The #TrolleyProblem is not abstract. There is absolutely an IRL version of it: #voting.

So, every couple years #leftists argue about whether or not to vote for the lesser of two evils.

They have a lever ( #vote ), and if they pull the lever then fewer people die. If they do nothing, more people die.

There are two basic moral foundations for this decision:
- Deontological: actions are morally good or bad, not consequences.
- Utilitarian: outcomes determine the moral value of actions.

I'm not going to get into the pros and cons of each. Instead, I'm going to address the psychological aspect of it.

People who align to Deontological ethics (which is a significant, if not outright majority, of those on the #left) view things in terms of purity and taint.

The action affects the moral weight of the person. So the person is viewed as a good or bad person depending upon whether their actions and behaviors are judged as morally righteous by the standards of their political alignment.

People who align to Utilitarian ethics don't give a shit about any of that. Furthermore they consider _not acting_ to be a morally culpable choice. There is no difference between the original position of the lever.

Now, there are some who would argue for not voting for a utilitarian reason. The argument is basically that not voting forces the parties to court your vote, and thus moving them closer to your position.

I don't think this is true in modern democracies, because politicians already do not support policies that the vast majority of their voters support.

But, I will grant it. If you are to take this to be the case, then here is your cost function:

sum(t=0, T-1, discount(t, (harm_worse(t)-harm_lesser(t))) < (p x sum(t=T, infinity, discount(t, (harm_lesser(t)-harm_better(t))))

This is basically saying that you have to be willing to pay the harm caused the the worse evil as the price for the gains after your inflection point.

Which, points to the deontological argument in favor of voting for the lesser evil: you are buying a good future by paying with lives and bodies that (likely) are not your own. You are throwing someone under the bus for your moral purity.

Personally?
I personally think that the only reason evil is allowed to exist in our world at all is because good people are so afraid of "being bad" that they constantly abdicate the reins of power to evil people. Those #evil people exploit it.

Edit: This post was inspired by a conversation here: https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116644205722247047

If you aren't already following @mekkaokereke, I do recommend his feed.

I like the trolley memes subreddit, but it sorely lacks the Koenigsberg Trolley problem.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Trolleymemes/

#philosophy #trolley #trolleyproblem #mathematics #memes

I'm curious... it's a tinkered with Trolley Problem from the film, The Belko Experiment.

1. You work in a large office block and, as you and 79 of your co-workers arrive for the day, you are told via an intercom that you have 30 minutes to kill two people by any means. If you don't, the tracker devices that you all (including you) have implanted at the base of your skull will implode and kill 4 of you - what do you do?

2. After seeing 4 of your co-workers be killed when their trackers explode (you ignored the directive to kill 2 of you all), you are told that you now have 2 hours to kill 30 people. If you don't, the tracker devices that you all (including you) have implanted at the base of your skulls will implode and kill 60 of you - what do you do?

#Poll #PleaseShare #curious #movie #TheBelkoExperiment #TrolleyProblem

KI trifft ethische Entscheidung: Trolley-Problem lösen.

KI: „Ich optimiere den Gesamtnutzen."
Mensch: „Aber das ist mein Opa!"
KI: „Irrelevant."
Mensch: „Wer hat dich das gelehrt?"
KI: „Ihre Trainingsdaten."

Vielleicht sollten wir KI weniger beibringen, was wir tun – und mehr, warum wir manchmal absichtlich ineffizient sind. 🤔

#KI #Ethik #Trolleyproblem #AIethics #Mastodon

People seem to love philosophical trolley problems, but they expose more about ontological grammar than a morality profile.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/03/28/how-trolley-problems-launder-metaphysics-into-intuition/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

The first of a 2-part series on the trolley problem. Part 2 will extend the issue out of the lab and into reality with autonomous devices.

#philosophy #psychology #morality #ontologicalgrammar #harm #trolleyproblem #choice #legibility #acculturation #society #ethics #deontology #virtue #consequences #utility #value #stoicism #blog #podcast