Taking Trolley Problem Memes Seriously (Again)

- VIDEO NOTES

Trolley problem memes, again.

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Subscribe to The Liberator: @TheLiberator2020

- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Dictator Clone
2:18 The Hackers
3:42 The Mona Lisa
6:24 The Same Number of People
8:00 Deal or No Deal?

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Alex O'Connor
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[canstopwillstop]

Always loved this one "You are a philosophy professor. Noone is in danger. Do you tie people to the trolley tracks to save your job?"

[TehDogge]

My favorite version of this problem:
A trolley is heading towards an empty track; You can pull the lever to kill 1 person, or double the amount of people and give the same decision to another person down the tracks.
This repeats for infinity OR until someone pulls the lever to kill these 2^(n-1) people.
Once the train passes an iteration (choice gets doubled), the previously tied up people get freed.

In theory, if nobody decides to pull the lever, you can infinitely double the amount of people, without ever letting anyone die. But you run the risk of giving a lunatic that choice, and your refusing to kill the 1 person might lead to hundreds of thousands dying instead.
I'd argue killing 1 person, in order to prevent that disaster is moral; but how many people is the limit?
If you're at iteration 8, there's 128 people on the track - would it still be worth killing them in order to save a potential infinite amount? What iteration would be the cutoff for pulling the lever?

[EzaleaGraves]

The one about the Mona Lisa and the Louvre is especially interesting if you think of the reverse.
Would whoever commissioned the construction of the Louvre have changed his mind if told, "at least one worker will die during the construction"? What about five? Ten? How many workers can be expected to die before a project is considered too dangerous?

[wozzywick]

I love your solo content, I’m glad you’ve not fully abandoned it for the interviews

[CLONisKING]

The Mona Lisa Trolley Problem made me realize something. Sure in the case of the Trolley Problem, while actively considering the value of human life, most would immediately choose the painting. Or any Art or City etc. However, if you would compare the reactions to the news "five people tragically died on a train track yesterday" and the "Louvre was set on fire, and all of the artworks are now gone forever", would definitely be more extreme on the Louvre news. Probably just because we're just so used to the news of people dying, and we don't attribute value to nameless people in the news.

[chocofro]

The one I saw the other day established that "no one is on the tracks, and no one was in danger" but asked "do you jump in front of the moving trolley?" lol

[unusual]

What about the case where you pull the lever to kill Hitler’s clone or you don’t pull the lever and you kill Alex’s mustache?

[Nova-yr]

Me detecting the goddamn vpn ad as soon as it starts because I've heard so goddamn many of them

[ThePowerman]

My 9 year old son was playing that trolly problem game and intentionally selecting the “wrong” answer every time. He’d start giggling almost uncontrollably until the next question

[pellekuipers]

The thing you said about replacing London with brutalist apartment blocks – I think if you do that, you’d have some suicides on our hands. The thing with art or living spaces is that they teach us things and give life meaning. Life is not only there to live, but also to give it purpose

[PropagandalfderWeiße]

11:00 a quote often attributed to Stalin "The death of a single man is a tragedy, the death of a million a mere statistic"

[jzmc]

Rule 51 of the internet, if it exists there is a trolley problem based on it

[Izurag]

On the "enhanced" Mona Lisa problem:
Another interesting thing to consider is the perspective of the human victims in this case; how would you feel if the entire world's art has been sacrificed to save your life?
Can you imagine the burden on your conscience you will have to carry all your life?

[GuildOfTheBlackCrow]

I like to think of the trolley problem this way:
A razor is hovering around five faces. You have the option to pull a lever, diverting a razor onto another face where only one moustache is growing. The dilemma asks whether it's morally acceptable to actively intervene to save five faces from growing a moustache at the cost of one or to do nothing and allow the five to grow moustaches.

[b]

i've seen one somewhere that says "You can either let the trolley run over yourself, or change the tracks, and by doing so, erasing you out of history, making everyone forget you and everything you had done, forever. What's more important? You, or the concept of you?"

[shambhav]

Do you forcefully shave off Alex's moustache? On the one hand, you liberate this world of great evil, but at the same time, you overlook his personal freedoms.

[theignorantcatholic]

It's ironic because people say they should pull the leaver and destroy beautiful things, but most of the time they won't sacrifice their own beautiful enjoyments to save lives, which they know they could probably do tomorrow if they investigated it.

[TheLiberator]

I really appreciate the shoutout Alex, extremely generous. Another great video!

[gustavertboellecomposer]

it would be absolutely hilarious to see alex play through a game like detroit: become human and then over-analyzing every single choice or story beat in terms of their philosophical implications lmao

[kathrynjones]

The real issue with the same number of people problem is that pulling or not pulling the lever materially effects you as a person beyond giving you a quick hit of pleasure or not.