Yes, I think so. I can see myself as a forum administrator, wondering if I should ban this guy that really hasn’t done anything against the rules, but he’s slowly driving away other users all the same. That would be a difficult decision.
I like this form of the problem much better, and it makes me more willing to actually think about it.
The trolley problem is a) distressing, because it’s about life and death, and b) very contrived, and some years ago I decided, IIRC because of something I read on LW, that I wouldn’t bother thinking about that sort of thing anymore. “Who would you save, if you had to choose between your mother and your father?” Get lost! I don’t want to think about that, and I don’t need to, because I’m never going to be in that situation anyway.
But this is a real situation, that real people have been in. It must have been very difficult. What did you do?
To a first approximation, I do in the real-life forum problem precisely what I expect I would do in the canonical trolley problem… I dither, fail to take any effective action at all, allow the larger group to suffer, and feel bad about it later.
Yes, I think so. I can see myself as a forum administrator, wondering if I should ban this guy that really hasn’t done anything against the rules, but he’s slowly driving away other users all the same. That would be a difficult decision.
Then, yes, I’ve encountered real-life trolley problems.
I like this form of the problem much better, and it makes me more willing to actually think about it.
The trolley problem is a) distressing, because it’s about life and death, and b) very contrived, and some years ago I decided, IIRC because of something I read on LW, that I wouldn’t bother thinking about that sort of thing anymore. “Who would you save, if you had to choose between your mother and your father?” Get lost! I don’t want to think about that, and I don’t need to, because I’m never going to be in that situation anyway.
But this is a real situation, that real people have been in. It must have been very difficult. What did you do?
To a first approximation, I do in the real-life forum problem precisely what I expect I would do in the canonical trolley problem… I dither, fail to take any effective action at all, allow the larger group to suffer, and feel bad about it later.