Who Loves Trains?
2024-10-03 22:51:28 - StringTheory
Ship of Theseus Trolley
Scenario: If you do not pull the lever, one person will be crushed to death instantly. If you do pull the lever, the trolley will divert into a thousand-mile stretch of track with one person tied down at the end of it. If as the trolley rolls down this thousand-mile track, a crew systemically switches out every piece of the original trolley with a replacement part. Did the trolley that you diverted kill the man?
Grandfather Trolley Problem
Scenario: You are a time traveller. A runaway trolley is heading to kill five people. If you pull the lever only one will die but the person on the other track is your grandfather and your parents haven’t even been born yet. What happens if you pull the lever?
Veil of Ignorance Trolley Problem
Scenario: In this scenario, you don’t know where you’ll be in the trolley problem. However, you have to choose the scenario in advance. Would it be in your personal interest for the lever to be pulled?
Sisyphus Trolley Problem
Scenario: The lever only changes the course of the track for 5 seconds before switching back to the first path, where it will kill five people. You must keep pulling the lever in order to save these people (neither you nor the captives need to sleep or eat because this is a Greek myth or something). There is no one else nearby, and no way of leaving or reaching help. Do you keep pulling the lever in the hope that somehow these circumstances will change, or do you decide that this is an inherently futile act and that to keep all of you in this state of imprisoned limbo for all eternity was more cruel than death?
The Monty Trolley Problem
Scenario: You are forced to blindly choose a path for a trolley to travel down, knowing one has only one person tied to it and the other two have five. As the trolley approaches, one pathway, which you did not choose, is revealed to you to have five people tied to it. Is it in your moral best interest to switch tracks to the unknown path that you did not originally choose?
6. Fat Man Trolley Problem
Scenario: The runaway trolley is heading towards our well-known railroad switch. However, you find yourself on a bridge, cursed with the opportunity to push a fat man on the tracks. Do you push the fat man on the tracks to prevent the trolley problem from occurring in the first place?
Hedonist’s Trolley Problem
Scenario: The trolley on the track is heading down a track with six people tied to it. If you pull the lever, it will switch to A but won’t do the totally sick loop-da-loop.
Actual Trolley Problem
Scenario: You’re not the one pulling the lever. You’re part of the group of five people lying on the tracks hoping the person makes a decision that doesn’t kill you. There’s no decision for you to make. You may have hope, though.
Actual Actual Trolley Problem
Scenario: In our final scenario, you’re not only not the person pulling the lever. You can also comfortably abandon all hope that the finely dressed gentleman entrusted with operating the railroad switch will decide in your favour as he has been handsomely rewarded by his fellow peer.