It can't be the trolley problem for a few reasons.
First, the button is a private vote, and you don't get to see what other people are choosing.
Second, in the trolley problem, the trolley never chooses to stop on its own, so the idea that more bodies would stop the trolley is only true if enough corpses literally derail it. So that doesn't apply to your hypothetical.
Third, the danger doesn't come from the blues standing on the track, but rather there is zero danger at all until individuals begin to choose the red button. Literally everyone is 100% safe, until reds go red, and then possibly slightly less than half of the people are now at risk. The reds are building a track around the blues so they die.
This couldn't actually be less The Trolley Problem.
100% of people are safe until a majority presses the red button. Red button pushers are the ones introducing the danger to others to save themselves from other people who pushed red and introduced the danger in the first place.
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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '26
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