Automotive Forums .com - the leading automotive community online! Automotive Forums .com - the leading automotive community online!
Automotive Forums .com - the leading automotive community online! 
-
Latest | 0 Rplys
Go Back   Automotive Forums .com Car Chat > Coffee Break (Off-Topic) > Philosophizing
Philosophizing Throwing around ideas about life, the universe, and everything.
Reply Show Printable Version Show Printable Version | Email this Page Email this Page | Subscription Subscribe to this Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 08-13-2001, 09:20 PM   #1
Jay!
Horizontally Opposed
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Posts: 16,856
Thanks: 0
Thanked 11 Times in 9 Posts
Send a message via AIM to Jay! Send a message via Yahoo to Jay!
Value of Life

Here's your hypothetical dilemma of the day:

You are alone in a room with two buttons. There is a room adjacent to yours, but there's no way for you to know who or what's in it. There are people in the other room, but they can't see you either.

The two buttons do this: One kills you, and lets everyone in the other room go free; the other kills everything in the other room, and you walk away unharmed. You must press one or the other, or everyone will die.

The question is not "Which button do you press?," but rather...

"How many people must be in the other room for you to choose to save them instead of yourself?"

You are alone, and no one will know it was your decision to make. (unless you choose to live, then choose to tell others later...) If you spare the people in the other room, they will never know they were spared. You will only know the number of individuals in the other room, not their identities. They could be strangers just as well as they could be friends and family.

So, how many?

Edit for emphasis
__________________
Hierarchy of Subaru:
Brat > Coupes > Wagons > Sedans > Baja
(Click to see mine!)
Jay! is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-13-2001, 10:55 PM   #2
deftonez24
AF Enthusiast
 
deftonez24's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 192
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Send a message via AIM to deftonez24
wow man thats some deep thinking to do, there are so many things that you would have to consider or think about. How is your life going for you, do you feel you impact the world or the lives around you everyday. or are you a bum totally void from the existing world. then you gotta think about who could be in the other room, maybe your son or daughter, wife. but as stated you dont know who it is. So, i personally value my life and i do feel i impact people around me so i would press the other button, unless it was a group of maybe 15 or more people. Who knows maybe one of these people have the cure for aids, but i would want those people to know who spared their lives, but if i lived i dont think i'd want to know. so there you go.

That was a great question man, definately deep.
deftonez24 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-14-2001, 01:38 AM   #3
primera man
"P-Man"
 
primera man's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Manawatu
Posts: 15,179
Thanks: 0
Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts
Send a message via AIM to primera man
Man...this is heavy stuff !!!

Well i value my life and i'd choose to stay alive.

If it was my family it would be a different story...but you say you have no idea as to what's in the other room. So i'd risk it and stay alive and hope the people on the other side are "low-lifes".

Just hope i never have to come across this in real life.



__________________

Current Build.....1/12 Scale Camaro......Almost finished!!!

View All My Models Here.
primera man is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-14-2001, 01:10 PM   #4
Lizard King
AF Enthusiast
 
Lizard King's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: -
Posts: 910
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
For me this is easy. I don't have a clue who or what is in this other room. I'm not dying for a stranger, no matter how many, and I'm certainly not dying for an enemy.

If it turned out to be a loved one then I would still have the knowledge that I had no real choice. I would also kill the bastard that put me in there.
Lizard King is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-14-2001, 08:41 PM   #5
hermunn123
AF Enthusiast
 
hermunn123's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: asdf
Posts: 1,010
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Send a message via AIM to hermunn123
Quote:
I would also kill the bastard that put me in there.
hahahahahaha
__________________

Please impede from anathematizing me just because I elocute loquacious locutions more Brobdingnaging than one could elucidate with a perspicacity as Lilliputian as your own.
hermunn123 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2002, 12:25 AM   #6
Jay!
Horizontally Opposed
Thread starter
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Posts: 16,856
Thanks: 0
Thanked 11 Times in 9 Posts
Send a message via AIM to Jay! Send a message via Yahoo to Jay!
Re: Value of Life

Quote:
Originally posted by jay@af
So, how many?
Again, the question is not would you, but rather at what point would you...?

And for hypothetical effect, yes, everyone else in the world could be in the other room. So, if you refuse to pick a number, you will be alone in the world when you get out...
__________________
Hierarchy of Subaru:
Brat > Coupes > Wagons > Sedans > Baja
(Click to see mine!)
Jay! is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2002, 02:05 AM   #7
darkness
AF Fanatic
 
darkness's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Auckland
Posts: 2,430
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
geez thats deep, I'm actually scared of answering that one.
__________________
Darkness.
The new official owner of www.darkness.co.nz (but theres nothing there yet.)
------------
"Have you seen Star Wars? The Darkness is the Force on crack"
darkness is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2002, 04:41 AM   #8
taranaki
Banned
 
taranaki's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Elsewhere
Posts: 16,048
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
A tricky one.....back in a couple of days.....
taranaki is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2002, 10:20 AM   #9
YogsVR4
Funding the welfare state
 
YogsVR4's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Petoskey, Michigan
Posts: 17,795
Thanks: 0
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
Send a message via AIM to YogsVR4
I’ve never been a fan of the “hypothetical” situations that will never happen. So let me say that I’ll push the button to live and find the bastard who put me there and torture his ass to death. They used me as an instrument and need to be taken out for their actions.













Never pay again for live sex! | Hot girls doing naughty stuff for free! | Chat for free!
__________________
Resistance Is Futile (If < 1ohm)
YogsVR4 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2002, 10:28 AM   #10
Sham365
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
I'd push the button to their room real quick before any guilt could set in. BAM!!!

Self preservation. If you'd pick to kill yourself for a room full of ??? then you are not a human being. And they wouldn't even know you saved them? Oh, hell yeah I'd push their button quick. Besides, they may have a button in their room to kill my hypothetical thinking butt.
  Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2002, 02:15 PM   #11
Jay!
Horizontally Opposed
Thread starter
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Posts: 16,856
Thanks: 0
Thanked 11 Times in 9 Posts
Send a message via AIM to Jay! Send a message via Yahoo to Jay!
Re: Value of Life

Third try:
Quote:
Originally posted by jay@af
The question is not "Which button do you press?," but rather...

"How many people must be in the other room for you to choose to save them instead of yourself?"
"Yes" and "no" do not answer the question. We're looking for a number. A number that could hypothetically go as high as ~6 billion (or whatever the estimated human population is nowadays...)
__________________
Hierarchy of Subaru:
Brat > Coupes > Wagons > Sedans > Baja
(Click to see mine!)
Jay! is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2002, 06:58 PM   #12
Moppie
Master Connector
 
Moppie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Auckland
Posts: 11,781
Thanks: 95
Thanked 101 Times in 80 Posts
Send a message via ICQ to Moppie Send a message via AIM to Moppie Send a message via Yahoo to Moppie
I think you might be getting a little frustrated there Jay.

Sounds like the answer is far to simple for the complexity of the problem.

My answer, is either 0 or 6billion depending on how my morning went.
__________________
Connecting the Auto Enthusiasts
Moppie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2002, 07:28 PM   #13
marc49
AF Fanatic
 
marc49's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 3,088
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Send a message via AIM to marc49
Quote:
How many people must be in the other room for you to choose to save them instead of yourself?"

There could be the whole world in there and I am still saving my own ass. Without knowing who is in there, it's all about self preservation. I could give a rip about how many people are in there. if I will never know who was in there, screw it, it can be 80,000 baby's and they are all gonna die because I am gonna live
marc49 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2002, 07:29 PM   #14
fritz_269
AF Moderator
 
fritz_269's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 4,671
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Probably somewhere between about 2 and 1,000.

My utilitarian side pushes me towards the 2 - but my pragmatic will for self-preservation might not let that happen. On the other hand, with a number over 1,000 or so, I'm fairly sure the utilitarian side would win.

It's very hard for me to narrow it down more that that, since I don't have any more information about who might be in the other room. A lot of my answer depends on how much I know about the other room - were they randomly chosen? Who are they? Prisoners? Politicians? Lawyers? Doctors? Heads of State? Librarians? Americans? My family?

If you want to force me to say a single number, I'll go with 200. But I don't promise to stick to it.
fritz_269 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-27-2002, 03:33 AM   #15
JD@af
Missing in action
 
JD@af's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: West Hartford, CT
Posts: 2,954
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
Send a message via ICQ to JD@af Send a message via AIM to JD@af
I'm going to go with five. Five or more, I'd have to push my own button. Giving my reasoning for this would just be beating a dead horse - it has already been covered in other peoples' posts.

But I also guess it depends on the day and how I'm feeling. On an off-day (and I stress a very off day), it's possible that I would opt to let everyone else in the world perish to save myself
JD@af is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply

POST REPLY TO THIS THREAD

Go Back   Automotive Forums .com Car Chat > Coffee Break (Off-Topic) > Philosophizing

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:31 AM.

Community Participation Guidelines | How to use your User Control Panel

Powered by: vBulletin | Copyright Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
 
 
no new posts