I'm still recovering from my illness so I'm going with another existing question. Today we're tackling the infamous trolley problem. If you haven't heard of it:

There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. On the tracks are 5 people unable to move. If nothing gets done then all 5 of these people would die. You are next to a lever, if you pull this lever the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks; however, one person is on the other track so doing this would kill the 1 person. Do you pull the lever?

For me it personally depends, more often than not I would save the 5 over the 1; however, if said 1 was family/close friend then that person would get the priority.

This problem is all about how if you pull the lever then you are the one killing the person. I think even worse to not pull the lever and let your inaction kill 5 people.

I pull the lever.

As a utilitarian, in this scenario, I always pull the lever. As you said, this is quite infamous and I have read over a few variations to this problem. One I find a little more interesting is as follows:

There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railroad tracks. On the tracks are 5 people unable to move. If nothing gets done then all 5 of these people would die. You are observing this from a bridge directly above the railroad track and standing next to you os a rather hefty man. You conclude that pushing this man from the bridge will stop the trolley in its tracks. All 5 people on the track will he saved, but of course the hefty man will perish. Do you push the 1 man off the bridge to save the 5? Does being directly responsible for killing a man by pushing him off the bridge change anything rather than indirectly killing a man by changing the tracks?

I’d love to hear more variations others may have to this problem.

Yeah I get the argument for killing someone directly vs killing someone indirectly, but if you're put in that scenario where someone dies regardless then I feel you should at least minimize the fatalities.

I have heard of that variant, and if you haven't heard of or played this game I would suggest it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/15826...oblem_Inc/

Ooh that actually sounds really cool! Thanks!

Fuck it, we play Mario Kart 8 and drift that bitch and get a 6 kill streak going
I’d pull the lever.

Wow I have been playing Mario Kart 8 wrong my whole life.

I will always pull the lever in this certain situation. There are a bunch of various additions to the Trolley Problem such as the one @galindo brought up. Pushing the man generally means that you may have psychopathic tendencies if I remember correctly.