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EDIT: I rolled a critical fail in reading comprehension and I thought the other track was N per integer instead of 1 per real number in the previous version of this comment.
The people in the real number track are already dead by the time the trolley arrives due to the forces involved in cramming them so tightly together. I.e. they are basically just a gore pile the moment after the people are somehow arranged like that.
I pick the real number track so that no one new has to die.
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.
The same thing most people would do when presented with a Trolly Problem for real. Analysis paralysis, choose to do nothing, then cry softly every night for the rest of my life.
Seeing an infinite number of people lying there I deduce that I must be in some kind of thought experiment and let the trolley roll on while I look for a way to escape back to reality.
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).
I'm pretty sure that leads to multi-track drifting, and so all the people die.
Source: https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/000/727/DenshaDeD_ch01p16-17.jpg
I'm no expert, but I'd expect such a slow moving trolley to eventually derail itself anyway on account of all the corpses
Way to stop the trolly problem dead in its tracks.
dead
ha
I think you just passed the Trolley version of the Kobayashi Maru. Well done.
If we have infinite people, it wouldn't be such a bad thing to lose a couple.
If you let the train go, it would appear to stop immediately at the first person (assuming it has any reaction whatsoever to hitting a person) as there are infinitely real numbers between any two real numbers you could come up with.
build new tracks to make the trolley run on (possibly in circles).
I kill the trolley driver. The Dead Man button makes that the trolley stops.
Is it possible to get this thing to skid on both rails? You'll only be killing an infinite number of people anyway.
That doesn't kill any more people than if you just stay on the real number track.
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.
Just the existence of infinite people implies an infinite space to contain them, and an infinite ecosystem to have produced them. Concerns related to overtaxing a finite ecosystem don't apply.
That trolleys going to derail eventually. So the one with more people since they are tightly packed and it can't build momentum.
But isn't it more likely to derail if it gains momentum?
Depends
Not if the track is perfectly straight.
There are People lying on it, so it's probably pretty uneven and bumpy, no?
Pull it -1/12 of the way, causing the infinity to converge to a real number.
We need to shut down these trolley experiments until we figure out what the hell is going on
Do nothing - maximum destruction
Reminds me of this: https://neal.fun/absurd-trolley-problems/
I just tried to kill the most people every time and apparently a lot of people agree with me
This is awesome
This is f'ing hilarious 🤣
Is every real number the smallest infinity? Would the infinity of every even number be smaller than the infinity of every integer? Or are they both aleph-null?
They're both countable, which makes them both the same size. When you say two infinities are the same size, what you're saying is that there exists a 1:1 mapping to go from one to the other.
In your proposed case every integer maps directly onto the even number twice its size.
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.
An infinite track has no end, just like a number line.
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.
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!
but if the trolley moves at a faster pace than you so you will never catch up?
That trolley is definitely stopping before it makes it through all those people on the bottom track.
