Wirehead Studios

For best results, please read and respond to each question in turn, don't read both before answering each.

Question 1: You are the conductor of a small trolley, doing important trolley-related things. While coming down the hill, you discover to your shock that the breaks have gone out. Further on down the tracks, there is a Y junction. To the left (the path the switch is currently set to), are 5 careless workers eating lunch on the tracks. Should you proceed down that path, you would most assuredly kill them all. On the other branch is a single lone worker, doing the same. All 6 men are wearing mp3 players, and thus cannot be warned. Do you flip the switch, and trade 1 life for 5?

Once you've chosen, proceed on to the next question...






















Question 2: This time, you are standing on a foot bridge overlooking some trolley tracks. A trolley coming down a nearby hill has apparently lost use of its breaks, and is bearing down upon 5 workers eating lunch, this time with no branch in the track. Near you is a very large man who is standing quite close to the edge of the bridge, which has no guardrails or anything to speak of. You know that if you push the man off the bridge, his considerable size will be able to bring the trolley to a stop before it kills the 5 men, at the completely unavoidable expense of his own life. Once again the workers are wearing mp3 players, and too far away to get to in time. So, do you push the man off the bridge, and trade 1 life for 5?

Post the first answer you came up with to both questions, and please be honest.

1) Mow down the lone worker
2) I don't think I could deliberately push a man to his death

flip a coin, let god sort 'em out

Luck comes in 2 flavors afterall: bad and good, and both are indiscriminate

1) yes
2) no

:)

Im not gonna get tried for murder to try and save people... ya know with today's justice system, you cant even shoot an intruder in your house without doing time...

1) mow down the 1, if you are dumb enough to be eating on train tracks... Although less cleanup the better
2) still mow down the 5 workers, morality of ultimate ends

always mow down the 5 workers . they should watch where they are eating .

besides , I can still sell the mp3 players .

Were I in such a situation, I would not switch the tracks.  The five workers have 5 sets of eyes.  One of them is BOUND to see it coming and react.  The lone worker has very little chance of seeing the trolley, and if his back is turned he certainly would not.  A fighting chance to live is always better than certain death.  I would also do everything in my power to slow or stop the trolley in the mean time, such as attempting to rip off a seat and throw it under the wheels.  If there was anything on the trolley at all that could be thrown then I would throw it and hit one of the men to get their attention if they did not respond to the horn or loud shouting.

In the second situation, no, I would not throw the man off the bridge.  Again I would do whatever I could to get the attention of the men who were about to die.

For the first one I chose not to flip the switch.  I don't think I could live with takeing action to cause death though it is easier to allow death through inaction. After reading Pho's post I find that pho's comments made sense and that through inaction I gave everyone a chance to live.  For the seccond question I again chose no.  This time it is because I could not push that man off the bridge; it is his choice to sacrafice himself for others, not mine. again after reading pho's post I find that The many in danger have a better chance than the one.

These are difficult questions and I hope that I never have to make them in real life. I feel that wether I made the right decision or not I would have made the decision for the wrong reason and would find it difficult to deal with what that would mean to me.

1) Leave the switch alone, because then I would be intentionally killing the lone guy by changing course. At least with the 5 I would feel more like it was an accident and couldnt be helped.

2) Hell no, for exactly the same reason Dicion gave . :D

I told ya that story with the criminal   :D