this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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[โ€“] cloudy1999@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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.

If it creates infinite number of people, it could solve world hunger with some good ol' Soylent green thinking. Although you might want to figure out how to slow down the trolley at some point.