823
I say double it. (feddit.ch)
submitted 1 year ago by LemmyLaLibre@feddit.ch to c/memes@lemmy.ml
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[-] mofongo@lemm.ee 148 points 1 year ago

Thats actually a really good dilemma if you think about it. Like if everyone doubles it you basically don’t kill anyone. But you’ll always risk that there’s some psycho who likes killing and then you will have killed more. And if these choices continue endlessly you will eventually find someone like this. So killing immediately should be the right thing to do.

[-] ghariksforge@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago

At some people you will run out of people to tie to the tracks.

[-] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 12 points 1 year ago

How many branches is that going to take? Just out of interest.

[-] Magikjak@lemmy.world 44 points 1 year ago
[-] alerternate@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

math checks out. log2(8 billion) ~= 32.9

[-] ghariksforge@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

It's a little more complicated than that. You have to be summing everyone who is still tied to all the previous tracks. It needs to be a geometric sum formula.

[-] RatMaster@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago

You could just move them over whenever someone decides to double it up. That way the person that was going to die alone is doomed to die anyway. 😂

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[-] sabazius@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It'll just be one fewer junctions. 2^n is always one more than the sum of 2^1+...2^(n-1)

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[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

This is really the only answer. The only thing that makes it "hard" is having to face the brutality of moral calculus

[-] LazaroFilm@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Now, what if you’re not the first person on the chain? What if you’re the second one. Or the n one? What now? Would you kill two or n knowing that the person before you spared them?

[-] Neato@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago

The thing to do is kill now even if it's thousands. Because it's only going to get worse.

The best time to kill was the first trolly. The second best time to kill is now.

[-] apollo440@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Yes, but it also kinda depends on what happens at and after junction 34, from which point on more than the entire population of earth is at stake.

If anything, this shows how ludicrously fast exponentials grow. At the start of the line it seems like there will be so many decisions to be made down the line, so there must be a psycho in there somewhere, right? But (assuming the game just ends after junction 34) you're actually just one of 34 people, and the chance of getting a psycho are virtually 0.

Very interesting one!

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[-] beaubbe@lemmy.world 57 points 1 year ago

You gotta double it until it overflows to negatives, then you end up reviving billions of people!

[-] mp3@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 year ago

Then you end up killing more because of massive famine 💀

[-] Badland9085@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

And so you end up driving up food and housing demand, with no guarantee that the revived population can provide to the supply side. :P

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[-] refurbishedrefurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org 55 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Continuously double it so that the trolley has as much room as it needs to brake to a complete halt, therefore killing 0 people.

[-] TrismegistusMx@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

The real questions are, "Who is fueling and piloting the trolly, and can we kill them?"

[-] sheepyowl@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 1 year ago

Math-wise, it won't take long until they are tied to the track with us and everyone else.

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[-] Chadus_Maximus@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago

But it only takes 1 idiot to ruin the whole thing.

[-] mochi@lemdit.com 41 points 1 year ago

What if I want to be the person down the line?

[-] evdo 35 points 1 year ago

If I must kill 1 person or cause even more death, I suppose I'd kill the person responsible for this scenario.

[-] ChrisLicht@lemm.ee 34 points 1 year ago

Welcome to climate policy.

[-] Sotuanduso@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

That implies that if nobody tries to stop climate change, it'll never destroy the world.

[-] ChrisLicht@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Perhaps it roughly analogizes to Zeno’s Paradox.

[-] Saneless@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

Successfully explained climate change

[-] Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 year ago

Loop continues until entire human population tied to track and there's nobody left to pass the switch to. kill the scapegoat on round one and done

[-] torafugu@kbin.social 18 points 1 year ago

Double it. Then the other guy will double it, and so on. Infinite loop = no deaths.

[-] radioactiveradio@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago
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[-] Neve8028@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

And then there's some psycho on round 34 who kills all 8 billion people alive on earth.

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[-] ApfelstrudelWAKASAGI@feddit.de 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You would need a crazy low probability of a lunatic or a mass murderer being down the line to justify not to kill one person

Edit: Sum(2^n (1-p)^(n-1) p) ~ Sum(2^n p) for p small. So you'd need a p= (2×2^32 -2) ~ 1/(8 billion) chance of catching a psycho for expected values to be equal. I.e. there is only a single person tops who would decide to kill all on earth.

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago

Well what about the fact that after 34 people the entire population is tied to the tracks. What are the chances that one person out of 35 wants to destroy humanity?

Also thing the entire human population to the tracks is going to cause some major logistical problems, how are you going to feed them all?

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[-] ChrisGrantsBrownlow@aussie.zone 6 points 1 year ago

You don't even need a lunatic or mass murderer. As you say, the logical choice is to kill one person. For the next person, the logical choice is to kill two people, and so on.

[-] ApfelstrudelWAKASAGI@feddit.de 17 points 1 year ago

It does create the funny paradox where, up to a certain point, a rational utilitarian would choose to kill and a rational mass murderer trying to maximise deaths would choose to double it.

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[-] Lowered_lifted@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Gotta find the person tying everyone to these tracks and take them out

[-] LittleWizard@feddit.de 13 points 1 year ago

Seems like exactly what politicians are doing. Pass the problems along to the next one.

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[-] great_meh@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 year ago

Right is the boomer way.

[-] Grenmark@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

I was gonna just do the one but they do say it's best to pay it forward when you can.

[-] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year ago

I say let it go for 33 doublings (2^33 people), and then decide.

[-] socsa@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Throw the switch to pass and then sprint ahead 31 spots so I can kill 4 billion people like Thanos.

[-] cogspace@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

People always miss the bigger picture with these things. Why do these trolleys' brakes keep failing? Is it a design flaw in the braking system? Is the maintenance crew severely underfunded? Is it a slippage problem due to improper rail maintenance? It's a shame we can't even organize a work stoppage to sort this out since congress blocked the trolley union from striking...

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[-] OkBuddyRetread@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago

Lever half way and it crashes.

[-] PeachMan@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

Attempting to subvert the thought experiment only makes things worse. The trolley is full of child prodigies, all future geniuses that will cure cancer and solve the world's problems. By sticking the lever halfway you kill all of them. The only way to save the child prodigies is to choose, left or right.

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[-] Speiser0@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago

Also interesting: What would you choose here if you were an evil psychopath? (Asking for an acquaintance.)

[-] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago

Switch the track from the bottom to the top as the train is half way over the switch, causing the train to drift across both rails hitting all three tied up people and the second switch operator.

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[-] uphillbothways@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Easy. I'd just step in front of the train.

[-] Leviathan@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Kill 1 person. I feel it would be cowardly to pass the buck and risk killing 2.

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this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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