Absurd Trolley Problems • Hacker News Board

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#181

Post by magnio » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 5:58 AM UTC

cowtools wrote: post #124

everfree wrote: post #98

I'm surprised to see the popular answer to Question 3. > Oh no! A trolley is heading towards 5 people. You can pull the lever to divert it to the other track, but then your life savings will be destroyed. What do you do? Over 70% chose to pull the lever and destroy their life savings. People die of preventable causes in developing countries today. By choosing not to donate your life savings today to help them, you ar…

For me, the difference is that one is an emergency and the other is a long-term sytematic issue. The cost of the lives of 5 first-world people in terms of economic productivity is like an order of magnitude greater than my savings.

What did you answer for problem 6, where a rich man offers you money to pull the lever and kill someone else? Presumably, a rich man is likely to have more economic productivity than a random person.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#182

Post by bjornsing » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 5:59 AM UTC

everfree wrote: post #98

I'm surprised to see the popular answer to Question 3. > Oh no! A trolley is heading towards 5 people. You can pull the lever to divert it to the other track, but then your life savings will be destroyed. What do you do? Over 70% chose to pull the lever and destroy their life savings. People die of preventable causes in developing countries today. By choosing not to donate your life savings today to help them, you ar…

But you don’t have perfect information / certainty in this case. This is more akin to a mystery box trolly case, or a fuzzy one.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#183

Post by sejje » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 5:59 AM UTC

ConstantVigil wrote: post #117

Kill count: 84 Apparently I solved philosophy? Im gonna assume that title stays the same for everyone lol. So, explanation for why so high. Simply put; I don't believe 5 people really got tied to those rails each time. They are in on it somehow. If so, that is sick and twisted they would tie someone else to the rails purposely. So they deserve the trolley instead. Now on the chance that they really are all innocent;…

I killed 83 and I mostly sided with the majority.

I sometimes also assigned blame to those tied up, or at least agency; they could have prevented this situation, somehow, probably.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#184

Post by missedthecue » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 6:01 AM UTC

gverrilla wrote: post #17

Not many people care about Mona Lisa lmao

It would live on as a ripped up painting with two wheel marks run across it and a very interesting backstory.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#185

Post by brewdad » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 6:02 AM UTC

Semaphor wrote: post #19

I wonder what the explanations are for 18, most people killed the robots. Assumption of backups? Or caring about your own species more?

If we kill all the robots, they can never become our overlords. Right?

Right?

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#186

Post by throwaway787544 » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 6:02 AM UTC

thirdplace_ wrote: post #16

59% would sacrifice their own life for five people? Someone been messing with the votes.

I'd sacrifice myself for five clones, not five random people. Or for the robots. Robots and clones have got it tough. Random people are probably dicks, and I've not been a great person either.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#187

Post by latency-guy » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 6:03 AM UTC

Semaphor wrote: post #19

I wonder what the explanations are for 18, most people killed the robots. Assumption of backups? Or caring about your own species more?

I strictly don't believe in sentience being possible for robots. I think robots can and may eventually pass the Turing test to a meaningful degree - but only on the end of imitating/fooling us.

So this question is more like would I like to destroy a couple of expensive robots or kill someone. I chose to 'kill' the robots. Some might see this as cheating or not in the spirit of the question being asked - for me, I can't and will never concede 'programmable sentience' as any sort of reality.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#188

Post by brewdad » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 6:03 AM UTC

gverrilla wrote: post #17

Not many people care about Mona Lisa lmao

I voted to save it but it really is a terrible experience trying to see it in person.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#189

Post by ipnon » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 6:03 AM UTC

My favorite variation is:

A trolley is heading towards a line of people corresponding to every natural number. You can pull a lever and divert the trolley towards a line of people corresponding to every real number between 0 and 1. What do you do?

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#190

Post by tluyben2 » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 6:04 AM UTC

Scaevolus wrote: post #119

tluyben2 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can communicate with the outside. Or maybe humanity exterminated itself besides the people in the magic trolley before you decided to get blown up.

That's the plot to _Snowpiercer_.

But they are not immortal there are they (never read/saw it)? And it's 'slightly' bigger than a trolley with more humans so you can (and i think they do/have?) a small society.