This is why it is important to only hire union trolley operators. They are trained to stop the trolley.
IT'S A TRAP
Submitted 1 day ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/dd931720-08dc-4eea-9268-74fc635a1e79.png
Comments
Bronstein_Tardigrade@lemmygrad.ml 12 hours ago
p3n@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
I do what I always do: run to the trolley, then jump up and pull the emergency stop because I hate false dilemmas.
hakunawazo@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Correct, because if we ignore some important facts you could also have infinite time to stop the trolley. Checkmate, false dilemma creators.
dontbelievethis@sh.itjust.works 23 hours ago
Bottom. Greater probability that it gets stuck in the corpses.
krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 20 hours ago
I masturbate until I forget about the decision I have to make and then put off cleaning my apartment until I finally just run out, randomly pull the lever, and never think of the consequences again.
Of course by that point everyone has already starved to death which is the worst possible outcome.
moody@lemmings.world 18 hours ago
Ah, procrasturbation.
Randelung@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
What about a time loop where only one person dies, but infinite times?
trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Doesn’t matter, there are not enough people to try this anyway
Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 23 hours ago
Depends on the speed of the trolley.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Not with that attitude
eleijeep@piefed.social 19 hours ago
Population expansion is exponential but the tram moves at constant velocity, so by the time it reaches the end of the track of 8bn people there will be an exponentially increasing number of people further down the track.
Matriks404@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Imagine being the first one being killed on top track.
The probability of that is…?
Mathematicians tell me, please, because my mind is breaking.
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 22 hours ago
It's 0. I mean someone has to be the first, but betting on any particular person to be the first will necessarily be a losing bet.
silasmariner@programming.dev 18 hours ago
But what if I know Steve’s first and bet it’s Steve?
_stranger_@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
It’ll make it through maybe 3 infinities before derailing. Go bottom, end it faster.
OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works 18 hours ago
Can I group the people into groups of 1, then 2, then 3 and so forth? When the trolley is done with the killing, it will have killed -1/12 people.
wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io 22 hours ago
I’d just close my eyes and believe the bodies I’m trampling are imaginary.
CommissarVulpin@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Okay, so what’s the point of “proving” that there some “infinities” are “bigger” than others? What’s the practical application here? Because an infinite hotel with an infinite number of guests is physically impossible, so I don’t see the point.
carmo55@lemmy.zip 21 hours ago
A practical application is for example in probability theory (or anywhere that deals with measures) such as this question:
If we generate a random real number from 0 to 1, what is the probability that it is rational?
Because we know that the continuum is so much larger in a sense than the set of rationals, we can answer this confidently and say the probability is zero, even though it is theoretically possible for us to get a rational number.
Statistics deals with similar scenarios quite frequently, and without it we wouldn’t have the modern scientific method.
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 22 hours ago
Practical application in math tends to be like three degrees of separation and half a century removed from the math at play. In this case, all of modern mathematics is based on set theory, so it's more that this stuff allows us to do other, more practically useful math while knowing what we're talking about.
MBM@lemmings.world 20 hours ago
I’ve never been a fan of just saying “some infinities are bigger than others,” to be honest. Way too easy to misunderstand and it’s also kind of meaningless by itself.
bstix@feddit.dk 21 hours ago
The real numbers also includes the integers.
The practical consequence of this example is that the integers die regardless of what you choose.
However infinitely many people will survive if you choose the first option.
CommissarVulpin@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
And yet there can never, and will never, be a situation where an infinite number of people are tied to a railroad track. So this thought experiment is meaningless.
PhAzE@lemmy.ca 17 hours ago
Geez, disconnect the trains so you can hit both lines at the same time, obviously.
AkatsukiLevi@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Hold the lever halfway so the trolley picks both rails at the same time, to ensure highest possible kill comboq
davidgro@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
That’s effectively just the bottom track, where an uncountable number of people (literally) will die as soon as the train reaches position (0.
Zerush@lemmy.ml 19 hours ago
I use the lever to kill the train driver.
zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 21 hours ago
I take the square root of all the negative real numbers and kill in an entirely new dimension.
halvar@lemy.lol 22 hours ago
there are more real numbers than integers though
ThermonuclearEgg@hexbear.net 17 hours ago
The image actually says this
TomMasz@piefed.social 23 hours ago
I remember seeing a science show on PBS where the presenter explained how there are different infinities by using set theory and the integers/reals. That was mind-blowing at the time.
ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 18 hours ago
I reject the premise since there will only ever exist a finite number of people. They will all die. One day the last human will die.
bizarroland@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
I would pull the lever and then steal a bus and knock the trolley off of the track, killing the least amount of people possible.
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
sort them so you kill one person first, then 2, then 3, then 4…
kometes@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
“smallest”?
LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 hours ago
In the top case has it been arbitrarily decided to include space in between the would-be victims? Or is the top a like number line comparison to the bottom? Because if thats the case it becomes relevant if there is one body for every real number unit of distance. (One body at 0.1 meter, and at 0.01 meter, at 0.001, etc)
If so then there’s an infinite amount of victims on the first planck length of the bottom track. An infinite number of victims would contain every possible victim. Every single possible person on the first plank length. So on the next planck length would be every possible person again. Which would mean that the bottom track is actually choosing a universe of perpetual endless suffering and death for every single possible person. The top track would eventually cause infinite suffering but it would take forever to get there. The bottom track starts at infinite suffering and extends infinitely in this manner.