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Comment by baskethead | Hacker News Reader

The thing is that when you pull the level, you're interfering so you're the cause of the consequence after pulling the lever. If you don't pull the lever, you're not responsible for what happens, at least in my opinion. That's why in the basic case of a trolley heading towards 5 people or 1 person, I wouldn't pull the level no matter what because at least the deaths of the 5 people aren't my fault, but the death of the 1 person would be my fault.

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I was really surprised majority would pull the lever to kill the litterer versus the inaction killing good citizen. I don't consider myself the moral authority to sentence someone to death for such a minor crime. There was a substantive barrier before I would take action but I would take action when it was significantly weighted.

Apparently we’re in the minority together. Cynically (and practically) there’s also the legal side to think about. If you cause a person to be killed by a trolley, you will at minimum be sued into oblivion. If you do nothing no legal case can realistically be levied against you.

Edit: a fun part of the trolley problem not really explored here is how inconsistent most people’s logic gets when the outcomes are effectively the same but the actions are slightly different. For example, what if instead of pushing a button you had to shoot the person on the tracks? What if you could kill someone today who is going to shoot up a mall tomorrow? More fun, what if you could push a button to kill a millionaire and redistribute their wealth to save 100 families in subsaharan Africa?

Logically, as soon as you go down the path of actively choosing to kill a person to achieve some “greater good”, you’ve really thrown an awful lot of morals out the window.

Isn't a standard alternative, you can push a very fat man on the track and derail the trolley. All of a sudden a lot less people are willing to sacrifice the fat man.

Despite the fact that a man fat enough to derail a trolley, if even possible, likely has an extremely low quality of life and an extremely short life expectancy.

Not to mention, unless you’re into bodybuilding, trying to push anyone who weighs enough to derail a trolley will probably not work.

Or that’s one weak-ass trolley.

>If you don't pull the lever, you're not responsible for what happens, at least in my opinion.

I disagree. I think there's some point at which minimal effort from you for appreciable reward for others puts an obligation on you. And that's precisely the reason the trolley problem is so popular.

Also known as the Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics.

I will take action to save myself. I will not take action to decide between others.

Apart from stupid cat problem...

This kinda misses the mirror problems, where out comes are switched.

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