Cost Of Human Life
Donald Smith got up at his usual time of six in the morning to go to work. He tossed on a plaid dress shirt and jeans, the programmer’s unofficial uniform. Getting his keys for his late model car and his wallet, he walked out the sliding door of his one-bedroom condo.
He was part of a development team at Canal Railroads. They were creating an AI to control the trains and rail switches. The AI’s purpose was to automate the trains’ running by making decisions usually made by an operator or engineer. The AI was in its testing phase, and on this day, Donald was tasked to put it to the ultimate challenge: The Trolley Problem.
The Trolley Problem refers to an exercise in ethics that goes like this: you have a runaway trolley going towards five people. The trolley can be diverted away, but the other track has one person on it. The trolley does not have time to stop for either. Do you divert
