“Crowding, rapid change and the breakdown of communities have been widely recognized as sources of social problems. But we do not believe they are enough to account for the extent of the problems that are seen today.
If the system breaks down the consequences will still be very painful. But the bigger the system grows the more disastrous the results of its breakdown will be, so if it is to break down it had best break down sooner rather than later.
The concept of ‘mental health’ in our society is defined largely by the extent to which an individual behaves in accord with the needs of the system and does so without showing signs of stress.”

Theodore John Kaczynski
aka
The Unabomber

 

April 3 2022 — On April 3 1996, FBI agents raided the Montana cabin of Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. In his essays, the Unabomber wrote about ethics and technology. The current pandemic raises many such issues. Is it ‘right’ to impose a vaccine if you know that it will save millions while killing a few? Let me ask you a hypothetical question… The trolley problem is a thought experiment in ethics modeling an ethical dilemma. It is generally considered to represent a classic clash between two schools of moral thought, utilitarianism and deontological ethics.  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

RELATED POST: Coronavirus — “Potential Emergence of a Global Pandemic” [NIC — Global Trends 2025 (November 2008)]

“I believe that human freedom and the natural environment are fundamentally incompatible.”

Theodore Kaczynski

UPDATE (April 3, 2024) — A modern version of the Trolley experiment (Covid-19)

Theodore Kaczynski, better known as the UNABOMBER, was a mathematics prodigy who abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a primitive lifestyle.

RELATED POST : On This Day — Italian Physicist Ettore Majorana vanishes (March 25, 1938)

However, between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski carried out a series of bombings that resulted in three fatalities and 23 injuries in a nationwide mail bombing campaign.

He targeted individuals whom he believed were advancing modern technology at the expense of the natural environment. While Kaczynski’s critiques of technology resonate with some, his methods are widely condemned.

Moving forward to the present, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into focus the complex interplay between technology, society, and ethics.

New estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest that the pandemic’s full death toll, including indirect impacts, may have exceeded 14.9 million between January 2020 and December 2021.

In light of these challenges, let us consider a hypothetical scenario: a scientist is developing a virus that poses a significant threat to millions of lives. You find yourself faced with a unique opportunity to prevent this catastrophe by eliminating the scientist.

What would you do?

This thought experiment prompts us to confront ethical dilemmas surrounding the use of preemptive violence to prevent harm and the complex moral calculations involved in such decisions.

END of UPDATE

“We are going to argue that industrial-technological society cannot be reformed in such a way as to prevent it from progressively narrowing the sphere of human freedom.”

Ted Kaczynski

The general form of the problem is this. There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five people tied up and unable to move.

The trolley is headed straight for them. You are standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever.

If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. However, you notice that there is one person on the side track.

You have two options:

A — Do nothing and allow the trolley to kill the five people on the main track.

B — Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person.

Which is the more ethical option? Or, more simply: What is the right thing to do?

Intel Today would like to know what you think?

– – –

The Trolley Problem Explained

In 1967 Philippa Foot introduced us to the thought experiment called the Trolley Problem. This problem introduces a situation where a runaway trolley carrying four people is careening down the tracks towards a dead end.

The four people in the trolley will certainly be killed if nothing is done. There is an option to divert the runaway trolley and save the four people but in doing so you will kill one person that is in the path of the now diverted trolley. What do you do?

In this clip a robot is introduced in to the equation. Can humans code A.I. that would make the right choice.?

REFERENCES

Trolley problem — Wikipedia

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On This Day — FBI agents arrest Ted Kaczynski (April 3 1996) [Ethics & The Trolley Thought Experiment]

On This Day — FBI agents arrest Ted Kaczynski (April 3 1996) [UPDATE : A modern version of the Trolley experiment (Covid-19)]