Absurd Trolley Problems • Hacker News Board

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#61

Post by Tostino » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 4:42 AM UTC

IIAOPSW wrote: post #52

JonathanFly wrote: post #21

>Oh no! Due to a construction error, a trolley is stuck in an eternal loop. If you pull the lever the trolley will explode, and if you don't the trolley and it's passengers will go in circles for eternity. What do you do? 50% of people pull the lever?!? I hereby declare that if I'm ever going to be stuck in a trolley for my entire life, I do NOT want the lever pulled. Toss me a smartphone charger and my life wouldn't…

How you going to eat buddy? You want the explosion option, or the starve to death option?

I didn't see anything in that prompt that said someone couldn't toss me my lunch while I pass by.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#62

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 4:44 AM UTC

JonathanFly wrote: post #21

>Oh no! Due to a construction error, a trolley is stuck in an eternal loop. If you pull the lever the trolley will explode, and if you don't the trolley and it's passengers will go in circles for eternity. What do you do? 50% of people pull the lever?!? I hereby declare that if I'm ever going to be stuck in a trolley for my entire life, I do NOT want the lever pulled. Toss me a smartphone charger and my life wouldn't…

[deleted]

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#63

Post by er4hn » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 4:44 AM UTC

I killed 67 people, but 5 deaths were due to pressing the wrong button on the painting level.

Do I start over and pull more levers to lower my score or do nothing?

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#64

Post by bdowling » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 4:46 AM UTC

thirdplace_ wrote: post #16

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

Or some people stopped reading the prompts after they started getting repetitive.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#65

Post by grayfaced » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 4:46 AM UTC

baskethead wrote: post #40

The thing is that when you pull the level, you're interfering so you're the cause of the consequence after pulling the lever. If you don't pull the lever, you're not responsible for what happens, at least in my opinion. That's why in the basic case of a trolley heading towards 5 people or 1 person, I wouldn't pull the level no matter what because at least the deaths of the 5 people aren't my fault, but the death of t…

I was really surprised majority would pull the lever to kill the litterer versus the inaction killing good citizen. I don't consider myself the moral authority to sentence someone to death for such a minor crime. There was a substantive barrier before I would take action but I would take action when it was significantly weighted.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#66

Post by SV_BubbleTime » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 4:48 AM UTC

behringer wrote: post #46

JonathanFly wrote: post #21

>Oh no! Due to a construction error, a trolley is stuck in an eternal loop. If you pull the lever the trolley will explode, and if you don't the trolley and it's passengers will go in circles for eternity. What do you do? 50% of people pull the lever?!? I hereby declare that if I'm ever going to be stuck in a trolley for my entire life, I do NOT want the lever pulled. Toss me a smartphone charger and my life wouldn't…

They made a show about this called snow piercer.

You talking about the sequel to Willie Wonka? Good movie. I saw they made a show but haven’t seen it yet.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#67

Post by ISL » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 4:48 AM UTC

paxys wrote: post #12

Level 20 was weird. It was a choice between letting a trolley run as normal ("emits CO2, kills 3 people in accidents over 30 years") or running it into a brick wall and decommissioning it. For some reason more people picked the latter. So, they just dislike public transit? What about the emissions and death rate when everyone switches to cars instead? Goes to show how easily the context and exact wording of a questio…

My logic on that particular question was that someone would probably get a new trolley to replace it (trolleys are insured, right?), no matter what I thought, so I let the trolley go.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#68

Post by grayfaced » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 4:49 AM UTC

JonathanFly wrote: post #21

>Oh no! Due to a construction error, a trolley is stuck in an eternal loop. If you pull the lever the trolley will explode, and if you don't the trolley and it's passengers will go in circles for eternity. What do you do? 50% of people pull the lever?!? I hereby declare that if I'm ever going to be stuck in a trolley for my entire life, I do NOT want the lever pulled. Toss me a smartphone charger and my life wouldn't…

If it's stuck for eternity, I think there is enough time to ask the stuck person what they want.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#69

Post by c3534l » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 4:50 AM UTC

thirdplace_ wrote: post #16

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

The fact that its so low is kind of disturbing, and the fact that you're so cynical about it being so high means maybe you should reassess your values.

Re: Absurd Trolley Problems

#70

Post by c3534l » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 4:51 AM UTC

templaedhel wrote: post #32

This feels like a great introduction to the “Lizardman’s constant” ( https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/12/noisy-poll-results-and... ) > Lizardman’s Constant is an idea proposed by Scott Alexander that each poll always has about 4% weird answers. In one poll, 4% of Americans said that reptilian people do control our world and, in another 4% answered ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Have you ever been decapitated?’

I selected kill people over have my Amazon packages being late, but then I felt guilty about it and answered seriously in the rest of them.