this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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Scenario 1: It is difficult, but not impossible to free the man from his chains or otherwise disrupt the functions of the trolley. You can eventually save him, so switching the trolley to his track is morally correct.
Scenario 2: The man cannot be freed from the track, the trolley will never stop running him over, and his suffering will never end. From a purely mathematical standpoint, he will eventually experience more suffering than the mortals tied to the track, so it would be more moral to allow the trolley to kill them and end their suffering immediately. ON THE OTHER HAND, if he's immortal and can't be freed, he will also experience infinite suffering just from being forever tied to an empty track, so it's arguably no different if he's being run over or not, so it would be more moral to give him the trolley and then let the other people go free so they can go out and enjoy their lives.
So infinite suffering is worse than taking 5 lives, but finite suffering isn't.
Then, where's the cutoff? Would it be fine if he can be saved after 1 week? A year? A millennium?
Not infinite suffering, as the trolley battery will only last for 10,000 years.
Sigh... unzips solar panels
Welcome to: sun swallow earth after become red giant.
I wonder how our immortal friend's suffering will go once the Earth has been swallowed by the Sun
how much work will it take? who will organize it? who will pay for it? will my taxes go up?
ALOT. Me. You. Without a dbout, but it's unrelated
well fuck it then, leave him on the track and sell tickets and t-shirts
The limit is 2016000 moments, give or take
The planet the trolly is on is not infinite. Earth will be consumed by our sun freeing his from his suffering. He can then live out eternity floating through the cosmos. Even if he is immortal, can he survive the heat death of the universe?
Uncountable infinite then.
In the book Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, there are inhabitants of the city of Elantris who are demi-gods: very long lived, and regenerate almost instantly from wounds so pretty hard to kill. But a curse befalls the city and the inhabitants go from regenerating wounds to not being able to heal at all. The pain from the initial moment of a stubbed toe persists with you... forever or until the curse is lifted.
In one part of the book and it has been I think 20 years of the curse, some characters are considering how to relieve themselves of the pain. If the body was cremated, would that end it or would the pain of being created persist with whatever is left?
Your comment about the sun freeing the immortal from suffering made me think of this. What if the immortal isn't freed from suffering by being engulfed by the sun?
Who says being tied to the track is infinite suffering? How is it any worse than the absurd meaninglessness of our own existences? Could Track Guy not find joy in hearing the singing of nearby birds, or find freedom in his own thoughts? We could still talk to him, keep him company, maybe he would enjoy teaching or hearing stories, discussing philosophy. He could write a novel.
Even if he was being run over by the trolly every so often, couldn’t he find something worth living for in those moments in between? One must imagine Track Guy happy.