this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
609 points (96.1% liked)

Programmer Humor

19497 readers
1213 users here now

Welcome to Programmer Humor!

This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!

For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.

Rules

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] cloudy1999@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If we keep doubling, will I eventually be a person on the tracks? There are a finite number of people, so eventually I would be, right? So, passing the buck would be equivalent to handing my fate to a stranger.

OTOH, if there are an infinite number of people, then this thought experiment is creating people out of thin air. Do these imaginary people's rhetorical lives even matter?

Either way, it seems better to kill 1 person at the start.

If it creates infinite number of people, it could solve world hunger with some good ol' Soylent green thinking. Although you might want to figure out how to slow down the trolley at some point.