A version of this essay first appeared in Vox on June 8, 2016. A recent article in the Huffington Post huffs about the “ifnexplicable” and “absurd” popularity of a trolley-problem-memes page created ...

A scenario: A runaway trolley car is careening down a track. Five people stand in its path, unaware of the imminent threat. You stand at the intersection of two different tracks and could, if you ...

I imagine you’re all familiar with the concept of the Trolley Problem. You know the ethics-minefield thought experiment, right? A trolley barrels down railway tracks, hurtling towards five people. You ...

The trolley problem is a staple of discussions about ethics. The basic version is very simple: A trolley is barreling down a track toward a group of five people who remain blissfully unaware of their ...

It seems every year I must write about the highly distracting "trolley problem" question for robocars, where people wonder how software will "decide who to kill" when a car faces an unavoidable ...