reddit trolley problems cant be that CURSED right...

reddit trolley problems cant be that CURSED right... they definitely can. PT 1

[axiezimmah]

For the monthy trolley problem its a variant of the monty hall problem.

Switching tracks means there is a 2/3 chance of hitting the 1 person and only a 1/3 chance of hitting the 5 persons.

Not switching tracks has a 1/3rd chance of hitting only 1 person and a 2/3rd chance of hitting 5.

So it's better to switch, as the expected value of lives saved is higher.

[feierlord]

The recursive one is either one death or more than one death, because eventually, someone is going to pull the lever.

[Camilo-nesx]

4:18 I think that one is making fun of the thousands of situations where everyone agrees that a thing should be done but capitalism pulls its strings or whatever and we are forced to just watch how nothing gets done

[axiezimmah]

So the gamblers trolley problem is actually really interesting.

If you are looking at it from a purely numbers perspective. 5*1/4 > 1 so pulling the lever on average would kill more people.

If a 2000 people were confronted with this problem, and 1000 people pulled the lever, and 1000 didnt, the 1000 that didnt would have caused 1000 deaths, while the 1000 that did would have caused 1250 deaths (statistically)

However. There is also a 75% chance of having no deaths at all. Which in my books makes it the better outcome.

But then the question becomes, how many lives are you willing to risk to save one?

What if there were 10 people on the track? What about 50? A 100? A whole town? A whole country?

At what point does it become more justifyable to take 1 live for sure than to gamble with many lives?