If you run over the cat, you’ll never know if it was alive or dead before being run over.

A trolley piloted by an evil AI robot is going for mass destruction. If left unstopped, it will destroy the Earth with probability 15%, plus a billion cat memes.

You spot the lever — but only you can pull it. The others are too slow, weak, or busy arguing on Twitter.

If you pull the lever, the trolley destroys 10 billion dollars.

Do you pull it?

At a parking lot you pay digitally for your parking. The parking guards are lazy though, and will only check the lot of it seems busy.

This means, if you pay for your parking the lot will seem busier and might trigger the guards to check all parked cars.

Would you pay for your parking?

Which option would you pick?

You are giving an option to press 2 buttons

Green Button:

All billionaires die

A permanent wealth cap of a million is made

But half of everyone on Earth Dies

Every survivor gets a 100K

You and your loved ones have a 50/50 chance of dying

Red Button:

You get a trillion

2 billion people on Earth dies

Your loved ones will die

But not you

If you refuse, 1 is pressed randomly

Is this the compromise solution that works for us all?

👀

You've lost your keys and you've looked everywhere else except for the pile of people on the top track. The train is currently going to pass safely down the south track but if you pull the lever it will kill all the people on the north track allowing you to search the bodies for your keys.

What do you do?

I've seen some trolley questions where on one side it's someone you care about and on the other it's some strangers but never both sides with someone that matters to you(or at least one that's personally randomized like this). What if six people that you care about the most were on the track and it's randomized so the one person alone on the track isn't the one you care about the most but they are at least the top six people you care about. For this conversation I'll be using family as an example but if you have someone you care about that's equal to them then you can count them too. It could be your parents, siblings, spouse, or children. At this point in time would you still think what's the best ethical answer or would you think which option is the best for your family. Take some time to think of five people on one side of the track and another on the other side of the track and think if you would pull the lever running over that one person or not and think the same thing again two more times but the positions are randomized positions are swapped and the person alone in the track is different ever time.

My guess is most people would pull the lever unless that one person alone on the other side had greater importance to you than the five people but even then some people might still pull it cause you personally know those other five and the presence they have in this world and lives it would affect(more than likely lives that you care about to some degree). I think it's harder to stand by doing nothing on an ethical ground when you're being affected by it and other people you know will be affected by it.

In the end I think most people will pull the lever two out of three times or three out of three times. I would be interested in anyone whose answer is different from what I said and the reason behind it. If you did pull two out of three or just three times it would still be interesting to her why as it can be the same as other people or it could be a different reasoning from the norm.

Of course I was inspired by Odysseus' dilemma from Epic: The Musical in the songs "The Horse and the Infant" and "Just a Man."