It's infinite, and it just passes on forever, or...
It's not infinite and somebody at the end has no choice, in which case nobody in charge of a lever has killed anyone

So yeah, I say pass it on.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 31 points 2 years ago (14 children)

Except that somewhere down that chain someone is almost certainly going to choose to kill people, so by passing the trolley on down to them you're responsible for killing a lot more than if you ended it right now.

And since every rational person down the line is going to think that, they'll all be itching to pull the "kill" lever first chance they get. So you know that you need to pull the kill lever immediately to minimize the number of deaths.

[–] Droechai@lemm.ee 9 points 2 years ago (12 children)

Only the person pulling the lever is responsible for his/her action though. There is a difference between passively passing on and actively murder someone

[–] roguetrick@kbin.social 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Dentological ethics: you have a duty to not murder people, so you don't pull the lever

Utilitarian ethics: pulling the lever will kill less people

[–] Droechai@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

In this case it isn't even a guarantee that anyone has to die as the problem is presented, the tram can just continue to be passed along. The default setting for the lever is "go to next" so to not pull the lever is easier both physically and morally.

The individual that pulls the lever is the same individual that would take action to harm others for no benefit, and even in real life I can't morally take responsibility for a person who runs over a child by purpose after I let his/her car merge in front of me just before a school crossing

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