this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
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As many have mentioned, the expected number of deaths is 1 for no action and 1.25 if you pull the lever. Many still choose to pull the lever despite the expected number being higher. As I understand it, the reasoning is that the value of reach outcome doesn't scale linearly with the number of people alive/dead. Going from 0 deaths to 1 death is a much larger drop in value than going from 1 death to 2.
Something something one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.
Is this math accurate?
i think so if you where to split the 5 humans over the 4 tracks you would get 1.25 humans per track kinda a bad way to think ab these things imo but the math checks out