Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the trolley problem itself is reasonable. Especially considering the implications of self driving vehicles and the need to program the decision making that could come to play if a car hurtling down the road has to choose between smashing into an obstacle or plowing into oncoming traffic or pedestrians. Using a racial slur to stop an atrocity seems completely unrealistic and non-applicable.
> Using a racial slur to stop an atrocity seems completely unrealistic and non-applicable. As a version of the "trolley problem" it seems completely unrealistic, but here's a plausible real-life scenario where someone could stop an atrocity by uttering a racial slur: You are an undercover government agent, who has been tasked with infiltrating a far-right extremist group, in order to determine whether they are planni…
Valid point overall. But the problem with undercover agents infiltrating terrorists are not really racial slurs. To be accepted among real terrorists, one has to do real terrorism.
(book recommendation: The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré)