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Re: Maemo Morality

With all of these people tied to tracks, crazy trains, and broken swithches, where the fluck is Superman?

Re: Maemo Morality

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkwatts (Post 612030)

from mylot.com

I was taking a philosophy class and our teacher asked us these three scenarios.

1: You are standing by the switch near a train track. The train is coming and the brakes are broken. The train is headed on a path where it will run over five people who are tied to the tracks, killing them. If you pull the switch, the train will switch direction and go on a track where it will kill 1 person who is tied to the tracks, but if you don't pull it he will be safe. You have no time to untie anyone. What do you do?

2: You are standing on a bridge over a train track. The train is coming, the brakes are broken, and there are 5 people tied to the tracks. There is a fat man on the bridge. This man is fat enough that if you pushed him, he would stop the train from running over the 5 people, but he would be killed. Do you push him?

3: Same situation as #2, but the fat man is standing on a trapdoor. You are standing by a lever that will open the trapdoor, he will fall onto the tracks, stop the train from running over the five people, and be killed. Do you pull it?

What would you do?

1. Pull the switch
2. Try to untie. The fat man is not to get pushed. Why is there not an answer to put yourself on there if you want to be so heroic? Just because he is fat he has to die. That is messed up.
3. Don't pull the lever. Survival of the fittest! What did those five people do to be in that situation? I would more likely get video and Youtube that stuff. Or sell it to Faces of Death.

Re: Maemo Morality

Quote:

Originally Posted by optimistprime (Post 612215)

With all of these people tied to tracks, crazy trains, and broken swithches, where the fluck is Superman?

He's busy on PR1.2...

The question should be: If you have an update, which is fixing 5 bugs. Would you deliver it, when 1 bug is not fixed at all? Even it's a major bug?

Re: Maemo Morality

Quote:

Originally Posted by ysss (Post 612135)

I will push/pull all the switches and I will give the fat guy a really bad guilt trip so he'll jump on his own accord.

Yeah, convincing the fat guy to be a hero is a good option, but would be good to try and find large enough objects to replace him first. Other good options would be flipping the switch on-off fast or precisely enough so maybe the train derails (would need to know if it’s a freighter and the speed/terrain config). I would also hunt down those who tie people to tracks, and those who sabotage both normal and emergency brakes or intentionally direct trains over people tied to tracks.

PS. #3 and #1 is not the same, in #1 the ’alterative’ has no choice, in #3 you can talk to the fat guy which opens a whole slew of other options.

Re: Maemo Morality

The first principle is do no harm, if you feel you have to choose who to kill you are being manipulated. (one life has infinite possibility 5 have infinite possibility)

You don't have to kill anyone. The choice to kill the 5 or 1 person was made by someone else. To quote Douglass Adams it is an SEP "Someone Else's Problem".

Hell for all I know it could even be a democratic state execution.

Re: Maemo Morality

If one has an ability to do something right, or cause an event to unfold in a morally correct way, but doesn't, does he have any moral responsibility for the outcome?

Thats sort of the question at the root of your questions. There is another question having to do with whether the moral value of humans is additive, and I think that no one can argue that over the long run it isn't.

Re: Maemo Morality

These are all basically the same question. In each case I'd sacrifice the 1 person to save the other 5. A lot of people think that's wrong for some reason, but if I have a choice of either letting 5 random people die or letting 1 random person die, it's an easy decision. Unless you believe in fate or some crap like that it should be a no-brainer.

Re: Maemo Morality

Quote:

Originally Posted by timwatt (Post 612266)

The first principle is do no harm, if you feel you have to choose who to kill you are being manipulated. (one life has infinite possibility 5 have infinite possibility)

Of course, the first assumption is that the situation is real and spontaneous. Otherwise, it could be a Steven Seagal movie sequel for all you know (let’s assume for a second no states do execution by running trains over convicts).

Re: Maemo Morality

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkwatts (Post 612030)

1. I would pull the switch, but only halfway, so the train wouldn't run over any of the people. Perhaps it would crash, and the people inside the train could get injured, but none of them, nor the tied people would die.

2. and 3. The weight of a "fat" person is 120-150 kg at best, and the weight of only an electronic engine is 80 tonne, so the fat man wouldn't stop it.
Instead, I would jump onto the train, and try to activate the emergency break.

Re: Maemo Morality

...and that single person might have gone on to discover the cure for cancer, while one of the 5 may go on to become the next Hitler, or rapist/murderer/serial killer.