The Steemit Trolley Problem

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)


This is an extension of this post: https://steemit.com/philosophy/@the-reginald/my-versions-of-the-trolley-problem

This may or may not make sense

A few businessmen got into a trolley and directed it to go to a lane with another businessman named L farther down the track with the intention of making sure L receives some currency from a shared pool of money that involves many other businessmen, where this currency ends up can decide the fate of all the businessmen not just the ones involved in this event. Every businessman has varying influence of where this shared pool of currency can end up. Each businessman's influence is determined by their own investment as well as obtaining reputation and currency from other businessmen in the pool.

Another businessman named X who is not involved in this event has decided too much of the shared pools currency is going to end up in the hands of a particular businessman, according to X there are potential problems with this chain of events that could have a negative impact on the system.

If the trolley goes to businessman L then the other businessmen in the pool will receive less currency than they theoretically could if this trolley of businessmen was not going to influence L's payout from the shared pool, and the pool of businessmen as a whole may or may not suffer from so much or so little of the currency going to this other businessman named L.

Businessman X has a great deal of influence and claims to be able to see farther down the track than the businessmen in the trolley can see, X claims to be able to see that if the trolley continues down this path it might eventually meet its doom and possibly damage the trolley system beyond repair. But the businessmen in the trolley as well as businessman L claim they can also see down the track and do not see any possibility of impending doom and some of them say that they are willing to risk the possibility of everyone's doom.

The other random businessmen in the pool who are not necessarily involved in this current chain of events have varying opinions.

You (the observer) are unable to see a section of the track that may or may not have levers that could connect the trolley to another path, but you can see that at a certain point there is a path that would lead this particular trolley to the doom of all the business men and another path that continues farther and appears endless with many possible connections, businessmen and levers. Who do you think has the moral high ground?