What is it?
You have probably heard about the trolley problem. If not, let me explain. Imagine yourself standing by a train track that splits into two. On the track straight ahead, there is five people. On the second track, there is one person. The only thing that you can do, is to make the train change track. So, the dilemma is; would you do nothing and let the train go straight and kill five people (not taking responsibility for killing anyone), or would you change the direction of the train to the second track and kill only one person (taking responsibility for killing one but save the lives of five others)?
What would you do?
This might seem like an easy choice. Or is it? Personally, I would have changed the direction of the train. I mean, save five people for the cost of one who was safe to begin with? Well, this can be debated back and forth. If you save five people you have killed the other one by action. If you do nothing, five would die, but you did not do anything to make it happen.
How would people do if it was really happening?
So do you think you would actually save those five if it was really happening? Check out this insanely well made experiment by Vsauce in his show Mind Field. It was both exciting and disturbing to watch. This series is part of YouTube Red, but since this is the first episode in its season, it’s free. And no, I am not sponsored by Vsauce 😊
(Video made by Vsauce. I do not own the rights to this, obviously.)
What do you think? What would you have done? Tell me in the comments!
-Cy