Trolley cart puzzle

[Farnsworth]

So I've started to realize, as many of you probably have, that the Radiants have extremely different senses of morality. This is especially obvious in regards to Skybreakers and Windrunners.

So, I was looking at this interesting puzzle. It's kind of a joke, but let's take it at face value. Ignoring the last few slides about the bomb. What do you think each order would select?

http://existentialcomics.com/comic/106

Edited April 9, 2017 by Figberts

[Kplynch21 he/him]

I just had standardized testing and I had not thought nearly this hard on that as I did on this

1. Skybreakers - the revolutionary; they worship order, and revolution isn't orderly.
2. Windrunners - there is no correct answer, my guess is the father, but it could be the revolutionary since he is not even a person.
3. Edgedancers - the father, they listen to the forgotten, so the revolution and workers are ruled out.
4. Bondsmiths - the revolutionary, again revolution seems counterproductive to uniting.

The other orders do not have enough ideals out for me to guess.

[Weltall]

That is the most over-detailed version of that problem I've ever seen. xD But assuming a 'generic' Radiant has all that information, here are my guesses:

• Windrunner: Either the father or the revolutionary. We know that their oaths compel them to protect people they might find repulsive as long as it's the right thing to do, so how nasty the people are wouldn't factor into it as much, my guess is they'd preserve the others based on numbers rather than what the workers might do in the future. And I can't decide between the remaining two because the Windrunners unlike the Skybreakers might be willing to entertain the revolutionary's long-term ideas as 'right' and we don't know enough to be sure.
• Skybreaker: The revolutionary, being someone going against the laws they're obliged to put before all else.
• Dustbringer: Given that they apparently blow things up with their powers, I'm going to say they pick the bomb option.
• Edgedancer: I'm pretty certain that 'not the workers' is a reasonable assumptin because of their 'I will listen to those who have been ignored' oath, which leaves the three individuals and of those, I suspect they'd pick the revolutionary.
• Truthwatcher: Depending on what they see with their power, they could probably pick any of the options.
• Lightweaver: They've got no special moral code so we can't narrow things down with them. However, with the First Ideal including 'journey before destination' I suspect the revolutionary would be a safe pick for them because they'd see the bloodshed as not being worth the end result. Actually that same analysis applies to all the Orders, it's just most apparent when we have the group with nothing else going for them, morality-wise.
• Elsecaller: Can we not just pretend they Elsecall the trolly into the Cognitive Realm or Soulcast it into delicious cake? No? Okay, then probably the revolutionary for the generic reasons above.
• Willshaper: All we know about them is that they were apparently the Order that was the hardest to assign any kind of generic personality type to so they might vary wildly on a case by case basis. That said, barring future revelations about their remaining Ideals I'll go with revolutionary here too.
• Stoneward: They could probably stop the trolly with their own body and survive it... but again, revolutionary.
• Bondsmith: Since we do have more insight into this Order, either the father or the revolutionary as they're the ones most obviously in opposition to the Bondsmith ideals and more likely the latter than the former.

[Oversleep]

Wow, I just realized Trolley Problem Memes haven't gone far enough yet! That comic is awesome.

[king of nowhere]

I don't know, considering that the five men all have terminal illness and the only way to save them is to kill a kid (which is a big no for any order), killing the five men may be the answer for several orders. In particular the edgedancers may save the revolutionary and support him for a more just society; the bondsmiths also, if they see a stronger society emerging afterwards, and especially the truthwatchers, if they see it will work out in the end. While I expect all orders to kill one person rather than five all else being equal, i don't think there is anything in the radiant oaths about five men with low life expectation against one men who can live decades. I think it would be mostly left to individual initiative. And I doubt any spren would get mad at his radiant for taking one choice over another.

Edited April 10, 2017 by king of nowhere

[Farnsworth]

I feel like the Skybreakers would just kill the revolutionary for breaking the law, kill the five men for being bad people, kill the leader of the company for exploiting his workers, and then kill whoever drove the trolley for being careless.

[Weltall]

12 hours ago, Figberts said:

I feel like the Skybreakers would just kill the revolutionary for breaking the law, kill the five men for being bad people, kill the leader of the company for exploiting his workers, and then kill whoever drove the trolley for being careless.

Admittedly we don't have a lot of details on what makes them tick but I think that someone would have to actually break a law (where death is an acceptable sentence and where they have authority to act) before they could kill anyone. So they could probably summarily execute the revolutionary with proof of guilt but unless 'being a bad person' or 'exploiting the workers' are capital crimes they probably couldn't kill them. The trolley driver... well, maybe. Have an upvote for the laugh regardless.

[Farnsworth]

They would have to have to have legal permission before doing it, I agree.