first thing I’m seeing this morning, I’m feeling content :)
Canonically, the reader/audience stand-in is Mr. Leverpuller. Am I to assume that he’s riding in the tram? To where then? Without a lever for pulling he’s now unemployed. He has lost his purpose in life. What’s the use of safety, when the destination no longer matters?
Now Mr Leverpuller receives a basic income from the state and is free to pursue a career or hobby in a field they enjoy without worrying about how they will survive paycheck to paycheck
Ah… but what when he actually liked the job he was doing? Presenting binary choices with leverthrowing might sound like a strange hobby to have, but I don’t judge. Unfortunately, the discarded levers from the scrapyard don’t really scratch that itch the same way… they must be connected to something consequential. But without switches to switch Mr. Leverpuller had to get creative: Thus the trolley problem variant with the fat man on a bridge became one of his more infamous later works.
Entire edifices of philosophy just came crashing down.
Thanks, I needed that.
