That’s right (blue is altruistically motivated, red is selfishly motivated), but I’m saying that the reason the other people are in danger of being killed is because they picked blue. If they had picked red, then they wouldn’t need altruists to make a risky choice in order to not kill them. That’s why I concede that, if you know some people will pick blue, it makes sense to want to coordinate on blue in order to rescue them. But if it were a switch that started in the red position rather than a pair of buttons, there would be no reason to be the first person to flick the switch to blue. (No one needed rescuing until you flicked your switch!)
That’s right (blue is altruistically motivated, red is selfishly motivated), but I’m saying that the reason the other people are in danger of being killed is because they picked blue. If they had picked red, then they wouldn’t need altruists to make a risky choice in order to not kill them. That’s why I concede that, if you know some people will pick blue, it makes sense to want to coordinate on blue in order to rescue them. But if it were a switch that started in the red position rather than a pair of buttons, there would be no reason to be the first person to flick the switch to blue. (No one needed rescuing until you flicked your switch!)