Replying to a comment on:

=, <>, & . . . (Free verse) by Dovina

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zodiac 3-Mar-06/1:15 PM
For what it's worth, "That depends only upon who gave the most to my campaign fund or who would make me look better. I am an elected leader, else I would not be making the choice" is full of holes. You are given no assurance that your biggest contributors are the ones saved. If you mean you'd pick the program that gave the most to your campaign, well, either choice stands to be criticized a great deal, and Program D stands to kill everybody, so are you really doing them such a favor? Moreover, there are any number of ways you could be faced with this choice without being elected leader. One that comes immediately to mind is that you're an appointed leader, like the head of FEMA or CDC. Or you could be the head of a pharmaceutical corporation that only has time to produce one of two possible medicines in the time remaining.

Or you, Dovina, could find yourself in an abandoned laboratory. You see two separate glass containers. A note taped nearby says: "These containers can only be opened by a gunshot. Opening the container to the right will release Drug C, which will certainly allow 400 of the 600 people affected by the Asian virus to die but save the other 200. Opening the container to the left will release Drug D, after which there is a proven 1/3 chance that nobody affected by the virus will die, but a 2/3 chance that everybody affected will die." There is a gun lying nearby with only one bullet. You have no other gun with you. Nor, according to a separate, attached note, is there enough time to get one or find other people. Therefore, you have to decide to either shoot the container to the right or the container to the left. You must assume all of this is true.

Certainly, you will agree that this is at least POSSIBLE, and that your comment above is, therefore, bunk.




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