Save the human or other animal?

[idav]

If your driving down the road and you will end up hitting either a human or a wild wolf which would you instinctively avoid? I might try and avoid the human probably cause it naturally takes priority but I don't know. I really like wolves. :/

 

[jarofthoughts]

If your driving down the road and you will end up hitting either a human or a wild wolf which would you instinctively avoid? I might try and avoid the human probably cause it naturally takes priority but I don't know. I really like wolves. :/

I'd probably run off the road trying like hell not to hit any of them...
But, I assume that's not an option in your hypothetical question.

As a species we are naturally biased in favour of our own species so I guess I'd rather hit the wolf than the human.

 

[Valjean]

On the other hand, the Earth's already overpopulated with humans, and wolves are endangered....

 

[The Sum of Awe]

If your driving down the road and you will end up hitting either a human or a wild wolf which would you instinctively avoid? I might try and avoid the human probably cause it naturally takes priority but I don't know. I really like wolves. :/

I'd avoid another species of animal, they are like babies to me, they are so innocent and small, they will feel the pain worse.

 

[gnomon]

If your driving down the road and you will end up hitting either a human or a wild wolf which would you instinctively avoid? I might try and avoid the human probably cause it naturally takes priority but I don't know. I really like wolves. :/

Never been in the situation so I don't know but I do know if the choice is between eating another human being or a cow I'll eat the cow.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

If your driving down the road and you will end up hitting either a human or a wild wolf which would you instinctively avoid? I might try and avoid the human probably cause it naturally takes priority but I don't know. I really like wolves. :/

I'd avoid the human. I'd also slam on the horn to hopefully clear the road, and if the ditch was clear and my speed was low enough, I'd put the car in it, but if it came right down to it, I'd avoid the human at the expense of the wolf.

This is partly because I value humans more than wolves, but also because of what my driving instructor taught me: "if you can see over it, run over it." IOW, swerve to avoid large things, but not to avoid small things.

Getting hit by a car is definitely going to be bad news for whatever you hit, but while getting a 50-pound wolf in your radiator might disable your car, getting a 200-pound person through your windshield at speed could kill you and everyone else in your car.

 

[Reptillian]

On the other hand, the Earth's already overpopulated with humans, and wolves are endangered....

You raise an interesting point. I think the vast majority of humans would avoid hitting the human and hit the wolf, but suppose it was the last wolf in the world and its death was the death of the species. Then the wolf would be special and more "valuable". So the question is, what value do we place on a human life? Why do we choose that value, is it because humans are intelligent thinking beings? What if the chioce were between killing a human or a super intelligent alien?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

You raise an interesting point. I think the vast majority of humans would avoid hitting the human and hit the wolf, but suppose it was the last wolf in the world and its death was the death of the species.

Personally, I think the vast majority of humans tend to not to drive so fast that the stopping sight distance for their speed is so much greater than the available stopping sight distance that when the road is effectively blocked, they wouldn't be able to stop or even slow down enough to safely maneuver to avoid a fatal collision.

Even before this hypothetical scenario begins, an ethically dubious decision has been made.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

You raise an interesting point. I think the vast majority of humans would avoid hitting the human and hit the wolf, but suppose it was the last wolf in the world and its death was the death of the species. Then the wolf would be special and more "valuable". So the question is, what value do we place on a human life? Why do we choose that value, is it because humans are intelligent thinking beings? What if the chioce were between killing a human or a super intelligent alien?

I love this.

 

[Reptillian]

Personally, I think the vast majority of humans tend to not to drive so fast that the stopping sight distance for their speed is so much greater than the available stopping sight distance that when the road is effectively blocked, they wouldn't be able to stop or even slow down enough to safely maneuver to avoid a fatal collision.

Even before this hypothetical scenario begins, an ethically dubious decision has been made.

Think of it as a gedanken experiment. Suppose instead its a train speeding along without brakes and there is a switch in the track...you control the switch to decide which way the train goes since it can't stop...one way leads to a human, one to the wolf. Would it matter if the wolf were the last of its kind? Would it matter if the human was Hitler? I once told a friend I disliked the idea of Hell because I'd save Hitler if he was drowning in a swimming pool. You raise an interesting point too in that previous moral decisions can effect current ethical choices, but thats a whole new set of questions.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Think of it as a gedanken experiment. Suppose instead its a train speeding along without brakes and there is a switch in the track...you control the switch to decide which way the train goes since it can't stop...one way leads to a human, one to the wolf. Would it matter if the wolf were the last of its kind? Would it matter if the human was Hitler?

Probably. I might be inclined to kill Hitler whether it saves a wolf or not. Of course, if I'm going so fast I can't stop, I'd probably also be going so fast that I wouldn't be able to identify the specific person.

I once told a friend I disliked the idea of Hell because I'd save Hitler if he was drowning in a swimming pool.

For me, I think it would depend on the specifics of the situation.

If saving Hitler meant that I'd be turning him over to a trial to answer for his crimes, then sure, I'd save him. If it meant that I'd be enabling him to commit the Holocaust, then I'd leave him in the pool.

Of course, since I don't have perfect foreknowledge, I probably wouldn't be able to identify the next Hitler as "the next Hitler", so in any real-world case, I'd probably try to save a drowning person if I could.

You raise an interesting point too in that previous moral decisions can effect current ethical choices, but thats a whole new set of questions.

Yeah, but it speaks to values: by overdriving your sight distance like this, your actions imply that you've placed a very low value on whatever happens to be on the road over the next crest. It's contradictory to then say that the value of one of the things on the road is very high.

 

[gnomon]

Or what if it's the last wolf or your own child?

What if your child struggles with a horrible disease?

What if it's the last elephant, which hitting it would probably destroy the car and everyone in it but the elephant could survive, and Donal Rumsfeld?

What if it's a choice between the last unicorn or Jesus come back to Earth? You could eliminate a mythical species but not hit the savior but then again the savior could just come right back.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Or what if it's the last wolf or your own child?

Save the child, collect the wolf's DNA.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Save the child, collect the wolf's DNA.

Or the other way around is possible. Just saying the possibilities.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

What about if it was the president or your pet that you love so dearly and never imagined would die?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Or the other way around is possible. Just saying the possibilities.

Well, no.

The importance of my child is wrapped up in the individual. The importance of the last example of a species isn't in the individual, it's in the fact that it's a member of the species.

And frankly, if we're talking about a species that reproduces sexually, if there's only one individual left, the species is doomed anyhow.

What about if it was the president or your pet that you love so dearly and never imagined would die?

Is it just the President, or is it the President surrounded by Secret Service agents?

And If I love my pet so dearly, why did I leave it to wander out into the middle of the road?

 

[angellous_evangellous]

If your driving down the road and you will end up hitting either a human or a wild wolf which would you instinctively avoid? I might try and avoid the human probably cause it naturally takes priority but I don't know. I really like wolves. :/

Honestly I would try to avoid both if possible, mainly because I like my car.

If I have children in the car that might get injured, I would make less of an effort so as to lower the risk of hurting the kids.

Bottom line: roads are for cars, not people or wolves. They both have the responsibility and natural instinct to get out of the way.

 

[Noaidi]

The wolf.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

The wolf.

It all depends upon which human and which wolf.

But just a random human and a random wolf, I'd go with the wolf too. Humans have a more chance of surviving

 

[idav]

It all depends upon which human and which wolf.

But just a random human and a random wolf, I'd go with the wolf too. Humans have a more chance of surviving

Going for the least amount of damage seems reasonable and hard to determine in a split second but doable. Not sure about going by which human or wolf, based on looks? Like not running over a MILF?