Poll: Save One Or Save Many

[CrazyBlaze]

I want to know what the people of the Escapists would do in a situation where the lives of many were at stake. You are faced with two choices. Do you save one person who is very close to you or do you save multiply people who could save thousands. Do you save your wife or the people who could cure cancer or solve world hunger? Have the solution to world peace? You only have time to save one. What would you do.

I think my self would be frozen by that choice. On one hand I would do anything for the people I care about, but I on the other hand I'm always looking for ways to help others. I think though if it came down to the wire, I would choose my loved ones.

 

[bobmus]

I tend to get uncomfortably logical around emotional decisions, so I'm guessing I'd choose the many.

 

[madwarper]

I'd take my own path, the one that saves everyone.

Captcha: fire + brimstone. Well Captcha, I'm not sure how that's supposed to save people, but I'll try anything once.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Anyone remember that movie where you press a button, someone you don't know dies, and you get money? I think there was meant to be some sort of emotional conflict in that film, I dunno. I'd be hammering that button.

So yeah, I'd absolutely save a loved one. Because I don't know the other people, fuck 'em.
The only drawback would be if that same loved one would then hate you for killing so many people.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

Anyone remember that movie where you press a button, someone you don't know dies, and you get money? I think there was meant to be some sort of emotional conflict in that film, I dunno. I'd be hammering that button.

So yeah, I'd absolutely save a loved one. Because I don't know the other people, fuck 'em.
The only drawback would be if that same loved one would then hate you for killing so many people.

I think the purpose to that was someone you don't know dies but then the button moves on to someone who doesn't know you. Hence you could be the one to die. I think that's the point of that movie or story because I've heard similar stories about things like that before.

 

[Final First]

I would be frozen by indecisiveness. If I could, I would seek the opinion of the person whom is close to me that I have the option of saving before making the decision. Perhaps if the situation was that of Caesar's assassination in which my friend is a deadly dictator I could work up the courage to kill him for the many. In any other case in which he was not a threat I would save him instead, unless he told me to do otherwise and sacrificed himself.

 

[Freechoice]

Depends: Are the thousands at all important? Hundreds of thousands of people die for preventable reasons. World seems to keep spinning without too much trouble.

Anyone remember that movie where you press a button, someone you don't know dies, and you get money? I think there was meant to be some sort of emotional conflict in that film, I dunno. I'd be hammering that button.

So yeah, I'd absolutely save a loved one. Because I don't know the other people, fuck 'em.
The only drawback would be if that same loved one would then hate you for killing so many people.

What the pony guy said. Except you don't fuckin' tell'em.

Captcha:
later gator

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

 

[CrazyBlaze]

Depends: Are the thousands at all important? Hundreds of thousands of people die for preventable reasons. World seems to keep spinning without too much trouble.

Yes. They are important. They have the knowledge to change the world. Like cure cancer all together or solve world hunger.

 

[Vault101]

Depends: Are the thousands at all important? Hundreds of thousands of people die for preventable reasons. World seems to keep spinning without too much trouble.

in a way yes
because you or I or somone you knwo could be part of that "unimportant 1000 people"

 

[White Lightning]

I need more to go on then just that... but more likely than not I would save the many.

 

[BathorysGraveland]

I would save the loved one in all cases. I'm sorry, but I simply care about my family more than the thousands of others who I haven't one clue about.

 

[Neonbob]

I got really damned lucky to find my fiancee. So I'd absolutely pick her. It'd have to be many degrees higher than thousands for me to change my mind. As long as she's still happy to be with me, I couldn't give less of a shit about other people.
Besides, strangers are all icky.

 

[Blobpie]

The many; my loved one would understand, hell they would probably want me to take that choice.
I know if the circumstances were reversed i would want my loved one to save the many over me.

 

[Vault101]

Depends: Are the thousands at all important? Hundreds of thousands of people die for preventable reasons. World seems to keep spinning without too much trouble.

in a way yes
because you or I or somone you knwo could be part of that "unimportant 1000 people"

Well statistically they probably won't be. Calculating it with 5000 random people dying in the world, there's a 99.99% chance I won't know any of them if I know 100 people. Picked 100 for convenience in calculating it.

yeah...but...not just literally

we cant comprehend 1000 people, they are jsut a humber. But my point is they are important because they are people, not that I can understand choosing the loved one

but if you could imagine that WE and OUR loved ones were on the other side of this equation..get what I mean? I'm not about to say 1000 other people dontmatter...because to so many people out there "I" am just one of those "other people"

 

[requisitename]

The many, always. I'd hope my loved ones would do the same.

 

[Vault101]

True I guess. But still, I guess I'm too selfish to let that stop me. I can cope with indirectly causing suffering to a bunch of other people because it won't affect me daily and I can try to forget it, but if I kill someone I know, I dunno how well I could ever get over that. Not something I could forget or ignore, unlike people I never knew and their families that I will never see. Rationally, yeah it is inflicting the same thing on someone else, but when I look at it personally it'd be too hard to do the right thing.

our empathy for others can only extend so far (literally, its science)

1 person you vaugly knew dies could affect you more than 1000 peopel in some far off country

its understandable, I dont know what I would do, eather choice sucks

I just think that all thease questions..and the other crazy stuff Ive rea don the escapist is always "ME deciding x happens to y"

Im not thinking about me causing the deaths of 1000 people, Im thinking about me being killed because of a decision made by somone else

or me being killed because of some miserable/crazy bastards vision for the world (like i said, going back to the crazy stuff Ive read here)

 

[The Thinker]

I'll try anything once.

Can... barely... resist... tasteless... joke!

Well statistically they probably won't be. Calculating it with 5000 random people dying in the world, there's a 99.99% chance I won't know any of them if I know 100 people. Picked 100 for convenience in calculating it.

Apparently, you can only truly care about 150 people. That means there's about an x150/7,000,000,000 chance, for x victims, that one of them will be included, if this catastrophe is completely random.

 

[The Thinker]

Well I was calculating it as 6,999,999,900/7,000,000,000 chance one of the 100 would not get killed. Then putting that to the xth power to give the me the chances one of the 100 would not get killed in x selections.

Right. As in, we are both correct.
[facetiousness]But you obviously need to go meet 50 more people.[/facetiousness]

 

[LetalisK]

Anyone remember that movie where you press a button, someone you don't know dies, and you get money? I think there was meant to be some sort of emotional conflict in that film, I dunno. I'd be hammering that button.

I do remember that movie. I also remember what a painfully shitty movie it was. It's so bad it spawned its own meme of spoof videos.

 

[The Thinker]

Well actually our calculations would give different numbers. Can't just multiply x by 150/7,000,000,000. The proper chance that one will be selected is 150/7,000,000,000*(6,999,999,850/7,000,000,000)^(x-1). Or at least close to that, in actuality we'd need to keep decreasing that denominator with every multiplication. But at 7,000,000,000 that wouldn't matter much if x is only like 5k.

Pshaw! Who says you can't die twice?! It totally counts, too.