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

I thihnk you lot might appreciate this. It's a site called 'Big Green Button' The question is, are you going to press it?

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/5945/bgb-main_new.html

Just for the sake of it, I'm gonna say that I would press it, but it wouldn't take ten minutes.

Either way, you really do have to press it, as it's the only possible way out of the room (by opening a door or something)

What no handles?

make sure theres nothing sharp on the button, or about to fall from the celing when you press it and then slap that button as hard as you can. (if there are sharp things, press it, but a little more cautiously).

What.....Locked in a room....with no towel....I would never fall for that old trick.......er.....where is the door?...hay ...you...YES YOU......Give back My KeyBoard!!!!!! .......

(And so the poor fool is left to answer the question. What do you think he did??????)

Of course!, who wouldn't. the real question is if you were in a room with nothing but a peice of fairy cake and a sign reading "do not under any surcumstances attempt to eat this peice of fairy cake what would you do.

Hey let's not go reading too much into Abi's hypothetical question!

I'd push the button on the grounds that the button has no reason being there unattended and unsecured, with a big tempting sign attached to it unless the whole thing is a psychological experiment designed to see how long the subject's will-power can remain resolute in the face of irresistible temptation. The button can only be there to be pressed. All that happens is it increments a counter for the result of the latest experiment.

OK, just to mess you up completely, what if you were in the same situation, but the button said "Press this NOW!!!", would you? I don't think I would if I could help it, I'd be suspicious that it was a trap.

It would depend on how I got into that room. were the circumstances hostile or friendly? if I expected to be part of an experiment I'd press it, but if I were convinced something really bad was going to happen if I pressed it, I probably wouldn't go anywhere near the button for a very long time.

I hate any kind of cake

I always press buttons that are clearly labeled "don't press this button". I do so at the first opportunity I get and I never think twice about it.
It is fundamental to my existance to see how things are going to screw up when I press a button that somebody else would hate to see pushed. Besides that, it adds to the overall chaos. Chaos is good. If people didn't like chaos they would stop buying Wintel boxes that have interfaces that make absolutely no sense, to just mention one example out of a myriad.
If you really, REALLY don't want me to press a button, make sure I can't get at it.
Besides that, I am a master at denying I ever pressed any button whatsoever. This pleases me especially when I can infuriate people who can't prove I did it but know damn well that I did. Power, dear friends, is in the pushing of someone else's button.
Peace.

Oh I like the reverse question. Yeah if it said pressthsi now you would be more suspicious than if it said don't press this.

However you would probably be as curious and more cautious with the Now button than the Don't button. See Arthur Dent abd the Don't Panic in large friendly letters on the guide any time he got in a fix it was 'So this is it we're all going to die' now that I call Panic.

what if there was no label at all, just a big shiny red button? or whast if it siad, "flood room with water button" but had no specific command on what to do? would you still push it, to see what it really did? what if, like in ren and stimpy, it said "the history earaser button". the temptaion would be to press it to see if it really erased history, but if it did, you wouldn't know, as pressing it would be history, and therefore erased. in all the above cases, i would still pound that thing like it was a table in a di niro movie.

If it was blind faith how could you see the button in the first place? No, really, but if you're following it blindly doesn't that mean you believe in the ethos of pushing buttons generally, rather that this specific button?

When did you first experience Deijavoo (sorry about the spelling)

just out of interest is the button at all likely to evolve spontaneously into the bug blatter beast of traal?

No, it shouldn't do that, unless you were on Traal of course..., anyway - Deja Vu

I 1st experienced Deja Vu when I was 7, I saw something that I remembered seeing before, and this is something that has happened to me a number of times. However, last week I experienced for the first time seeing the same thing twice in a matter of seconds, al la the Matrix. Are there 2 types of Deja Vu or something. Or am I just a freak. Answers on a postcard....

To answer such a question you must first know how much of the button exists in your own personal dimension.

if buttons ask you to press them then you are probably very very drunk, on the other hand if there is a sign requesting that you press the button then it is probably a bad idea because it shows that you are following orders from an unknown entity and that you have no free will.

If you imagine yourself hypothetically pressing, or indeed, pushing an imaginary button, it may help alleviate the need to press/push a real one.

On the other hand, it may just reinforce the desire to press/push the real button.

Have you considered doing exactly what the sign says, and *not* push the button? Have you considered *pulling* it instead?

Good Point, who's to say that this isn't an imaginary button that your brain has come up with because it was bored and wanted to see your reaction to it!