Poll: Kill 1 to save 1,000?

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  1. #21
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    It depends entirely on context.

    IIrc plenty of Action movies have the protagonist kill hundreds...maybe even thousands of enemies to save his babe.

    We don't condemn them either.

  2. #22
    Dreadlord Brettshock's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ace Ventura View Post
    For your country? For a piece of land that was taken by ancestors?

    I don't get nationalism. Maybe when there's an alien attack I'll develop this 'eartlings unite!'-feeling, but... I don't care for my country one bit. It's a name and a flag, 5 km from here there's another country.
    'For my country' barely ever means for the actual land. It usually comes down to loved ones and your way of life that you're actually protecting, and 'country' is a nice euphemism. :3

  3. #23
    I would kill a billion to save 1.

  4. #24
    Isn't this like asking your mother to decide if you or your brother live? I mean, you can't decide, tough in this case it's 1 vs 1000 so I think in most cases the 1000 would be picked to live, but the best thing would never to be in such a position to have to pick. I mean, a death does not really change anything except inflict pain so why do it in the first place? I find this question silly because you can't decide fairly, especially when you don't know the situation at all. For example 1 murderer vs 1000 kindergarteners. 1 kindergartener or 1000 murderers... see? Context changes your decision. Ergo you can't pick just by the numbers and hope that picking the one guy because a thousand lives are worth more, even if they are, yeah anyway I will stop walking lol...

  5. #25
    The Unstoppable Force Arrashi's Avatar
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    Where is "kill 1001" option ?

  6. #26
    Elemental Lord Korgoth's Avatar
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    35% would kill 1000 people instead of 1, you bunch of homicidal maniacs! That is the options kill 1 or kill 1000, your choice.
    "Gamer" is not a bad word. I identify as a gamer. When calling out those who persecute and harass, the word you're looking for is "asshole." @_DonAdams
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  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ryttge View Post
    If it was 1 person i didn't know wich i needed to kill to save 1000 people i didn't know i wouldn't even think twice about it. If it was someone i knew well vs 1000 people i didn't know i would kick back and enjoy the massacre.
    Spot on. Selective human reasoning at it's finest. I doubt many would do choose differently..

  8. #28
    Would you kill yourself to save 1000 innocent people?

  9. #29
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    /threadhijack

    If you could travel in time and you meet a young painter in Paris, named Adolf Hitler. With all you know, would you kill him? And possibly end up in old-time-jail?

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gilian View Post
    Would you kill yourself to save 1000 innocent people?
    Face my certain death? No. Put myself in peril taking a shot at it with a chance to walk away.. yes.

  11. #31
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    If you consider all people equal and if that one person isn't killed then 1000 others die, then this question boils down to simple mathematics.
    Do I kill one person or do I kill 1000...
    The answer should be pretty obvious.
    But usually it's different case by case and it's the country that handles the decision according to it's laws.

  12. #32
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    It's a matter of philosophy and ethics.

    From a deontological point of view it will always be wrong, because killing is wrong. It's the Immanuel Kant type of thinking.

    From a utilitarian, consequentialist point of view it's good because you save more than you kill. It's the Jeremy Benthem type of thinking.

    Then there also is a relatively new group of ethics that says the relationship you have to the 1 and to the 1000 is important. Killing thousand strangers to save your child would be ethical in this case.

    I myself think like the last group and would not kill my own relative or friend to save a thousand strangers while I would kill a thousand strangers to save one relative or friend. If they're all strangers, I probably wouldn't care and just walk by.

  13. #33
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Ryttge View Post
    If it was 1 person i didn't know wich i needed to kill to save 1000 people i didn't know i wouldn't even think twice about it. If it was someone i knew well vs 1000 people i didn't know i would kick back and enjoy the massacre.
    ^this. As much as i want to say that i can't be that selfish in a situation like that, i still know that this is what i would've done.

  14. #34
    Deleted
    Aah, one of those threads where people liek to show they care about friends, family etc. and would do anything to "stop" overpopulation.

    Seriously, the question is beyond useless.

  15. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by Gilian View Post
    Would you kill yourself to save 1000 innocent people?
    Would probably have to go a little more extreme in numbers, and how well I knew them. Ramping up the pain they suffer would work in persuading me.

  16. #36
    I'd absolutely kill one to save a thousand, and I don't understand the deontological thinking that leads to any other decision. There probably is a point where my own guilt and trauma would come into play, but I'm not certain that it would offset even one additional life; which is to say, if you asked me to kill one person in order to save two people, I'd almost certainly do that too. I just don't value my own unhappiness with being a murderer over the life of even one person, and certainly not over the lives of 999.

    Now, of course, I'm speaking in the hypothetical as regards my teleological morality. In practice, if you asked me to, say, kill a family member, less practical aspects would come into play. That's not to say I wouldn't do it, only that I'm not asserting that I'm incapable of making irrational decisions for personal reasons. I like to think I wouldn't, but I've got insufficient data to make a firm case either way. And once we get into the 'killing yourself to save a 1000 people,' you wander into the realm of blind terror, and all that logical grandstanding gets thrown out the window.
    Last edited by Tartilus; 2011-12-05 at 11:02 AM.

  17. #37
    Banned Gandrake's Avatar
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    Well, it depends on who it is. I'm a pretty loyal guy, I would fight to the death or give my life for someone I truly cared for. Or, well, kill a thousand people.

    but if it's just some dude who I have no valuable connections or ties to, then sure. I'd kill him to let a thousand people live.

    Really, it's just a variable if you're not going to give it any clarification.

    Quote Originally Posted by Gilian View Post
    Would you kill yourself to save 1000 innocent people?
    do i get a gun, or are you going to force me to perform seppuku
    Last edited by Gandrake; 2011-12-05 at 10:58 AM.

  18. #38
    Depends on the people involved.

    If it was killing one person I know and like to save a thousand I don't know, I wouldn't do it.

    On the other hand, if it was killing a thousand people I don't know to save one I do know and like, I would do it.

    But if nobody I knew was involved on either side, I probably wouldn't care enough to bother with it, unless I was getting paid.

    This is of course assuming it's all arranged where I'd get away with it.

  19. #39
    Quote Originally Posted by Ace Ventura View Post
    /threadhijack

    If you could travel in time and you meet a young painter in Paris, named Adolf Hitler. With all you know, would you kill him? And possibly end up in old-time-jail?
    No, i would tell him all i know about war then watch him conquer.

  20. #40
    You cant ask this question in a black and white setting (No, im not talking about race).

    If you do, the question wouldnt be hard from a math standpoint. It would always be kill the one to save the 1000.

    When you start putting a little basic humanity into it, it becomes harder.

    But yeah, it depends on who it is. You can take this even furhter. Would you kill 1000 terminally ill patients to save one newborn baby ? They would have no chance of surviving long anyway.

    But its a hard question when you look at it humanely.

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