Comic #5867: trolley-6
Description
Comic Title: Trolley Problems
Panel 1:
- Top text: "Good news everyone. We've solved the trolley problems."
- Image: A character with glasses and a suit is speaking to an audience.
Panel 2:
- Text: "Instead of trying to reason out how you should behave in the trolley, we have generated simulated societies that obey trolley-style ethical rules."
- Image: The same character, gesturing while speaking.
Panel 3:
- Text: "At one extreme, all society members would run over the five people in the way of the trolley. At the other extreme, all would change course to only kill one. We can simulate arbitrary numbers of intermediate scenarios."
- Image: The character is pointing to diagrams and graphs on a white board next to him.
Panel 4:
- Text: "The result is, and I can say this with five sigma confidence, that it doesn’t make a dog’s turd worth of difference. Therefore we conclude the trolley problem has no standing as an ethical matter."
- Image: The character continues to speak passionately.
Panel 5:
- Text: "But what do people do when forced to make impossible choices?"
- Image: A worried audience member asks a question, while others look on.
Panel 6:
- Text: "The only settings where real-life people regularly face trolley-style problems are total war and introductory philosophy classes."
- Image: The character appears serious while addressing the audience.
Panel 7:
- Text: "So…"
- Image: A silhouette of a standing figure begins to speak.
Panel 8:
- Text: "They must be abolished."
- Image: The outline of the audience is seen, reacting to the statement.
This comic humorously critiques the ethical dilemmas posed by trolley problems and discusses their real-life applicability.