The Infinite Trolley Problem
Do you pull the lever, killing 1 + 1 + 1 + 1... people – one person for every integer – resulting in infinite people dying? Or do you do nothing, allowing the trolley to kill one person for every real number? In both cases, infinite people die; but in the top case, the smallest possible infinity of people die (ℵ₀), whereas in the bottom case, a larger infinity of people die (some infinities are bigger than other infinities). What do you do?
A trolley approaches two tracks: pulling the lever kills one person for every integer, while doing nothing lets it kill one person for every real number. The joke applies Cantor’s distinction between countable and uncountable infinities to the trolley problem, turning an ethical dilemma into an absurd mathematical choice. It is shared as a reaction to impossible decisions, mathematical overthinking, or dark intellectual humor.
- Template
- Trolley problem
- Type
- image
- Size
- 750×518 · 59.3 KiB
- Mood
- absurd, intellectual
- Language
- en
- Added