Suppose I place a large group of people in a big room. At random times different individuals will be removed from the room and either released or killed. Whether they are released or killed depends on whether or not they are wearing a blue hat – anyone wearing a blue hat gets a million dollars and gets to go free, anyone not wearing a blue hat dies. I add new people to the room at random intervals. I don't ask people before I put them in the room and I don't give them any instructions before sending them in. Since I’m not completely unreasonable, I enter the room with the first batch of people and leave a set of instructions in the room warning everyone about what will happen when they are taken out of the room, so that they will know to wear a blue hat at all times. I explain the situation to everyone who is currently there and tell them to be sure to let all the new arrivals know what’s going on. I also tell them that at some point I will stop the project and take everyone out at once, then shut things down and not add any more people. Then I leave and watch what happens.
I run the project for a while, constantly taking people out of the room to be released or killed and constantly adding new people to the room. As time goes by, some of the people in the room begin to make up their own sets of instructions – some people make instructions saying that in order to survive you should wear hats of a different color, some people say you shouldn’t wear hats at all, and some people say it doesn’t matter what color your hat is so long as you have one. People become very confused about what set of instructions to follow, and I don’t make any effort to get rid of the incorrect sets of instruction or stop people from making up new instructions. None of the original people are around any more, so new arrivals have to try their best to figure out what to do based on whatever they find in the room. It reaches the point where most people who are added to the room simply use whatever set of instructions they are handed first, although occasionally some people switch their hat color. Some of the people added to the room think it sounds pretty outlandish that I would bother setting up such a ridiculous system and conclude that either I don’t exist, or that perhaps I exist but all the sets of instructions that are lying around the room were probably just made up by the room’s previous occupants – after all, they can see some of the other people in the room making up new sets of instructions all the time.
So, here are my questions:
1. Would it be fair to characterize me as “good” or “loving” for operating such a system? Am I worthy of praise and devotion? After all, I am offering people a huge reward for successfully surviving the room, and I left clear, easy-to-follow instructions telling people to wear a blue hat. But I also don’t make any effort to eliminate the many fake sets of instructions that are floating around, and I'm constantly taking people out of the room and killing them simply because they happened to pick the wrong set of instructions.
2. Am I being “merciful” when I release people from the room that I placed them in?
3. Is it fair to say that the people who pick the wrong hat color or don’t wear any hat and thus are killed when they are taken out of the room are “choosing” to die?
I run the project for a while, constantly taking people out of the room to be released or killed and constantly adding new people to the room. As time goes by, some of the people in the room begin to make up their own sets of instructions – some people make instructions saying that in order to survive you should wear hats of a different color, some people say you shouldn’t wear hats at all, and some people say it doesn’t matter what color your hat is so long as you have one. People become very confused about what set of instructions to follow, and I don’t make any effort to get rid of the incorrect sets of instruction or stop people from making up new instructions. None of the original people are around any more, so new arrivals have to try their best to figure out what to do based on whatever they find in the room. It reaches the point where most people who are added to the room simply use whatever set of instructions they are handed first, although occasionally some people switch their hat color. Some of the people added to the room think it sounds pretty outlandish that I would bother setting up such a ridiculous system and conclude that either I don’t exist, or that perhaps I exist but all the sets of instructions that are lying around the room were probably just made up by the room’s previous occupants – after all, they can see some of the other people in the room making up new sets of instructions all the time.
So, here are my questions:
1. Would it be fair to characterize me as “good” or “loving” for operating such a system? Am I worthy of praise and devotion? After all, I am offering people a huge reward for successfully surviving the room, and I left clear, easy-to-follow instructions telling people to wear a blue hat. But I also don’t make any effort to eliminate the many fake sets of instructions that are floating around, and I'm constantly taking people out of the room and killing them simply because they happened to pick the wrong set of instructions.
2. Am I being “merciful” when I release people from the room that I placed them in?
3. Is it fair to say that the people who pick the wrong hat color or don’t wear any hat and thus are killed when they are taken out of the room are “choosing” to die?
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