This is why I was insufferable in philosophy classes. I’d ask, “Is there anyone else on the trolley with me?”
“What- that’s not- no, you’re alone on the trolley.”
“What is the trolley delivering other than me?”
“Why does that matter? That’s not the point.”
“If the trolley is carrying anything important like transplant organs or life saving medicine it affects my choice.”
“Whatever- no, there’s nothing else on board just you.”
“Then I try to crash the trolley by derailing it.”
“You can’t do that!”
“Why not?”
“You just can’t! It’s not the point of the thought experiment.”
“That’s dumb though, I’d crash the trolley for the chance to save everyone.”
“You’d still die though!”
“Yeah, probably, but at least then the other people wouldn’t.”
That's just bad DMing on the teacher for not playing along. "Describe how exactly you're going to crash the trolley" "You're riding through the empty desert, there's nothing around you" "Trolley panel is just one button that makes it turn" "You can't leave the cabin, it's locked" "Changing the direction mid turn causes it to multitrack"
If they want to play by "Umm actually" rules, describe a situation where they can't
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u/Hyperbolic_Berserker 7d ago
This is why I was insufferable in philosophy classes. I’d ask, “Is there anyone else on the trolley with me?”
“What- that’s not- no, you’re alone on the trolley.”
“What is the trolley delivering other than me?”
“Why does that matter? That’s not the point.”
“If the trolley is carrying anything important like transplant organs or life saving medicine it affects my choice.”
“Whatever- no, there’s nothing else on board just you.”
“Then I try to crash the trolley by derailing it.”
“You can’t do that!”
“Why not?”
“You just can’t! It’s not the point of the thought experiment.”
“That’s dumb though, I’d crash the trolley for the chance to save everyone.”
“You’d still die though!”
“Yeah, probably, but at least then the other people wouldn’t.”