• Codex@lemmy.worldEnglish
    163·
    10 个月前

    I take the square root of the negative trolley, then use my imaginary streetcar to establish a complex track so I can start killing in an additional dimension.

  • jadero@mander.xyzEnglish
    95·
    10 个月前

    It’s always better to gain a full understanding of the system when trying to make important decisions.

    The trolley has two sets of wheels, leading and trailing, both of which must remain on the same set of tracks.

    The switch is designed to enable the trolley to change course, moving from one set of tracks to the other.

    Throwing the switch after the leading set has passed, but before the trailing set has reached the switch points will cause the two sets to attempt travel on separate tracks. The trolley will derail, rapidly coming to a halt. If the trolley is moving slowly enough to permit this action, nobody dies.

    Source: former brakeman (one of the people responsible for throwing switches), section hand (one of the people responsible for installing switches), and railroad welder (one of the people responsible for field repairs of switches).

  • pruwybenEnglish
    67·
    10 个月前

    I would question the ability to line people up on a railroad track such that they have a 1:1 correspondence with the real numbers.

  • starman2112@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    45·
    10 个月前

    At any point in time, a finite amount of time has passed, and the trolley has killed a finite amount of people. The correct track is the one that, at any given time, will have killed fewer people. Unless the trolley speeds up to account for that and always kills n people per second, the top track will result in less deaths over any period of time.

    • wewbull@feddit.ukEnglish
      13·
      10 个月前

      The tram travels at light speed and so time no longer flows for you. You exist in a singular moment of splattergore.

      • brianorca@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        10 个月前

        But even light speed is finite for the people on the track. It’s only the tram that stops experiencing time.

        Also, you’re not on the tram. You’re standing at the switch.

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      10 个月前

      All trolleys to date have been finite. A trolley which can kill an infinite number of people would truly be a marvel of engineering.

      • humanplayer2@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        10 个月前

        Every finite trolley passes infinitely many points when moves, if you accept space as infinitly divisible (structured as the real numbers).

    • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      10 个月前

      The train tracks are linear time on Earth. It’s basically the choice between letting people be killed or dying of old age.

  • RoyaltyInTraining@lemmy.worldEnglish
    37·
    10 个月前

    Assuming that it takes some amount of energy to kill one person, and that the trolley doesn’t have an engine with infinite power, choosing the bottom track would save lives. The trolley would have to expend an infinite amount of energy to move any distance from the starting point, so it would just get stuck there while trying to crush the unimaginable amount of people bunched up in front of it.

    • humanplayer2@lemmy.mlEnglish
      21·
      10 个月前

      But getting anywhere on the lower track will kill infinitely many people. You cannot kill finitely many people on the lower track. Well, unless you derail at exactly the first. On the upper track, a stop at any point will have killed only finitely many.

      • RoyaltyInTraining@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        10 个月前

        One person can only be on the spot for one number. As soon as more than one gets killed, that would mean that the trolley has traversed some distance, which implies that it has killed an infinite number of people. That is impossible in any finite timespan under the aforementioned assumption. Thus the only logical conclusion is that it gets stuck after the first person is killed, at the exact spot the first number is mapped to.

        I guess there could also be a different solution when you look at the problem from a different angle. Treating infinity with this little mathematical care tends to cause paradoxes.

        • humanplayer2@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          10 个月前

          In any non-empty, finite interval on the real number line, there are uncountably infinitely many numbers = people in this thought experiment. If you think of physical space as continuous, we cross infinitely many points in any finite movement.

          I’d like to see one of the numerous paradoxes you refer to.

  • nothackingEnglish
    34·
    10 个月前

    Pulling the lever will kill people slower, therefore less deaths in the lifetime of the universe.

  • LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    29·
    10 个月前

    Move to the end of the track and undo the constraints of people on the track. You will have infinite time until the trolly reaches the end, and can thusly save infinite lives by doing so.

    • Mesophar@lemm.eeEnglish
      30·
      10 个月前

      Sadly, it takes an infinite amount of time to reach the end of the track. Thankfully, you have infinity time, though it’s still inconvenient. An infinite number of people people will die (instead of an infinite number of people), but you’ll save an infinite number of people in the end. After an infinite amount of time that will be infinitely better!

      • LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        21·
        10 个月前

        Actually, that’s assuming that the track is a straight line. The distance from the beginning to the end of the track could be just a few feet, and the distance along the rail and thusly the number of people infinite.

  • Daft_ish@lemmy.worldEnglish
    28·
    10 个月前

    That trolleys going to derail eventually. So the one with more people since they are tightly packed and it can’t build momentum.

    • uis@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      10 个月前

      Killing -1/12th? I didn’t know it can revive people.

  • Lung@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    10 个月前

    Shit man if there’s an infinite amount of people there must also be an infinite amount of track. So forget philosophy, I’m getting rich!

  • CileTheSane@lemmy.caEnglish
    20·
    10 个月前

    I come to an agreement with the person who has tied these people to the tracks to untie every 2nd person. I save an infinite number of people!

  • Zerush@lemmy.mlEnglish
    20·
    10 个月前

    I kill the trolley driver. The Dead Man button makes that the trolley stops.

  • vamputer@infosec.pubEnglish
    201·
    10 个月前

    Do nothing, since an infinite number of people implies an inconceivable population overgrowth, so the best possible good for humanity is to cull the population.

    Heck, you could probably go out and genocide the rest of the population that isn’t tied to the track and still not suffer any real loss. Then, you face the last true enemy: the bloodsoaked beast responsible for the deaths of untold billions- yourself.

    Once you’ve slain that last creature, all of humanity that still remains will be those tied to the railroad track. The only living people will spend their entire lives knowing nothing but the track and the trolley, and the imposing fear that one day, they, too, shall be crushed under its wheels like those before them.

    The only life remaining for the human race is now one of terror and eventual slaughter. There are no good outcomes to this conundrum. There are only the uncaring wheels of the trolley.