General

Okay, why not just ask "would you kill yourself to save the lives of others."
The thing about hypotheticals like this is that they'd never happen in real life, so there is no point in answering them unless you make the situation realistic. In this situation, you wouldn't know who's on the train, you'd just know it's probably a lot of people on the train. You MIGHT know that it's gonna go off a cliff. You MIGHT think of pulling that switch and somehow, despite not working with train, know that it will keep the train safe. You most likely wouldn't die, since they normally don't put a freakin' railway switch somewhere that would kill the person who operates it.

So, just ask us if self-sacrifice for the lives of multiple others is something we would do.

@iDrinkOJ: DON'T DO IT.

no, i would be helping to stop overpopulation.

@Yohsei pretty sure you have your reasons for not pulling it. before i go on my rant and rambles, i dont want to start a heated argument with you cause im too tired from work to respond back properly, and lazy as well.

i read through your walls of text, and quite frankly, i dont really care about your opinion since its not the way everything in life works. sure, there are times when they are like that but there are also times when they arent. as i have said before, you have your reasons for not pulling it and i have my reasons for pulling it. honestly, i think its not that smart trying to convince people that they will never pull the lever just because you will never pull the lever.

Not sure, I'd decide when such situation happens.

@Halfway :*

OT: Ended up chatting with my gf about this over dinner and she said the same as me so I guess I'm in good hands lol

Only if @icemage11 was onboard

@spearcrusher

are you kidding me right now? is this satire or is this your heroic albeit pathetic attempt at a rebuttal? please let it be the former i beg of you, but just in case you truly believe in what you said

[quote=spearcrusher]]@Yohsei Just because you and many others are selfish, doesn't mean everybody else is too.[/quote]
what? so the basic hard-wired human instinct of survival is now being downplayed as crude and selfish? the very reason you are [i]alive[/i] today is because your ancestors had the human nature and decency to try and remain alive and reproduce?

[quote=spearcrusher]]Do you know the other basiler personally, or me personally? No, so don't assume that just because you wouldn't do it, others would blindly follow your decision.[/quote]

it doesn't matter if i know you personally or not i am stating as a fact that nobody would jump in front of a train for random faceless strangers and they aren't "blindly" following my decisions they're actually following the natural instinct of an organism of which you infer you.... lack

[quote=spearcrusher] On that note, you and I know full well that if the train was filled with everyone you know and love, you'd pull it without hesitation. You stated that you have no emotional connection to the people on the train, and as such they are insignificant. This shows that had there been people you were attached to, you would pull it as well.[/quote]

okay... that's what i'm saying i think in your rush to insult me you failed to read over my post why don't you take a moment and read it

[quote=spearcrusher]All this shows to me is that you're the double standard.[/quote]

so it's a double standard now to want to live and to want to die for people you love, is that what you're getting at? everybody, we have our morals wrong! let us clap for this man right here for discovering the flaws in human society! alfred nobel where are you award spearcrusher at this moment for his astounding work in the human psyche!

i suppose every basiler here such as @tehraygunicorn who said they'd die for their loved ones is a double standard too! why don't you tell him that i'm sure he'd love it

[quote=spearcrusher]I don't care who's on that train, and whether or not they're family, friends or strangers. I would pull the lever. The people on board have the power to save millions upon millions of others' lives with their knowledge, including people that you may know.[/quote]

you fail to understand that there might just also be people on board who are the next pol pots mao zedongs stalins and leopold ii's but enough about bad people i'll talk about how wrong you are later on

[quote=spearcrusher] And just because I don't devote all hours of the day to helping people doesn't mean I wouldn't save lives if I had the chance or help others. If I can, I will help them. [/quote]

http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/2840828/2/#45932908

[quote=spearcrusher]]Just because you don't know them, doesn't mean they're any different. Everyone is capable of great good or evil. You laugh and mock others because they don't agree with your logic, but you will never be able to ignore them. They are the ones that push the envelope and change things. All you do is maintain the status quo.
[/quote]

is this your conclusion? i don't know how to respond to this, because you do realize that once people are dead they aren't allowed to get up and push the envelope and change things and yes the status quo is that i want to survive bravo

if there's one thing to take from everything i said, it's this

you sit there in your comfortable lifestyle with your leather chair and internet access and clean clothes and water and snacks and education and talk about how yes you would jump in front of a train for a million strangers when in reality you have never been faced with a life or death situation

you have absolutely no idea how scary the concept of death is, and when you are faced with such i guarantee you the first thing you will be thinking of will not be "i should kill myself for these people"

imagine please for a moment that you were on that train and impending doom was on your way what would you be thinking about? maybe things like "oh man i never got a chance to talk to sally, i really screwed up big time" "did i leave the refrigerator on?" "please don't let me die please don't let me die please don't let me die"

you watch movies and see superheroes boldly risking their lives for millions of people he will never get the chance to meet and have relations with and you think to yourself i am a hero as well

you are not
you are not special no matter how badly you think you are and believe me everybody likes to think they're special and they'd do things like this but in reality (remember, superheroes don't exist) we're all very average and we live normal lifestyles

i know you like to daydream about being the savior i do that all the time hell i pretend my crush were taken by an evil dragon and i'd sacrifice myself to save her but would i [i]really[/i] do that in real life let alone for a total stranger?

unless you have suicidal ideation or severe depression or psychopathy or you lack basic cognitive functions (which is plausible, given your post) you will not jump in front of that train for 0.0001% of the human population [b]you don't know[/b] and that's fact (if it was people you loved that's an entirely different story)

if you were simply looking to insult people, then i suppose you have succeeded, kudos. i apologize for having mistaken you as someone who was willing and capable of engaging in an intelligent conversation

let me tell you one of my favorite quotes from an intelligent woman named golda meir who is one of my favorite people ever
[b]"don't be so humble -- you are not that great."[/b]

Honestly, no. Millions of people die everyday, from natural and unnatural causes alike. 1,000,000 sounds like a lot, but not really compared to the billions that live on Earth. Also saying, just because there are geniuses on that train, it doesn't mean the world has no geniuses left...in this hypothetical situation, if someone on the train has cures for AIDS, etc, it would mean it's possible to have a cure. Other people could figure it out too.

On the other hand, if people I love are on that train, I would pull the lever. I would rather die than live with the fact that I was able to save people I love but chose not to instead...that would be unbearable.

Of course. I mean 1,000,000 people is a lot.

[quote=iTempo]@Chema: Maybe in our time, yes. Who knows what we're bound to find though.[/quote]

Uhm, well for AIDS, a vaccine is possible, but highly unrealistic, but by definition there is no vaccine for blindness. A vaccine is a chemical injection that stimulates the creation of antibodies for an illness, generally done with a dead virus. The reason it wouldn't work too well on AIDS is that AIDS lowers the body's immune system capabilities to the point where a common cold could kill you, as you may have realized, building up antibodies against a virus that weakens antibodies is pretty hard to do, basically trying to put out a fire with gasoline.

Blindness on the other hand cannot be prevented with a vaccine, since there are ways of becoming blind aside from disease, for example, if someone were to hit you in the back of the head hard enough, you could go blind.

As addressed to the thread, I wouldn't do it for one reason. I'm going to assume that the people on board are adults capable of sharing these scientific advancements well before this train calamity surfaced, and if they haven't released their findings yet, then they won't do it for "the good of humanity".

@Yohsei: Dang Obito calm down please.

[quote=SpearCrusher]I assume you're trying to get into an Ivy League school (Harvard asks all applicants/people who are accepted this question), so learn to think for yourself. Otherwise the answer is obvious.

@Yohsei Just because you and many others are selfish, doesn't mean everybody else is too. Do you know the other basiler personally, or me personally? No, so don't assume that just because you wouldn't do it, others would blindly follow your decision. On that note, you and I know full well that if the train was filled with everyone you know and love, you'd pull it without hesitation. You stated that you have no emotional connection to the people on the train, and as such they are insignificant. This shows that had there been people you were attached to, you would pull it as well. All this shows to me is that you're the double standard. I don't care who's on that train, and whether or not they're family, friends or strangers. I would pull the lever. The people on board have the power to save millions upon millions of others' lives with their knowledge, including people that you may know. And just because I don't devote all hours of the day to helping people doesn't mean I wouldn't save lives if I had the chance or help others. If I can, I will help them. Just because you don't know them, doesn't mean they're any different. Everyone is capable of great good or evil. You laugh and mock others because they don't agree with your logic, but you will never be able to ignore them. They are the ones that push the envelope and change things. All you do is maintain the status quo.[/quote]

By obvious do you mean a yes to pull the lever because its seen as a benefit for humans?

[quote=Chema]For the same reason there is no vaccine for blindness, it is downright unrealistic[/quote]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au0GRWUbqN8

OT: i'd pull the switch and then spiderman 2 that f***er

I assume you're trying to get into an Ivy League school (Harvard asks all applicants/people who are accepted this question), so learn to think for yourself. Otherwise the answer is obvious.

@Yohsei Just because you and many others are selfish, doesn't mean everybody else is too. Do you know the other basiler personally, or me personally? No, so don't assume that just because you wouldn't do it, others would blindly follow your decision. On that note, you and I know full well that if the train was filled with everyone you know and love, you'd pull it without hesitation. You stated that you have no emotional connection to the people on the train, and as such they are insignificant. This shows that had there been people you were attached to, you would pull it as well. All this shows to me is that you're the double standard. I don't care who's on that train, and whether or not they're family, friends or strangers. I would pull the lever. The people on board have the power to save millions upon millions of others' lives with their knowledge, including people that you may know. And just because I don't devote all hours of the day to helping people doesn't mean I wouldn't save lives if I had the chance or help others. If I can, I will help them. Just because you don't know them, doesn't mean they're any different. Everyone is capable of great good or evil. You laugh and mock others because they don't agree with your logic, but you will never be able to ignore them. They are the ones that push the envelope and change things. All you do is maintain the status quo.

Of course I'd love to save myself and let these people die, but one million people are worth more than one person.
It sounds easy in theory, to be the hero, but actually in that situation I don't know what I'd do.

I'd try my best to save myself after I pull the switch, but if not then I hope I've lived a fulfilling life.

id like to say yes, but i could not leave my loved ones behind like that tbh. its selfish as hell i know but im sorry, they mean more to me. if we could pull the switch +die TOGETHER then id pull it though.

Can is different from will, for all I know they can choose to do nothing than help improve the world.
1 million out of 7 billion people, that's not even 1% and I'm pretty sure there are more than 1 million intelligent people out there that can make some progress to finding the "cure".
And dam that train must have some crazy engine(s) to pull 1 million people and the carts to an acceptable train speed. The train would be ridiculous long, A person can just break the link and hope they stop before the cliff saving a couple of people. If the train were to be traveling at a fast rate to kill them all via cliff, the change in direction would probably kill them because of the centripetal force and people being thrown against each other. And if it were traveling slow, people can just bail out and suffer some injuries (maybe some fatal) and break the link.

[quote=iTempo]How can you be so sure that there never will be.[/quote]
For the same reason there is no vaccine for blindness, it is downright unrealistic

Nope but I'd have to live the rest of my life thinking how I could've saved 1,000,000 peoples lives

RIP 1,000,000 people

There is no such thing as AIDS vaccine and there never will

[quote=TehRaygunicorn]
If they were not on the train, I'd be more inclined to not pull the lever but I can't really answer that question and probably never will be able to lol[/quote]

I like you lol

no because the AIDS vaccine information will have been uploaded to the icloud so we can hire hackers to extract the information ezpz

@mateocl
okay then i apologize for that assumption however i still stand by my position that you are full of crap when you say you would pull the lever

why don't you sell everything you own and donate all you have to people starving in third world countries? i think that would improve humanity don't you think? you pull the lever with the assumption that everyone on there is good and that there aren't any hitlers on board

did you know that by choosing not to let people harvest your organs, your inaction is personally killing dozens of people? that's not saving humanity now is it?
your mother and father decided to have a baby which meant that they would rather bring another person (you) into the world that they can call their own than save a much larger number of suffering people who already exist

you're browsing basilmarket instead of raising awareness for a cause

when you treat yourself to any sort of luxury, you are saying that you'd rather eat a extra large burger or have popcorn with your movie or get air conditioning in your car, or have clothes for style over purpose, etc, over [b]saving lives[/b]. this isn't even your life over 1million others you're not even willing to sacrifice [b]comfort[/b] to save them

unless you spend nearly every waking hour of every day working to save or better the lives of others, you are putting yourself ahead of billions.

1000000 random nameless faceless people? screw them lmao i have no emotional attachment to any of them i'd pick me in a heartbeat
[b]however[/b]
if you ask if people here if they would murder a completely innocent person face to face to save their own life, you'd see different results. what about someone they do know? at some point, the majority of people would simultaneously place themselves over countless others, and under a single person like @tehraygunicorn so goodnaturedly said

humans are not altruists. there's a reason why we have a word for heroes instead of just calling them people. they're the exception to the rule. almost anyone who says they'd pick themselves over 1000000 random people are completely full of garbage.

[quote=Yohsei]@tehraygunicorn that's a logical fallacy cause you could also assume that there are 1,000,000 hitlers on board

@maplefacez and i know he wouldn't do it because nobody would because you all answer this without any idea of what actual suffering is

@mateocl you didn't eat your favorite lucky charms for two days you must on the brink of death[/quote]

When i was little the economy in colombia wasnt in the greatest of conditions. During the late 1990's in colombia if you were unemployed and past 30 it was next to imposible to find a job again. A larger company bought out the company that both of my parents worked for. There were mass layoffs. My father was among them. My parents got a loan in order to buy airplane tickets and get visas to the U.S. sometimes my mom's salary wasn't enough to put food on the table. My father couldn't find work. Yes i've gone hungry, and your sarcasm is not appreciated.

@Yohsei I'm not talking about anyone on the train lol just those specific people

If [b]my wife and kids[/b] were on board, I would pull the lever regardless of who else might be on the train

No logical fallacy there because my decision is based firmly on those people I love

If they were not on the train, I'd be more inclined to not pull the lever but I can't really answer that question and probably never will be able to lol

@tehraygunicorn that's a logical fallacy cause you could also assume that there are 1,000,000 hitlers on board

@maplefacez and i know he wouldn't do it because nobody would because you all answer this without any idea of what actual suffering is

@mateocl you didn't eat your favorite lucky charms for two days you must on the brink of death

@Yohsei: well you would be wrong then, but even if that were the case why would it be funny that I would chose to die in order to improve the world?

@Yohsei what if your loved ones were on the train?

I for one know that if my wife and kids were on board, I'd pull the switch without hesitation.

[quote=Yohsei]@mateocl that's funny saying it in the comfort of your own home where i bet you haven't gone hungry once in your entire life[/quote]

Something must have scarred you for life because you're a pretty mean person to someone just answering a question. How do you know he wouldn't do it? You don't know him.

The word "can" means "has the ability to."
Whether the people improves the world or not is up to them.
They can just make money off of health insurance companies and donations saying: "We're working on a cure. We're good people."
I'd let them all die.

Estimated population of Earth: 7,046,000,000.
Deaths from train: 1,000,000.
Estimated population of Earth after tragedy: 7,045,000,000.

@mateocl that's funny saying it in the comfort of your own home where i bet you haven't gone hungry once in your entire life

[quote=Yohsei]no i don't pull the switch and anybody who says yes is full of crap[/quote]

Or maybe they have a different sense of moral justice than you do? I would pull the switch. It would ultimately improve the world for humanity. The people I care about are part of that humanity. If I can do something great for them at the cost of my life so be it.

no i don't pull the switch and anybody who says yes is full of crap