AlexMennen comments on The Unselfish Trolley Problem - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (131)
I would cling to the small chance of living until that chance gets extremely tiny. I can't pinpoint how tiny it would have to be because I'm a human and humans suck at numbers.
I don't do any sophisticated calculations. I just try to avoid accidents. What are you trying to get from my answer to that question?
I would sacrifice myself to prevent the entire human civilization from collapsing. I would not sacrifice myself to save 1000 other people. That leaves quite a large range, and I haven't pinned down where the breakeven point is. Deciding whether or not to sacrifice myself to save 10^5 other people is a lot harder than deciding whether or not to sacrifice myself to save 5 other people.
I already said that I would kill one person to save five in the idealized trolley problem. My point was that if something like the trolley problem actually happened to me, it would not be the idealized trolley problem, and those assumptions you mention are false in real life, so I would not assume them while making my decision.
Edit: It's worth pointing out that people face opportunities to sacrifice their own welfare for others at much better than 1000:1 ratios all the time, and no one takes them except for a few weirdos like Toby Ord.
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2980#comic