Science Memes

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submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 10 months ago (4 children)

At any point in time, a finite amount of time has passed, and the trolley has killed a finite amount of people. The correct track is the one that, at any given time, will have killed fewer people. Unless the trolley speeds up to account for that and always kills n people per second, the top track will result in less deaths over any period of time.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago

The straight ahead track actually kills an infinite number of people every interval of time.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The tram travels at light speed and so time no longer flows for you. You exist in a singular moment of splattergore.

[–] brianorca 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

But even light speed is finite for the people on the track. It's only the tram that stops experiencing time.

Also, you're not on the tram. You're standing at the switch.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

All trolleys to date have been finite. A trolley which can kill an infinite number of people would truly be a marvel of engineering.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Every finite trolley passes infinitely many points when moves, if you accept space as infinitly divisible (structured as the real numbers).

[–] Zoomboingding 3 points 10 months ago

The train tracks are linear time on Earth. It's basically the choice between letting people be killed or dying of old age.