If you could gave me a magic button to kill 10 people and make me rich, without any tricky business (like risk of being punished) then I would push it.
I should also hope that nobody else would, and by the sound of things many wouldn’t.
If you weren’t so lazy and risk-averse, you could start your illegal toxic waste dumping business immediately :)
I’m glad that your button isn’t readily available. If it chose its victims without any intent to cause personal regret, then I can’t see any less than 10% of people opting for wealth—goodbye human race.
I wouldn’t push the button if it picked people at random, although I might consider the risk of killing a valuable person worthwhile if the payoff is big enough.
I guess the real question is: what is the value of other people? It does not seem to be a trivial matter.
The trick there is that you can’t easily disconnect who you are from what you do. If you’re the sort of person who would really push that button, then people will be able to tell; it will show up in your other actions. Your other virtues will decline as well, and you will be less successful at making friendships, doing business, and having a good life.
If you could gave me a magic button to kill 10 people and make me rich, without any tricky business (like risk of being punished) then I would push it.
I should also hope that nobody else would, and by the sound of things many wouldn’t.
If you weren’t so lazy and risk-averse, you could start your illegal toxic waste dumping business immediately :)
I’m glad that your button isn’t readily available. If it chose its victims without any intent to cause personal regret, then I can’t see any less than 10% of people opting for wealth—goodbye human race.
I wouldn’t push the button if it picked people at random, although I might consider the risk of killing a valuable person worthwhile if the payoff is big enough.
I guess the real question is: what is the value of other people? It does not seem to be a trivial matter.
The trick there is that you can’t easily disconnect who you are from what you do. If you’re the sort of person who would really push that button, then people will be able to tell; it will show up in your other actions. Your other virtues will decline as well, and you will be less successful at making friendships, doing business, and having a good life.
I don’t go around telling people, and if I was in the audience I would raise my hand with everybody else.
… and you’re using Tor, or you’re confident that the site admins won’t develop a habit next week of tracking people down …
Are you allowed to donate the money to charity? If so, I’d definitely push it.