Perhaps you should clarify what angle you’re trying to get at with this question.
I expect you’re raising some version of the “do you value some lives more than others” issue. There are likely at least some people here who would pick Yudkowsky over three unknown people, based on a rational evaluation of expected utility of continued existence. The same issue could be presented by replacing the child with any other person who is expected to have a large positive contribution to the world, such as a promising young surgeon who could potentially save many more than three lives over the course of his career.
Shutting up and multiplying, answer is clearly to save eliezer...and do so versus a lot more people than just three...question is more interesting if you ask people what n (probably greater than 3) is their cut off point.
The True Trolley Dilemma would be where the child is Eliezer Yudkowsky.
Then what would you do?
EDIT: Sorry if that sounds trollish, but I meant it as a serious question.
The Yudkowski worship is getting pretty thick around here:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/4g/eliezer_yudkowsky_facts/
Lets not turn this into a fandom
Perhaps you should clarify what angle you’re trying to get at with this question.
I expect you’re raising some version of the “do you value some lives more than others” issue. There are likely at least some people here who would pick Yudkowsky over three unknown people, based on a rational evaluation of expected utility of continued existence. The same issue could be presented by replacing the child with any other person who is expected to have a large positive contribution to the world, such as a promising young surgeon who could potentially save many more than three lives over the course of his career.
Or did you have something else in mind?
Yes that’s how I meant it.
Shutting up and multiplying, answer is clearly to save eliezer...and do so versus a lot more people than just three...question is more interesting if you ask people what n (probably greater than 3) is their cut off point.