The Google Trolley Problem

myp · Dec 28, 2012

What are your thoughts on this problem:

There is an out-of-control trolley heading towards 5 people. You can switch the track so it goes to another track, but there is 1 person there. Do you switch the track? There are no other options.

Part 2: The trolley is heading towards 5 people. You are on a bridge over the trolley and can push a fat man off to stop the trolley, but the fat man will die. Do you do it?

More here: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/06/the-google-trolley-problem.html

Could become a real problem as programmers and engineers design products like driverless cars. Interesting moral dilemmas.

fee8002 · Dec 28, 2012

myp said:
What are your thoughts on this problem:

There is an out-of-control trolley heading towards 5 people. You can switch the track so it goes to another track, but there is 1 person there. Do you switch the track? There are no other options.

Part 2: The trolley is heading towards 5 people. You are on a bridge over the trolley and can push a fat man off to stop the trolley, but the fat man will die. Do you do it?

More here: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/06/the-google-trolley-problem.html

Could become a real problem as programmers and engineers design products like driverless cars. Interesting moral dilemmas.

I think that it is better to lose one person in the face of a tragedy than to lose 5 so i think it would be better to switch the track.

Part 2: I don't think i would be morally able to push the fat man off knowing that he would for sure die.

myp · Dec 28, 2012

Even in the first scenario, the internal dialect one has might be along the lines of- if I do nothing, what happens will happen, if I switch the track, I am responsible for the one man's death. It is an interesting and difficult dilemma. Also, is no action, action itself?

Jessi · Dec 28, 2012

myp said:
Even in the first scenario, the internal dialect one has might be along the lines of- if I do nothing, what happens will happen, if I switch the track, I am responsible for the one man's death.

You are also responsible for saving 5 people's lives, no?

It is an interesting and difficult dilemma. Also, is no action, action itself?

I think so. You're actively choosing to watch and not change something to make a difference.

myp · Dec 28, 2012

Jessi said:
You are also responsible for saving 5 people's lives, no?

Does it justify killing another?

fee8002 · Dec 28, 2012

but then you are asking the bigger question, are you ever justified to kill someone else?

myp · Dec 28, 2012

fee8002 said:
but then you are asking the bigger question, are you ever justified to kill someone else?

I don't know, are you?

I think an important point to consider here is also that it is easy to say one thing in a hypothetical situation, but when it comes to actual reality and you see the man laying there, it becomes a much tougher decision. It also becomes a decision you have to live with for the rest of your life.

The Google Trolley Problem

myp

fee8002

myp

Jessi

myp

fee8002

myp

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