Phillipa Foote

The other day I was talking to my brother when he was in town with his family. We were discussing his new car, a Tesla, and his dislike for Elon Musk. Prior to Elon's buying of Twitter David was a huge fan of Elon and Tesla. he saw the value of entrepreneurs like him, he thought Tesla was a revolution, which in many ways it is. 

Suddenly, after Elon bought Twitter, David allowed his politics to come into play. I pointed this out to him and he was adamant that he had always held these views. I found it somewhat funny. It showed the difference, it seems to me, between the socialized mind and the self-authored mind. 

David's wife, my sister in law who I have mentioned here before, someone I'm incredibly jealous of because she has the job/career I always wanted in life . . . she's a real estate agent, . . . she is a rabid liberal. She is from the east coast, and she lives in Austin,  . . . that's a pretty strong foundation for liberalism right THERE! 

Anyway, back to the story. David was discussing all of the things he's "always" disliked about Elon, and one of them was that he pays for a self-driving car subscription and he doesn't feel as though Elon will ever crack the self-driving car problem. 

He brought up the point that he will never figure out the problem of how a computer will know if it should turn left to avoid the mom with the baby in the stroller or turn right and hit the group of old men. 

He ended the statement there. 

What's funny is that . . . there is no answer. David is expecting Elon to figure something out that we as humans can't figure out. I think as humans we would all avoid the stroller right? But what if it is a group  . . . like a dozen older people? Is one worth a dozen? What if it was a dozen or so teenagers? What then? Still, the baby wins? 

David is expecting the car computer to make a decision that even he can't make. Hell, the trolley experiment . . . the Phillipa Foote experiment, . . . is still out there and still unanswerable.

What I think is funny is that people will quickly and gladly change their views to meet the needs of the times. If Elon is a revolutionary, then he's still a revolutionary whether he buys Twitter or not. If he's a horrible, evil multi millionaire who is intent on harming society a la James Bond's villain Blowfeld? Then he remains so even if he makes a great car. 

Funny ole world.