Thank you to the...maybe 2 people who listened, and tried to answer in the spirit of the question rather then inventing loopholes. I suppose I have to make the question less interesting, but in a way that encourages people to not ***** out.
You are in a room with 6 other people, who are in 6 identical boxes with no distinguishing features. You are paralyzed and can only look at these boxes. You are automatically "tagged " and can't Untag yourself. You can, with your mind powers, tag any number of boxes. Tagging 1 other box is safe. For each additional box, there is a additional 20% chance that all tagged people explode and die. All untagged people explode and die. Afterwards, all survivors, if any, are telepoted back to there houses safely. How many boxes do you tag? If you think this question is different from the first question, you are not listening to me when I ask you to answer in the questions spirit. What number of people would you tag, and what number would be moral or heroic?
Just as a quick aside, if your real answer is tagging no one, you are a either a sociopath (like an actually mentally ill person), being facetious, or you aren't actually answering the question in spirit. Tagging 1 person is exactly as selfish as tagging no one, as there is literally zero additional cost or risk.
isometry said:
The mathematical answer would be to maximize the expected number of survivors.
Let n be the number of people I choose to pickup. Then the number of survivors if we don't crash is n + 2, and the probability of not crashing is (5-n)/5, so the expected number of survivors S is:
S = (n+2)(5-n)/5
n = 0, S = 2
n = 1, S = 2.4
n = 2, S = 2.4
n = 3, S = 1.2
n = 5, S = 0
So n = 1 or n = 2 would both be logical courses of action with equivalent expected outcome on average.
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Thank you! Thank YOU! Athousand times thank you, you are actually addressing the questions SPIRIT! You may find my distinction between n=1 and n=2 interesting.
Nouw said:
I was reading Justice:What's the Right Thing to Do? and it explored the concept of utilitarianism and libertarianism. More in a moral sense of course. I'm wondering what they would do here. Would the former work out a math equation to see how many lives they could save? Would the latter flip a coin or pick at random? Hmm...
Personally, I'd either get all of them with the mindset that I leave no-one behind or take 3. It becomes easier if one volunteers to stay behind.
Utilitarianism for life!
Also, the math you are talking about is above. To my knowledge, it is accurate. If it is confusing, let me clarify. Save 1 person, you definitely have 2 people live, yourself and 1 other. The value, or utility, of that course of action is 2. Save 2 people, you basically have an 80% chance of saving 3 people, each person has a utility of. 0.8. 0.8 *3 is 2.4. 3 people, each person has a 60% chance, .6*4 is 2.4. 4 people, each person is. 4, .4*5 is 2, your saving fewer people on average.