The trolley problem

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[–]AbeFroman 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

I've never heard of this before. If the only options are kill one person or kill five, I'd choose to only kill one. Am I missing something?

[–]Snow 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah, I always choose to do nothing in the trolley problem. If you pull the lever, this is a murder, if you do nothing, it's an accident. I think this question showing how many people are potential criminals of murder.

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

That's what I think too.

The idea is the killing 5 is the default action if you do nothing (and are therefore theoretically 'blameless because you did nothing' in some mental frameworks). But you are actively choosing to kill a person who otherwise was not in danger. That's the "dilemma". But I agree with you that in the end it's a numbers game.

[–]Snow 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

I won't pull the lever if there is 5 billion VS 1.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

You wouldn't want to save 4.999 billion people?

[–]Snow 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I hate the idea of murder the minority and do it myself.

[–]magnora7 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Yes, but in reality you're still responsible. Lack of action is still a choice you've made, especially when the action is trivially easy. That's how I see it anyway

[–]Snow 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Do you know the moral machine?

http://moralmachine.mit.edu/

It changed the trolley to a self-driving car, "avoiding intervention" is a standard on there. I avoiding most intervention except it's going to kill dogs and cats.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Interesting, I hadn't heard of that. Thanks for sharing

[–]PickleRick 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

What you're missing is that the composition of the people (age, demographics) vary, as well as how they got into the situation. In the real problem you'd have, let's say, five murderers who are running from the police against traffic, and one law-abiding pregnant woman doing everything she should be. Now who dies?

I propose that the question also needs to take into account that every pedestrian should be looking around even if they think it's safe. If the self-driving car is coming at you, don't assume it will stop. A woman was killed near me by a self-driving car while walking in the dark not looking at traffic. I don't care if you have right of way, that's a stupid thing to have on your tombstone. So if people are looking, they can be part of the solution, which changes things. The people on the other side of the street would not expect a car to swerve and come at them from the wrong direction, so they wouldn't be looking.