this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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Trolley Memes

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

I prefer to kill countably infinite people.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The top choice is better, because if you add up all the people killed, an infinite sum of integers, the answer is -1/12. Way less suffering than the second track.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That's if you kill 1 + 2 + 3 + ... people. But here you're killing 1 + 1 + 1 + ... people, which is just infinite.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

1 + (1 + 1) + (1 + 1 + 1)... So -1/12 is still undefeated.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago

1 + (1 + 1) + (1 + 1 + 1)... So -1/12 is still undefeated.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

That's just Pascal's Wager with extra steps.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

omelas type beat

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

Simple answer let the first train over 1+1+1+1... Track and then bring another train to send over the loop

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

They won't get used to it because they keep dying and thus are incapable of holding on to any memory, experience or change.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

But if they are reborn with no context of what neither contentness nor suffering is, what are they even feeling?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I assume they still have standard human facilities at minimum, and babies can certainly feel pain

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

But is a baby crying more meaningful than a full adult with decades of experience?

*backs the hell out of thread out of sheer guilt*

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

If there's countably infinite people on the track with nonzero space between them, the probability that any given person is any given finite distance from the trolley is 0, so practically no one gets run over.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

I'd choose the circle... you're telling me there's not enough time to unbind the reincarnating demigods from the track to end the suffering?

Or is the real problem that we need to keep them there to prevent them from becoming unkillable menaces to society?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

simple answer: loop.
while the train is circling, you can start untying the people as they are resurrected. the real question is whether the train is slow enough to get the time to untie those people between each pass.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

All these different, more extreme variations of the trolly problem seem to be missing the point of it. It's not about the deaths, it's about making the decision to be responsible for those deaths.

To rearrange the premise. If the person was a doctor, and three patients (tied to track A, current path) needed organs to live, and only one person, (Track B) had those organs, should the doctor make the conscious decision to sacrifice the person on track B to save the others?

The people on track A will die without the organs, that is already happening, and the doctor has no involvement in those deaths. However, by getting involved and consciously sacrificing the person on track B, the doctor has now committed murder and taken responsibility for the situation.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And this is why I always choose not to get involved! I'm not responsible for your predicament, and I will not choose to be!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

What if it was 1 million people vs 1 person?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

If that 1 person had a minigun, they could probably hold out a few good moments before they get swarmed

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I love the missing contextual steps in going from 1 person tied to a train track, to that person seemingly holding off a rapidly approaching train with a minigun while 1 million people attempt to escape.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

Oh I was talking about a bloodbath between 1 person vs 1 million people, but your interpretation is far more nobler and guarantees a heroic victory for everyone. I think you solved the trolley problem.