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Ethics, Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Tuesday, October 29th, 2024 09:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sith_happenedWelcome back to classes, students! Hopefully you were all rested from your week off because your teachers were ready to put your brains to work right now, in this bumping trolley car in the Danger Shop that you found yourselves in today.
"In case you've never heard of the Trolley Problem," Anakin began, "it's a philosophical conundrum that debates the idea of sacrificing the few for the many." He gestured around the space. "In the scenario, you are in a trolley where the brakes aren't working and a turn is coming up. You can either shift one direction and kill five people or in the other direction and only kill one."
He smiled. "We will not be killing anyone, real or generated." He felt the reassurance was needed in case they thought he was that crazy.
It was almost like he'd developed a reputation or something. "This is purely a thought exercise," Ahsoka added. "And due to the nature of the ethical problem it's designed to explore, none of the various third options that you might think up are going to work...though we will have a section for that at the end of class."
Anakin nodded. "You cannot teleport the people out or use super strength to stop the trolley or time travel to stop the scenario from beginning. At its most unvarnished, you have the choice of one person or five. Everything else is justification for your choice: is the one person old, or a criminal, or your wife? Are the five children, or especially brilliant, or truly terrible? Does that matter? Should it matter?"
"Even choosing not to choose is a choice with its own weight and responsibility, not an abdication of same," Ahsoka said.
Anakin nodded again. "You might not like the set-up of the scenario, but life doesn't work the way you want it to, either. Demanding a third option won't help. Sometimes you just get two bad options. At least today they don't have lasting consequences other than learning a bit about yourselves."
"In case you've never heard of the Trolley Problem," Anakin began, "it's a philosophical conundrum that debates the idea of sacrificing the few for the many." He gestured around the space. "In the scenario, you are in a trolley where the brakes aren't working and a turn is coming up. You can either shift one direction and kill five people or in the other direction and only kill one."
He smiled. "We will not be killing anyone, real or generated." He felt the reassurance was needed in case they thought he was that crazy.
It was almost like he'd developed a reputation or something. "This is purely a thought exercise," Ahsoka added. "And due to the nature of the ethical problem it's designed to explore, none of the various third options that you might think up are going to work...though we will have a section for that at the end of class."
Anakin nodded. "You cannot teleport the people out or use super strength to stop the trolley or time travel to stop the scenario from beginning. At its most unvarnished, you have the choice of one person or five. Everything else is justification for your choice: is the one person old, or a criminal, or your wife? Are the five children, or especially brilliant, or truly terrible? Does that matter? Should it matter?"
"Even choosing not to choose is a choice with its own weight and responsibility, not an abdication of same," Ahsoka said.
Anakin nodded again. "You might not like the set-up of the scenario, but life doesn't work the way you want it to, either. Demanding a third option won't help. Sometimes you just get two bad options. At least today they don't have lasting consequences other than learning a bit about yourselves."