Anybody watching "The Good Place"? (Trolley Problem episode)

Given that I missed most of the season last year, would be somewhat of a flip-flop if otherwise. At least temporarily available here for a few weeks or more (probably need an undetectable VPN if outside the US):

Season 2, episode 5
https://view.yahoo.com/show/the-good-pla...ey-problem

https://view.yahoo.com/show/the-good-place

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Okay.  So, what did we learn?
 
It’s a myth.  More isn’t always better and pedestrians don’t always have the right away.
 
BTW, do you have something shiny that Syne can play with?

(Oct 24, 2017 02:35 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: BTW, do you have something shiny that Syne can play with?

Hubby's got a shiny spot on his head that he's preoccupied with -- some kind of phobia about it expanding in size. Even if Syne is younger than "what most people think", I've seen men in their late 20s grappling with premature shining.

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No shiny spots here. Sorry to disappoint.

(Oct 24, 2017 04:36 PM)C C Wrote:

(Oct 24, 2017 02:35 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: BTW, do you have something shiny that Syne can play with?

Hubby's got a shiny spot on his head that he's preoccupied with -- some kind of phobia about it expanding in size. Even if Syne is younger than "what most people think", I've seen men in their late 20s grappling with premature shining.

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There's good bald and bad bald.  A shiny spot isn't so bad as long as it doesn't turn into something akin to laurels encircling a totally exposed pate. I've possessed the shine for a few years and because it's always threatening to enlarge I now get a buzz haircut, no comb overs pour moi.

(Oct 24, 2017 05:39 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: There's good bald and bad bald.  A shiny spot isn't so bad as long as it doesn't turn into something akin to laurels encircling a totally exposed pate. I've possessed the shine for a few years and because it's always threatening to enlarge I now get a buzz haircut, no comb overs pour moi.

Baldness seems to peversely enhance the appearance of some men (or if a deliberately maintained chrome-dome, then it may click a "cool" button in the bad-boy worship module of the culture). Hubby's not very confident that he falls into that category, though. (Plus there's that negative social reaction to a shaven head starting to show signs of real baldness, as exemplified in that classic Seinfeld episode The Little Jerry.)

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Is there any mileage leave in the trolley problem? Or just rehashing it for people who never heard of it?

(Oct 24, 2017 02:35 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: Okay.  So, what did we learn? It’s a myth.  More isn’t always better and pedestrians don’t always have the right away.

If the potential victims are tied to the tracks, then the otherwise fictional certainties of the death count become more realistic. Michael gorily demonstrated the other differences between TP as abstract set-up and TP if occurring in real life.

The scenario could be tinkered with in all kinds of ways, albeit having to be tainted again with potentially unlikely knowledge of the facts. Like what if the single-kill option consisted of a person rigged with a dead-man's switch (electronic heart sensor) that would trigger a nuclear bomb in the heart of the city if s/he was killed by the trolley? Or what if the 5-killed option involved a party of felons conscripted for work duty from a prison competing, on the other track, with a recognized saint, VIP, or the ambassador's son of a very powerful, rival country?

Blog and wiki accusations of TP being a false dilemma might themselves be naively erring or missing the point. In the end, the real-life credibility of TP isn't so much significant as it just serving as a simulated playground for how differing moral views would respond according to their principles (those being overly ideal as well?). Including the "not intervening in any way" to avoid criminal participation (but with a switcharoo of the trolley "naturally" heading for the track with one victim rather than the five victims). A do-nothing option which would seem to lose its teeth if the nuclear explosion / dead man's switch variation was the case. [Either intervene by slaying the five or else the population of a city perishes, including one's own life being snuffed out within that range.]

Quote:BTW, do you have something shiny that Syne can play with?

Had to settle previously for that banal meaning of shiny in terms of spousal chrome-dome fears. As I doubt the above was "shiny" in terms of novelty or anything new.

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(Oct 25, 2017 01:38 AM)Syne Wrote: Is there any mileage leave in the trolley problem?

Probably not. Posting about the episode in the Film subforum is more of a geegaw for me of a sitcom even bringing up such things. Though my idea of sitcoms probably still anachronistically revolves around the ones shown on a retro-TV channel from decades before (Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, etc). Although I can't imagine something more contemporary like "Two and a Half Men" or "Two Broke Girls" being much a step up the evolutionary ladder, either.

Quote:Or just rehashing it for people who never heard of it?

That too. Whatever mileage it has accumulated, doubtless they'll still be pushing it out of the classics showroom for students and sightseers to kick the tires of for awhile to come.

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(Oct 25, 2017 01:41 AM)C C Wrote: Although I can't imagine something more contemporary like "Two and a Half Men" or "Two Broke Girls" being much a step up the evolutionary ladder, either.

Sadly all too true. I've been hooked on M*A*S*H lately.

(Oct 25, 2017 04:43 AM)Syne Wrote:

(Oct 25, 2017 01:41 AM)C C Wrote: Although I can't imagine something more contemporary like "Two and a Half Men" or "Two Broke Girls" being much a step up the evolutionary ladder, either.

Sadly all too true. I've been hooked on M*A*S*H lately.

Yah, that was way ahead of its time. Occasionally I'm not sure the time has even arrived yet.

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