Laugh your ass off from atop the bridge as the trolley kills the five people. If the fat man laughs with you, you just found a good friend. Easiest question NA...
"A train is headed right from the next crossing and it's going to kill five people, if you steer the train to the left it's only going to kill one person. Would you steer the train? I probably wouldn't."
For that question, I would absolutely steer it into the singular person. I really don't understand why anyone (besides the misanthropes of the world) wouldn't. If you take action, one person dies because of you, but if you take no action, five people die. What is the dilemma here? Seriously, someone tell me. Is it because you feel like you had nothing to do with the deaths if you simply don't do anything?
If so, what the fuck, non-sociopaths. That is really fucked up.
The question originally posed by this thread is a little more complicated. Yes, I'd be saving lives, but those ungrateful little shits would be turning people against me because of it. I would still toss the fat guy, but I think that comic is making the dilemma more complicated than it needs to be.
The dilemma is: How many spaces in traffic do you want to be ahead the next day? 5 sounds like a pretty good number when you're talking about spaces in traffic. That's like a free intersection's worth of time. That one guy who's always late to work may actually get to work on time. I mean, throw the possibility of any of those 5 reproducing away, and you have another gazillion reasons for it being a great decision for society. It IS a big dilemma for those with no moral obligation.
by TryptamineBecause the 5 people you save are going to be ahead of you in traffic at some point, and that's the biggest consideration of the situation? And they may reproduce at some point? Your callousness is noted, but its expression is silly.
I would consider the importance of the 5, but that's just no fun. Not to mention, with the amount of sleep that I get, the idea of pushing fatso over seems less agreeable. I'm more of a remorseless observer. I'm indifferent to death, but I do prefer people to be alive. I don't want anyone in the situation to die, but I also don't care who does.
Now, say one of those 5 people is someone close to me, I may put some effort in to pushin fatso over. I kinda put the people around me on a pedastal compared to others. But if they're randoms, you'll find me laughing my ass off in a nearby corner. Hopefully with fatso, if he's cool.
And of course it's silly, how could this situation be taken as anything other than silly? Methinks you take it all too seriously.
"I would consider the importance of the 5, but that's just no fun."
You did before when your rationalization for letting them die was 'so they don't take up parking spaces', but alright, let's go with what you're saying now.
"Now, say one of those 5 people is someone close to me, I may put some effort in to pushin fatso over. I kinda put the people around me on a pedastal compared to others. But if they're randoms, you'll find me laughing my ass off in a nearby corner. Hopefully with fatso, if he's cool."
Is death comical to you?
"And of course it's silly, how could this situation be taken as anything other than silly? Methinks you take it all too seriously."
The whole point of this exercise is to entertain the situation to understand how you think.