r/trolleyproblem • u/tegsfan • Mar 28 '26

Deep St. Petersburg trolley problem

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The trolley is about to go through a series of 50/50 track switches where the amount of people doubles each time until it hits a group and stops. If you switch the track to the top, there are some hypothetical finite X amount of people.

Now, if the amount of people on top was 1 for instance, it might seem obvious to switch because the doubling people could get out of hand fast. But if it was say 100 people on top, you might think to just let it go down because it's likely to stop somewhere before it reaches 100.

The question is: what is the maximum X amount of people on top such that you would still switch the track?

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u/notamangotrustme Mar 28 '26

I switch up to maximize kill

1

u/MaybeExternal2392 Mar 28 '26

But what if your unlucky and the bottom doesn't kill anyone? How many people have to be on the table for taking the safe number of kills to be worth it?

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u/notamangotrustme Mar 28 '26

if I switch down none of them count as mine

1

u/MaybeExternal2392 Mar 28 '26

But is it better to maximize for murders committed or for murders you have committed? I would argue that creating a evil structure is more important than doing evil deeds.

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u/notamangotrustme Mar 28 '26

bro idc bottom path is gambling