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If we had to torture and murder millions of innocent children to stop global warming would that be okay? (thelemmy.club)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by DominatorX1@thelemmy.club to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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EDIT Ok so it's just the trolly problem.

EDIT2 : AHA War Games 1983. "The only winning move is not to play." (We might call this the final product of a lot of smart philosophical digestion, because it's a famous movie). There's always the perfectly valid option to ditch the riddle. (Because maybe the riddle is dumb, or maybe the riddle is no better than a thousand others, utilitywise )

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[–] lattrommi@lemmy.ml 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

The core of the riddle is that it is an ultimatum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum

Ultimatums have been debated historically, in great detail. For example, in the old testament of the bible.

https://www.bibleoutlines.com/isaiah-361-377-dont-make-a-deal-with-the-devil/

Even if one is not religious or cares not for reading biblical stuff, it is simplified effectively as such:

If given only 2 choices, it is never fair. Find another choice.

[–] DominatorX1@thelemmy.club 0 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I think that's a different thing.

[–] lattrommi@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 hours ago

You are right, it's not the same thing. I had an English teacher who tossed out her vocabulary lesson one day and instead went off on a very energetic rant about critical thinking, ultimatums, game theory, dilemma, paradox and so on. I've always wanted to recreate her lesson but never get it right.

I do think my final line still applies for this scenario. There's always another way. I think War Games does the same idea I was trying to convey but I've never seen it, I've only seen enough references to it, to vagely know what it's about..