The trolley car problem

[Yavin4]

1. Explained:

2. The Good Place version:

3. The "Oh My God, I have no faith in the future of humanity" version:

4. The "Whew! There may be some hope for humanity" version:

[brush]

1. No-brainer. You sacrifice the fewest people.

[Yavin4]

2. Or, you put into law safety regulations so that this does not happen at all.

What kind of union would let its members work in these unsafe conditions?

[brush]

3. Of course, but in the video an immediate decision has to be made.

Save a group of people or one person.

[hunter]

4. If you are a quantum physicist you take both tracks and hit them all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment

[jmowreader]

5. Another take on this

According to the story, a track-inspection robot is the one who has to decide whether to waste one person or four.

Asimov's First Law of Robotics is, "a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."

So the obvious answer is, the track-inspection robot needs to jump in front of the trolley. In the process of creaming the robot, the trolley will bleed off enough energy that when it hits the wall the miners in the car won't be injured all that badly, if at all.