Steem Basic Income Giveaway (Automation and the Trolley Problem )
The onset of automation and Artificial Intelligence promises to streamline and make efficient a great number of things in our society. One of the principal areas that is ripe for automation is the way that we travel in cars. The amount of energy that we waste in cutting the air with our cars, and the inefficient way that we drive as humans could be rectified with a fully automated transit system, with cars and trucks travelling centimeters away from each other. Another potential beneficial side effect could be that we have transportation on demand, without the need for the wasteful personal ownership of automobiles.
However, both automation (via algorithms) and AI (via learning routines) would need to be trained in what would constitute a "correct" solution to an ethical dilemma. This would have to be done by humans. So, for this SBI giveaway, I want to ask about your opinions on some very basic ethical questions. Needless to say, there are no correct answers for these questions, so I will be doing a random selection for the winner of the SBI shares.
The Questions
This is a classical Ethics question known as the Trolley Problem, where a trolley is hurtling down a track that is about to kill 5 people.
Question 1
Would you flip a switch to make the trolley kill one person instead of the five?
Question 2
Would you flip the switch if the one person to be killed was a child instead of 5 adults?
Question 3
Would you throw another person onto the tracks to stop the trolley? If they were a friend? If they were the most evil person on Earth?
Question 4
Would you buy a car that might be programmed to kill you (the occupants) instead of others if the ethical conditions were right?
Question 5
Would you buy a car that would protect you at all costs regardless of the danger or survival of other people?
My thoughts
Yes, I think I would flip the switch. In this case, I think that sheer numbers determines the correct choice. The thought of killing one person directly is somehow less disconcerting to me than killing 5 via inaction.
Again, this is trickier, I would have to say, yes. For me, the numbers matter more.
No, no and no. I can't say why, but the actual thought of directly pushing someone into harm's way seems more repugnant than flipping a switch....
I wouldn't be particularly keen. In my mind, I know it should be the right thing to do, but I have a voice screaming "don't do it"!
Again, intellectually I would have to say no, but I think I would prefer the car protects me.... But, this would become a sheer arms race.
So those are my answers as honestly as I can give them. I know there are the purer choices that I should choose, but I think if I was really honest with myself, I don't think that I would do it in real life.
So, for this week's entry. Answer the 5 questions as best as you can, with some accompanying text about your thoughts. No personal choosing of entries this week, I leave it up to a random generator!
Steem Basic Income
One of the first communities that I came in contact with at the beginning of my time at Steemit was @steembasicincome. As a beginning author, Steemit can be a daunting place. It feels like you are posting into an abyss with no ability to grow. Steem Basic Income gives you a guaranteed vote on one post a day, thus giving you a small but cumulative over time support to your account.
With this post, I want to help sponsor people who might not even have the spare 1 STEEM that is required for registration. So, when this post pays out, I will sponsor people depending on the payout of this post. Basically, I will round up the SBD payout from this post and then that will be the number of people I will sponsor. (So, if the payout is 2.3 SBD, I will sponsor 3 people).
Rules
- Upvote if you want, it increases the payout and then I can hopefully sponsor more people.
- Resteem is NOT neccessary, but the more people see this, the more the people will be likely to be sponsored.
- In the comments, answer the 5 questions with some thoughts about why you chose as you did.
- I will be sponsoring as many people as this post pays out in SBD. Also I will kick in at least the required amount to round up to the full number. Winner is by random generator this week!
Last week's winners
Some absolutely great entries last week! So hard to choose a few things to make up a meal, with so many other favourite foods having to take second place! It's like picking your favourite child....
Last post payout was 2.211 SBD. So, 3 shares that I will be sponsoring.
With so many delicious photos (and copyright minefields) I'm not going to post them here, but I direct you back to the comment section here: https://steemit.com/steembasicincome/@bengy/steem-basic-income-giveaway-design-your-last-meal
You can also see her entry in this post here: https://steemit.com/bengy/@viking-ventures/my-perfect-last-meal-my-entry-for-bengy-s-contest
and a bonus prize for @rudyardcatling with a completely hilarious entry....
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1 & 2 Flip the switch. 1 loss is better than 5.
3 no, no, yes If the others would be saved, I would "volunteer" the evil person...
4 no If we start trusting machine AI with lives, we will end up with terminator...
5 yes It is my machine, so it wouldn't be an ethics choice to buy one that protects me. It wouldn't be any different than choosing a big SUV over a motorcycle. The SUV is obviously safer. It is not making any ethics choice, simply is built stronger and safer.
I agree that it the SUV is stronger and safer, but it is at an "unseen" cost to other road users? On the other hand, there really is no rule or law that prevents this choice either....
The winners and a new round of SBI (Podcast/TV recommendations) is here:
https://steemit.com/steembasicincome/@bengy/steem-basic-income-giveaway-favourite-podcasts-tv-series
Yes, and Yes. 1 person or 1 child, it's less than 5 people. assuming there's no other way to alter the conditions. The way the trolley problem is usually presented there isn't, which is significantly unlikely. You've got plenty of time to make the decision, but no time to contact the trolley itself, and no signals at the rails that could be changed. it's an unlikely scenario from poor design.
For 3, it's a definite no. pushing someone onto the tracks, or just into the way of the trolley isn't even in the same category of 'flipping the switch', it's straight out murder. The people on the tracks may or may not be aware of the oncoming vehicle, and could move without your knowledge.
Regarding the car, I would. It still comes down to numbers, and if I'm going to give up control of the vehicle, then it's similar to being in a car with someone else making the decisions, and they don't always make those decisions in your favour. You just need to see the safety record of passenger seats vs driver in accidents. And we have plenty of them. As the roads are more populated by automated vehicles talking to each other, we'll have less accidents. Then we can design the infrastructure to get people off the roads where they don't belong anyway.
No, I wouldn't. Safety sure, but not at all costs. This is what people already do, with the rise of the 4 wheel drive as a city car, because bigger is safer, ignoring that by putting more and more larger vehicles on the road, they actually get less safe because they hit each other, and those that aren't in the larger vehicles become less safe because instead of light injuries, they get significant ones, instead of significant injuries, they get critical ones... I'd rather we all drove small city cars and just had trucks as our 'large' vehicles to avoid, and ideally in the inner city, even they'd be smaller vans rather than big trucks.
I think we have a similar outlook on most of these questions. Just with the last one, it really does become like those urban tractors on the city streets, with roo (bull) bars that have no purpose in the city but to make sure the maximum damage is not on your own car. Hopefully with automation, this sort of arms race on the streets could be done away with....
That's where I was going with the last paragraph. more larger cars/4wd have led to more of them having bull bars to stop them being the ones damaged, upping the stakes again. I'm hopeful that the rise of automation will help reduce and remove this from being an issue.
The winners and a new round of SBI (Podcast/TV recommendations) is here:
https://steemit.com/steembasicincome/@bengy/steem-basic-income-giveaway-favourite-podcasts-tv-series
Excellent choice of contest content!
I would definitely flip the switch to save the five over the one. I feel the numbers play a significant factor with this decision and it would be hard to argue against the one being saved over the five.
Even though it may be more of a traumatic decision to the mind and emotions, I would still flip the switch to save the five adults over one child. You may be sacrificing the next Einstein, but you may be killing the next Hitler as well. The numbers still sway me in this situation.
I just don't feel I could sacrifice a friend with all of the unknown variables still out of reach. As far as the evil person, even though it may be tempting and I would lean towards giving the evil person to the fate and throwing him on the tracks, you do not know if you are saving someone who may be much more evil and destructive than the evil person you sacrificed. That's a hard one.
Depending on what the ethical conditions and parameters were, I would consider buying a car that would sacrifice me for the good of others. Especially if it were overwhelming numbers as in question one and two.
As powerful as the will to live and the insticnt of self-preservation is, I just don't think I could sleep at night or live with myself if I were to purchase this type of vehicle. Who is to say that I am more worthy than anyone out there? We are all sinners and saints wrapped up in a fleshy garment and we have all fallen short of the glory of God.
Thanks for hosting such an interesting contest!
Thanks for the answers, similar answers to what I would have thought, but of course everyone has their own solutions to these questions, of which all are morally justifiable...
I wouldnt flip the switch. Why is that 5 persons on a LIVE track anyway. That 1 person on the OFFLINE track maybe doing repair etc, which is why it is OFFLINE.
Flipping the switch would also mean sending the train to unknown OFFLINE track which may be under repairs or not working causing more unknown amount of damage and loss of lives from people on the train.
The winners and a new round of SBI (Podcast/TV recommendations) is here:
https://steemit.com/steembasicincome/@bengy/steem-basic-income-giveaway-favourite-podcasts-tv-series
Those are very difficult questions and obviously, we don't know what we would do.
Big dilemma right there. Do we know who those 5 adults are? they could be bad dudes and the one on the other track is the only good person left. Logic says that we go by numbers. That would mean to save the 5. But again - who are they. So, I totally don't know.
Even more difficult. And even harder without more details. Are the adults very old? then, maybe the child. Overall, logic says to save the 5 adults.
Maybe if they were the most evil person on earth who has done a lot of harm. But given the fact that I can't even dispatch a chicken, I doubt I could a person. However, to save 5 potential lives and knowing that the person is a killer, maybe coming after me or my kids, might make me do it.
& 5 is in many ways the same question. I don't think that we can trust AI and actually, it has shown that AI is prejudice - since it is learning from people with prejudice and is actually enhancing those traits. So, at this point, I would not buy either since I don't think it would make a good decision.
Yes, the eternal dilemma of what we would say we would do, and when the time comes, what we would actually do! Thanks for your answers, it is hard to know without all the information at hand to clarify the situation, but in a fast moving situation, we just don't have perfect information anyway!
true. it is one of those impossible questions because every decision is going to be not a good one :)
The winners and a new round of SBI (Podcast/TV recommendations) is here:
https://steemit.com/steembasicincome/@bengy/steem-basic-income-giveaway-favourite-podcasts-tv-series
First of all, thank you for the sponsorship!!! I really do appreciate the ability of SBI to pull posts out of the dust level.
As for your questions.
ONE. and TWO. actually get the same answer from me.
To me, the switch you described is a failed solution from the beginning. There is almost always another way! If you have time to flip a switch, you are also likely to have time to push the people out of the way or throw something in the way of the trolley car to stop it or slow it down to give the others the time needed to escape.
I am glad to not have to be in the position to decide who lives and who dies... you try your best to save them all... even if it kills you in the process.
THREE. Your bad guy might be a good thing to throw in the way to stop or slow the trolley, but the prevents any chance of redemption on the part of the bad guy. I'm again thankful that I'm not the chosen executioner of this world! I would sacrifice myself, I'm fairly sure - even if accidentally - but I wouldn't sacrifice anyone else in my stead.
FOUR. and FIVE. - we're talking about majorly advanced Artificial Intelligence - but it's designed by a corporation for whom bottom line is more important than almost anything else... So, no, I wouldn't buy either model - nor accept one as a gift. We already know what happens when bots get out of control here... (I'm probably going to be helping the people looking for ways of outwitting the AI, in your scenario.)
(Speaking of clever AI... or clever Markdown box... so, renumbered the questions.)
Haha, yes I did see the original formatting. The most annoying thing with lists, glad you found a way around it, but I did understand the original!
I do find it amusing that we always look for a way around these dilemmas (the questions!).
I refuse to see this type of question as a simple either/or (or yes/no) question. There's almost always another way.
Yes, there always is another way, however we don't always have the resources (time or otherwise) to realise it! On the other hand, I guess it is part of being human to search for these!
The winners and a new round of SBI (Podcast/TV recommendations) is here:
https://steemit.com/steembasicincome/@bengy/steem-basic-income-giveaway-favourite-podcasts-tv-series
Hello everyone.
These are my thoughts:
1.- No. It's not a matter of quantity. The person who is alone is my mother.
2.- Yes. The child on that side is my son.
3.- Yes. I Sacrifice another to avoid a greater number of deaths. It does not matter if he is a good person or evil.
4.- It may seem selfish, but that is not in my plans.
5.- Yes: I prefer to travel protected. This approach is especially cruel.
Good luck to all the participants.
Regards
The winners and a new round of SBI (Podcast/TV recommendations) is here:
https://steemit.com/steembasicincome/@bengy/steem-basic-income-giveaway-favourite-podcasts-tv-series
Thanks for your answers, some interesting points!
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Q1&2 : No, I would not flip the switch. Apparently these five people are to stupid to realise that there is a trolley heading their way and refuse to get off the track.
That, and the world is getting overpopulated as it is.
Q3 : I don't have any friends, only acquaintances. But looking at my answer to the first two questions, they don't deserve to be sacrificed.
And Evil is in the eye of the beholder.
Q4: I bought a 20-year-old Seat Arosa recently.....so I would say yes.
Q5: No. These kind of cars allow their drivers to pay less attention to traffic. This is dumbing people down.
Thanks for organizing this @bengy. I enjoyed thinking about your dilemma's😉
Haha, thanks for the answers, perhaps a survival of the fittest approach! But I do have to agree in part with the idea that evil/good is in the eye of the beholder. There is a vast gray area, and also I do really believe that "evil" is good intent gone wrong, mostly...
The winners and a new round of SBI (Podcast/TV recommendations) is here:
https://steemit.com/steembasicincome/@bengy/steem-basic-income-giveaway-favourite-podcasts-tv-series