Description: A meme with the caption “Okay so that was trolley problem version number 7. Janeway opted to run over five Tuvixes instead of one EMH.” Below is a picture of the inside of a trolley with Janeway smiling and covered in gore. Michael and Eleanor from The Good Place are on either side of her. Michael is taking notes and Eleanor is amazed.
She doesn’t look happy enough.
“Kat… Um, you ok?” - Chakotay
Unrelated but that movie was disappointing. But I’m also someone who didn’t like Army of Darkness.
She made the right call, even considering the EMH is a hologram and thus wouldn’t be harmed by a trolley.
I love a good Good Place meme. Especially one tucked away and not often used!
I mean imo the most ethical thing to do in the trolly problem is to do nothing. Let it do what it was going to do before you were there.
You have the option of killing 5 people or killing 1 person and you just let it go ahead and kill 5 people?
I’m going to disagree that you found a solution.
Some things in life don’t have solutions, only compromises.
The trolley problem decision is entirely dependent on the amount of detail that’s provided.
What if the 5 people are 5 Jeffrey Dahmers, and the 1 person is Mr Rogers? What if those 5 Dahmers had been reformed and had spent the past 20 years in selfless charitable service to orphans, and the Mr Rogers was 98 and expected to live only a few more months?
You can twist the conditions endlessly to sway the decision either way; however, I tend to agree with you: if you’re given only the most basic information, the best choice is to save the most people.
If you choose not to decide,
You still have made a choice.
It’s also dependent on what type of moral philosophy you subscribe to. A strict utilitarian will answer differently than someone who practices Kantian deontology.
