no offence will be caused to other's nostrils.

But surely you haven't given up the will to live already?

On the hill in Lincoln is a wall which waqs often climbed by burglars, vandals and the seriously drunk.
The owners painted the top half of it in non drying paint and on the bottom half put a large printed sign saying "Non drying paint - Do not touch".
The lower half of this wall is now covered in black fingerprints because no-one could walk past it twice without thinking ... "hmm - I wonder if this really is non drying paint".
...and when I walked past there with a friend once and told him that this is why there are all these black marks all over the wall - yup, you guessed it - he walked over and touched it

I wonder what it is that makes humans do things against their better judgment.

Far from "killing the cat", curiosity is probably what gives higher animals a competitve advantage.

I would disagree - I think curiosity is the downside of evolution. Go with what you know!

>then I'd probably just touch it and make sure no alarms went
off....then, yeh - I'd push it!<

But wouldn't it be a bit late once the alarms have gone off?

'Nonnie

So what I'm thinking is, basically, yes. And pretty quickly. But this assumes there's no other information handy. Like no sign on the door when you cam ein saying "Nuclear Arsenal Release Room"

I think it depends on the size of the button too - a big one is more pleasing to press then a little one.


ermmmm that sounds dodgy doesn't it?

Yep

But I don't see that curiosity is a bad thing. Isn't it part of the way we learn to do new things, by displaying curiosity in the world around us? If we'd just stuck to what we knew I'm sure I wouldn't be sitting at a computer typing this, we'd still be in caves. Or something.

oh yes I agree for humans!! But if you look at the rabbit population for example while play is an important part of development, the cautious rabbit is more likely to survive. Or certainly in our local rabbit warren which includes several feral rabbits whose owners must be missing them!

Any way we are getting off the point - should I press this nice purple button!

Oooh, I thought the button was red. If its purple you ~have~ to press it.

Definitely curiosity is what makes life worth living. If you were never curious about anyone or anything how would you learn anything new? Definitely, press the button. What if flowers blossomed, or bells chimed?

what if the consequence was world destruction!

Depends on the timescale. If it was instantaneous it wouldn't really matter.

What if pressing the button opened a portal to a room which contained a button marked "Do not press me" - how many iterations of this would you be prepared to do before losing your marbles altogether?

How many iterations? Is that any different from just pressing the button over & over again & not having anything happen?

Why does everyone feel compelled to push the button right away? Human myth and legend is full of stories about people who, after being told to "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, PUSH THE BUTTON/OPEN THE BOX/EAT THE FRUIT, etc..." PROCEED TO PERFORM THE ACT THAT THEY WERE EXPLICITLY TOLD NOT TO PERFORM IN THE FIRST PLACE. But, all the miseries and suffering in the world being unleashed still isn't enough to deter us puny, foolish mortals, is it?
Just a thought....

Am I the only person who would not press the button? Would not as in never ever ever? I don't even think I'd feel this burning, all-consuming curiosity y'all are talking about...I'd have a bit of academic curiosity as to what might happen if it was pressed, but I wouldn't press it.

Can there be a chair or something in the room so I can sit down and wait for whoever put me in the room to take me out of the room after it had been amply demonstrated that I will not press the button?