#trolleyproblem
My favorite variant of the #TrolleyProblem is when it's a fire in a fertility clinic and an anti-IVF activist has to decide between saving a single one-year-old child and a tray containing hundreds of frozen embryos.
I like #trolleyproblem as a thought experiment, but the way it’s been propagandised by tech #fascists lately is a scam
They made it to a trick to draw you into casually valuing lives as math equations, and convincing you that it can be done to begin with
You’re supposed to come out of a trolley problem thinking: ”Damn, calculating the value of human life is really complex, the moral problems don’t have a clear solution”
But broligarch tescrealists have turned them into #eugenics prep courses
I want a competing philosophy meme because I'm tired of the Trolley Problem. The ethical conundrums of our age seem to be less about when we get to exercise power over others, and more about how to compete with others to avoid harm in a rigged system.
I'm thinking about the Outrun The Bear Problem. (probably needs a more catchy name. Pursuit Bear Problem?) It's based on that old joke that if a bear is chasing you and a companion, you don't need to be faster than the bear, but just have to be faster than your companion. The conundrum is this: Is it ethical to outrun your companion so the bear catches them instead of you? And what about variations? Is it ethical to do something to slow your companion down? What if you could cooperate to have a 50% chance of both of you escaping but there's a 50% chance the bear gets both of you? I think this could be just as rich a thought experiment as the Trolley Problem, and perhaps more applicable to our current social issues.
#philosophy #TrolleyProblem
The trolley problem is an ideological tool of the oppressors to train those who commit unspeakable crimes into doing them without thinking twice. It is for this reason that it is taught in universities and schools, with special emphasis in those institutions where the elites of tomorrow are educated.
The Thunderstorm Trolley
You're a weatherman, standing in a storm-ravaged town, when a runaway tornado touches down, barreling towards Main Street. There are two tracks leading away from the town - one heads to a crowded sports stadium, and the other leads to a small, deserted campsite.
You stand by a large lever. Pulling it will divert the tornado onto the stadium track, saving the campsite but destroying the stadium. Not pulling it will let the tornado plow into the campsite, destroying it, but sparing the stadium. The fate of hundreds rests on your decision.
If you pull the lever:
The tornado roars through the stadium, smashing bleachers and flattening concession stands. Hundreds of screaming fans run for their lives. Miraculously, the storm loses intensity, and nobody is injured. The town mourns the loss of their beloved stadium.
If you don't pull the lever:
The tornado obliterates the campsite, turning tents to confetti and uprooting trees. Thankfully, no one was there. The town breathes a collective sigh of relief, but many question the wisdom of building a campsite so close to a storm-prone area.
#TrolleyProblem #BadWeather #WeathermanDilemma #Tornado #Stadium or #Campsite
#TrolleyProblem #CovidIsNotOver #CovidIsAirborne #KeepMasksInHealthCare #maskup #WearAMask #VaccinesPlus #covid19 #covid #SARSCov2 #DavosSafe #BringBackMasks #CovidConscious #CleanAir #CovidCautious
Is the #TrolleyProblem any less of a dilemma if there's only one person on the initial track (and five on the shunt track)?
You're the conductor of a runaway train. The tracks split in two directions. To your left, there's a single passenger in a hot air balloon. To your right, a group of 100 clowns are performing a high-stakes acrobatics act on a tightrope.
Pull the lever (left):
You yank the lever to the left, sending the train onto the balloon track. The passenger looks up, startled, as the train smashes into the balloon, sending them spiraling down into a nearby lake. You survive the crash but are haunted by the sight of the wet, angry passenger.
Pull the lever (right):
You pull the lever to the right, and the train speeds towards the clowns. Just as it's about to hit them, the clowns spring into action. They perform a perfectly synchronized dive off the tightrope, narrowly avoiding the train. You survive the crash but are left with the unsettling image of 100 clowns standing on the tracks, staring at you with a mix of anger and bewilderment.
Do nothing
If you do nothing, the train will derail and plummet into a ravine. You die, but at least you won't haunted by the sight of an angry wet passenger or a hundred bewildered clowns.
Lightbulb! "Have your cake and eat it too" is a trolley problem!
The Literacy Trolley Problem
You're the chief editor at the world's last publishing house, which is running out of ink. A runaway adverb has taken control of the trolley tracks. You have two options:
- Pull the Lever: Save a shipment of adverbs but send a carload of clichés careening off a cliff.
- Don't pull the Lever: Stop the adverbs but let them flood the city, turning every sentence into a bludgeoned mess of lyrical excess.
The adverbs, if saved, could launch the publishing house to new heights, while the clichés, though offensive, are a known quantity. The adverbs, once freed, could make every writer in the city sound like a struggling poetry slam hopeful.
The Agile vs. Waterfall Trolley Dilemma
You find yourself standing before a complex, control panel in a dimly lit room. Two paths diverge before you: one labeled "Agile", the other "Waterfall". A single, rusted lever protrudes from the center.
To your left, the Agile path, a lively bunch of developers are sprinting towards a rapidly approaching deadline, their hair on fire, eyes wide with panic. They're still iterating and refining their product, but time is running out. If you pull the lever, you'll derail their momentum, forcing them to focus and deliver something actually finished and useful on time. But if you don't, they might sprint off the cliff of completion, leaving behind a half-baked mess.
To your right, the Waterfall path, a team of meticulous, bespectacled analysts are methodically working their way through a towering stack of Gantt charts. They're following the plan to the letter, but a massive boulder of a feature has just rolled onto their critical path. If you pull the lever, you'll redirect their focus, allowing them to adapt and deliver the essentials. But if you don't, the boulder might crush their entire project under an avalanche of scope creep.
What do you do? Pull the lever and disrupt the status quo, or leave things as they are and hope for the best?
#TrolleyProblem #AgileVsWaterfall #SoftwareDevelopment #ProjectManagement
The Noodle Trolley Dilemma
You're working in your small Italian restaurant when a runaway trolley with noodles speeds down the food track.
On the left track are 5 customers who ordered "spicy pasta" but actually can't handle heat. On the right track is 1 customer who ordered a plate of your grandmother's "blissfully mild marinara" but secretly wants habanero peppers.
Pull the Lever: Everyone thinks they get the wrong order, but is secretly happy about their meal.
Don't Pull the Lever: Everyone gets their requested order but can't really enjoy it.
@Pepijn
I’m only participating based on the assumption that there are only the two proposed courses of action available.
If this was not the case, the only acceptable action would be to save all.
Apart from having a bit of fun, the only use of the #TrolleyProblem is trying to find out if there is a difference between action and inaction.
What if the machine were 10x more complex? 100x more complex? What if part of the machine could misbehave in such a way that the person at the end isn't harmed with certainty, but only with some probability? What if the machine has 10 switches, all of which have to be flipped by 10 different individuals before the machine starts and harms the person; do you hold any of the individuals responsible for the harm?
#morality #ethics #TrolleyProblem
(*) Trolley problems are silly because they are decontexualized, and so are the proposed Rube Goldberg ones. I am satirizing them all, in part, though I do think if you're going to play around with thought experiments RG is a bit closer to modern lived reality than a runaway trolley.
The Philosopher's Trolley
You're a renowned philosopher stuck on a runaway trolley, hurtling towards a fork in the tracks. At the end of one track, there's a group of 10 logicians, all insisting that the trolley must never be stopped. At the end of the other track, there's a single existentialist, who will argue for hours about whether the trolley really exists or not.
- If you don't pull the lever, the trolley will stay on its current path, killing all 10 logicians but sparing the existentialist.
- If you pull the lever, the trolley will switch tracks, killing the existentialist but sparing the logicians.