720
Recursion
(lemmy.world)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
720 points (95.3% liked)
Programmer Humor
19198 readers
993 users here now
Welcome to Programmer Humor!
This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!
For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.
Rules
- Keep content in english
- No advertisements
- Posts must be related to programming or programmer topics
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
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.
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
If I hand a machete to Jason Voorhees I think I'm at least partly responsible for the people he hits with it. I know what he's going to do with that thing.
Except you're not passing a machete to Jason Voorhees. That would be "double it and pass it to the next person who you know is going to pull the lever."
You're passing a machete to the next person in line. You don't know who that is. They may or may not pass the machete down the line. Considering I would not expect a person chosen at random to kill someone when handed a machete, it seems unethical for me to kill someone with a machete just to prevent handing it to someone else.
I know Jason is somewhere down that line I'm handing the machete off to. And the farther down the line he is the more people he's going to kill.
There are only 33 people in the line though.
Either you get to 33 and there are no more and the track just ends or it’s “nuke the planet” or dont for everyone else above 33.
Or it keeps doubling even well after its surpassed the human population, and we all have to keep hitting "pass" in turns forever, and if even a single person gives up then boom.