Don't flip the lever. For the bus to kill the person in position 1, it has to kill the person in position 0.5 first. But before 0.5, it must run over 0.25. And before that, 0.125. Actually, this can be extended ad infinitum. Therefore, motion is not real, and nobody would die.

the consequences of viewing infinity as a quantity and not as a process

(also cantor was using math to smuggle theology, change my mind)

Move the second and third together, fourth, fifth and sixth together, and so on. I that way, the trolley is killing 1 + 2 + 3... killing a total of -1/12 people.

the real number track would gum up the wheels before the trolley got very far

No one dies, because we can demonstrate that the track is infinitely empty by moving the person in the first position to the second position (and second to third and so on) before the trolley hits them. Then just repeat the process before the trolley reaches the second position (and so on).

Multitrack drifting will derail the train, only killing a finite number of people

Point out the contradictions in the concept of infinity, smirk, then turn away (if I don't look back then neither option has fully materialized).

As a compromise, I would simply construct a third track whose cardinality is strictly between that of the integers and the real numbers, and divert the train to that.

The solution is obvious. For the top track, Number each person that would be killed, and add a device to the front of the trolley such for each enumerated person reached, it will save them if the corresponding Turing Machine in standard enumeration halts. This has become an instance of the halting problem and thus the trolley cannot run.

Similarly, the bottom rail is even easier. Add a device that will save the person that is represented by the real number whose value can be decoded as the set of turing machines that halt. Once again we have an instance of the halting problem and, once again, the trolley cannot run.

The bottom one so that -1/12 people come back to life.

finitism, the moral position. no communist use has been found for eliminating uncountably many people. the utterings of the absurd

Does the trolley run them all over instantly or does it take time to do so? If it doesn't run them over what happens to them? Do they stay tied to the tracks until they die from other causes? If so I'd probably pick the bottom one because death by trolley is probably better than death by dehydration over 2-3 days.

real infinity, not integer infinity

it would take an infinite amount of time to even get around to stating the first real number, so nobody would die

alternatively, the above doesn't work and instead everybody gets run over in a time span shorter than a nanosecond because there's an infinite number of real numbers within even the smallest time interval. This also means the trolley is moving at faster than the speed of light, so suffering is minimized, and laws of physics are violated (a twofer)

Okay, the chef at my work thought sharks were a type of dinosaur and me and another guy just spent several hours trying to make him understand that while physically things are generally finite the concept of infinity is in fact real. He explained the science, I went more philosophical and explained the concept is real because we're discussing it. You know in Sci fi when they use a machine to go into someone's brain and it's conceptualized as a weird hallway or whatever? This is one I'm super intrigued to do that if possible and also deeply terrified.

Damn I wish I knew math

@AlephNull@hexbear.net should have the answer