[extropy-chat] frozen in fire

[Robert Bradbury]

On 1/22/07, Anders Sandberg <asa at nada.kth.se> wrote:

> Here it is usually stated as the "trolley problem",  [snip]
> BTW, the trolley problem has some interesting neuroethical complications.
>  [snip]


I don't know whether to be more aghast at the fact that this seems to have
migrated into a contemporary ethical problem from Oxford to Harvard (don't
distribute ones refuse unless one knows how to clean it up!) or "educational
systems should distribute tradeoff frameworks".  (This is standard
operations in military frameworks -- "who does one sacrifice and what are
the costs vs. benefits?")

The "trolly" argument only abstracts the debate one level from reality.  The
military argument only abstracts it perhaps two levels from reality.  The
blood still falls on someones shoulders and they are left with saying I did
the best that I could.  And so "we" are left with "you should have done
better" directed towards those who might have determined this if we had only
had the foresight to make it so.

Anders, are you content to sit in ivory towers at Oxford while people die?

Robert
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