Questions Too Like the Lightning raised for me, part 3

[asakiyume]

We've reached it: Yet Another Asakiyume Rant on the Trolley Problem. When I first committed to writing this, I was all fired up. I was sure I had a totally new and many-splendored rant that would *not* merely be a rehash of my past rants. Now that some time has passed, I ... think I was wrong.

Here's the slim thought that seemed new at the time: trying to find out which of two (or however many) awful options a person will take in a controlled simulation is asking the wrong questions. It's assuming a forgone conclusion (death) and so it asks, which deaths? who dies? But the future is never known, and it's much, much more meaningful to have people exert their energies toward other solutions. "What can be done in this situation?" That's the question to ask--open ended, not an either-or. Letting people imagine deploying secret brakes or giant trolley airbags or robot rescue dirigibles might appear to be an exercise in escapism, but it also might generate actual ideas for ways actual situations could be made safer.

I think the rest of what I'm tempted to say is all stuff I've said before. sovay asked me once whether I thought even just the act of engaging with the trolley scenario in imagination was harmful, and as I recall I equivocated, but coming back to it now, I guess I think yes, if it won't allow for alternative answers, it is. It's a way of compelling people to accede to death and rehearse manslaughter.

Comments

[khiemtran]

My take on the trolley problem is that the "return" of knowing how to act in a situation like that isn't worth the cost of doing the exercise. There are an infinite number of horrible scenarios that could be similarly devised (which of your two children would you eat first, if you were forced to eat one?) and the mental cost of thinking through each one would be enormous. Meanwhile, if you ever were in an actual situation where there were only two terrible choices and no other way out and you had to choose one of the two... then it would be completely reasonable and ethical (and human) to fail to choose anything in the hope that some other solution to appear. Or, for that matter, to panic and choose either choice at random. People could argue you didn't make the ideal choice, but no one could say you didn't make a reasonable one, under the circumstances.

[asakiyume]

EXACTLY AS YOU SAY. I was going to make up a similar example about kids.

And precisely, about the conclusion. Either way, people died and people were saved. We mourn the people who died and are grateful for the people who survived.