Programmer Humor

„I pull this lever and suddenly it’s not my problem anymore“

Step in front of the train: Tell your manager this whole project is dumb, provide a list of reasons why it's a bad idea and explain you are prepared to resign rather than enable its further development.

MULTI-TRACK DRIFTING!! Which also kills the other lever guy, bonus!

Someone needs to stop tying people to those train tracks or this trolley problem will never go away.

Napkin math, from the last time I saw this:

I’ve been thinking about this. I estimate a few people per 1000 would do an atrocity for no reason if they were guaranteed no consequences, and the deaths if the switch is pulled are 2^(n-1) for the nth switch. The expected deaths will cross 1 somewhere in the high single-digits, then (since it’s outcome*chance), so the death minimising strategy is actually to pull yours if the chain is at least that long.

Edit: This assumes the length of the chain is variable but finite, and the trolley stops afterwards. If it's infinite obviously you pull the switch.

If we keep doubling, will I eventually be a person on the tracks? There are a finite number of people, so eventually I would be, right? So, passing the buck would be equivalent to handing my fate to a stranger.

OTOH, if there are an infinite number of people, then this thought experiment is creating people out of thin air. Do these imaginary people's rhetorical lives even matter?

Either way, it seems better to kill 1 person at the start.

Half-pull the lever so that the points get stuck midway between the two tracks. That should derail the trolley. Someone could conceivably still get hurt, but it improves everyone's chances.

(What? You mean it isn't a literal trolley that has to obey the laws of physics? Damn.)

If we all collectively agree to just pass it on, then either:

• It's infinite, and it just passes on forever, or...

• It's not infinite and somebody at the end has no choice, in which case nobody in charge of a lever has killed anyone

So yeah, I say pass it on.

Just keep doubling forever until the number is more than everyone alive, free s-risk emergency button.