JULY 7, 2017 —Imagine that you’re driving through a residential area when your brakes fail. Directly in your path is a group of five jaywalkers. The only place to swerve is onto the sidewalk, where a pedestrian is waiting for the signal to change.
Who do you run over, the five jaywalkers or the one law-abiding citizen?
The "trolley problem" is a bit like the "ticking time bomb torture scenario" or the "would you travel back in time to kill baby Hitler?" scenario. Something to talk about when you're stoned in your freshman dorm room, but not actually a way of confronting serious problems.
Better to spend time on worrying about making brakes that don't fail, is the point...