A little thought experiment

Dades

Extra points for holding the gun sideways.

sensibleken

also. even if youve spent the bullet in the first gun, double wielding always makes you look awesome. please remember to take the time to remove your shirt

Goduznt Xzst

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

I'd shoot myself...
nah, only joking. Nobody would do that.

I was being facetious but fuck me...

Shenshen wrote: »

I would kill myself.

MagicMarker wrote: »

Yep, I'd probably kill myself

StompToWork wrote: »

if that leads to me being shot, then so be it.

bluewolf wrote: »

Kill myself or attempt to go for a terrorist.

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

So I would kill myself.

The hell you's would. We aren't talking about a made for TV flick on Lifetime, this is reality. You would not shoot yourself. You may like to think you are a noble creature, but if given the option of shooting another or shooting yourself you would take the path of least resistance. Shooting someone else.

The magnanimousness here is sickening. Tell you what, as we are departing from reality and into the absurd, I'd bend the bullet like in the film "Wanted" all the way around the room, taking out every terrorist with it, and the religious person for good measure. (Token Black guy shouts: "Oh hell no!")

Additionally, to add to the mind game, all the dead Terrorists come back to life :eek: The ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE HAS STARTED.



What item do you have to hand right now at your PC and how do you use it?

Gambler

I have to say, killing someone because they believe they will go to heaven seems to be a cop out to me, especially if it's not something you believe.

There's a load of these sorts of philosophy questions that are basically impossible to answer - There's a run away train and you are in the switching booth, leave it on it's current course and it will hit a bus with 30 school children in it or switch it and it will hit a car that has your best friend\a family member\the love of your life in it. Which do you choose kill 1 person you know or let 30 people you don't know die...

Goduznt Xzst

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

The hell you's would. We aren't talking about a made for TV flick on Lifetime, this is reality. You would not shoot yourself. You may like to think you are a noble creature, but if given the option of shooting another or shooting yourself you would take the path of least resistance. Shooting someone else.

I haven't a fcukin' clue what I would ACTUALLY do but my first answer is "shoot myself", yes.

Gambler wrote: »

There's a load of these sorts of philosophy questions that are basically impossible to answer - There's a run away train and you are in the switching booth, leave it on it's current course and it will hit a bus with 30 school children in it or switch it and it will hit a car that has your best friend\a family member\the love of your life in it. Which do you choose kill 1 person you know or let 30 people you don't know die...

Save the person I know!
Plus that way I am not physically hitting a switch.

Goduznt Xzst

bluewolf wrote: »

I haven't a fcukin' clue what I would ACTUALLY do but my first answer is "shoot myself", yes.

All of us are George Constanza. If you'd like to know how you'd act in reality, then pay attention to him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueh_1PeJhaQ

mikhail

Dades wrote: »

Extra points for holding the gun sideways.

**** them west coast niggas. 'Cuz in A&A, we aim to hit a nigga, ya heard.

[It's a reference to The Wire, before I get a mod warning!]

Daftendirekt

Well, this is a cheerful thread for a Friday evening! I'm fond of the occasional thought experiment though.

If I was in that situation, the only thing I could do would be to decide randomly. Maybe pick a high number and start counting the five people until I end up on one of them. Kind of like a less predictable "eenie, meenie, miney, moe." (This is making me slightly nauseous, the more I think about it.)

To single out the religious person because they probably believe in an afterlife would be grossly unfair. Eh... Not that anything about this scenario is particularly fair, but you know what I mean.

King Mob

Dades wrote: »

Extra points for holding the gun sideways.

liamw

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

The hell you's would. We aren't talking about a made for TV flick on Lifetime, this is reality. You would not shoot yourself. You may like to think you are a noble creature, but if given the option of shooting another or shooting yourself you would take the path of least resistance. Shooting someone else.

So true

Mrmoe

I would take the terrorist hostage. The likelihood is that the one who gives you the gun is the leader. Put the gun to his head and order him to tell the others to drop their weapons. If he refuses shoot him and use his body as a shield. Meanwhile grab his gun and kill the remaining terrorists.

MagicMarker

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

The hell you's would. We aren't talking about a made for TV flick on Lifetime, this is reality. You would not shoot yourself. You may like to think you are a noble creature, but if given the option of shooting another or shooting yourself you would take the path of least resistance. Shooting someone else.

The magnanimousness here is sickening. Tell you what, as we are departing from reality and into the absurd, I'd bend the bullet like in the film "Wanted" all the way around the room, taking out every terrorist with it, and the religious person for good measure. (Token Black guy shouts: "Oh hell no!")

Well you seem to know what I'd do more than me, well done you!

Look, I don't know what I would do in that situation, personally I think it's a stupid fúcking question and to tell you the truth I didn't dwell on the answer all that much. But I'd like to think that I would take my own life before taking another. My apologies if this sickens you. :rolleyes:

Turtwig

WTF!!! Shoot the terrorist leader!

Turtwig

OK right double post, but it is 3 a.m so **** it.

Here's my long possibly not well thought out but screw it I feel like typing reasoning. Ok, so here's how I would approach it, after all, I do have five minutes. Firstly what kind of gun am I given. Is it actually loaded? How many bullets do it have?Which terrorists are in the best position to kill the hostages, which terrorist are in the best position to counter the incursion of a rescue team? Are they an organised bunch, disjointed or galvanised by one particular person? Does my gun have armour piercing bullets or hollow point havocs? If it's armour piercing, do the terrorists look armoured. Can I kill one and still have enough over-penetration to sufficiently wound another. Is there a risk of over-penetration hitting a hostage? Is there something near by that may cause a lengthy diversion enabling the hostages to revolt against terrorists e.g killing all lights, shoot a Qu'ran/Bible/God Delusion etc? Is there a terrorist with a stun grenade that I could try to set off? (Wishful thinking and very sloppy terrorists.)

Finally, if I observed a hostage being treated relatively nicer than others by the terrorists away from the group from of six, I would shoot that hostage - claim it was personal vendetta or some ridiculous excuse to the terrorists, and pray that if the gunfire is enough to send it a hostage rescue team I have killed the dreaded sleeper terrorist. The entry team wouldn't have the same intel from inside the room as I had so killing the suspected the sleeper may save more lives than anything else. (Obviously, it comes at a risk though, you may kill an innocent person for nothing.)

Never, EVER!, shoot yourself. Doing so renders the opportunity you have been given useless. The terrorists have just surrendered a small portion of their tactical advantage to you, make the most of it and punish them for such an utterly stupid mistake.

Pushtrak

antiskeptic wrote: »

To say you'd take that option is to step outside the implicit boundaries of the experiment. That's what AudreyHep's doing in supposing the terrorists would shoot everyone anyway.

Answering a thought experiment for me, anyway would be about trying to consider what I actually would do. So, anything you see as outside the implicit boundaries would be considered. Otherwise, I wouldn't be treating the thought experiment seriously. I'd just be having a very simplified analysis of the situation that would have no basis in reality.

Here is an illustration of something else I'd be bearing in mind. Obviously I don't know what I'd do in a situation until afterwards, but I do know I'd be aware that there is a very high chance that I wouldn't just be killed, it'd be a slow torturous death. I'd be far more worried about that than dying so I'd seriously put thought into shooting myself. I figure if they hand you a gun they'll probably be pointing one at you and so, you kill one of them, they will respond so that'd be a pretty quick death.

But of course, one can think a lot better when not in a life or death situation so whatever I'd do probably wouldn't have much connection with logic or rationality.

Mrmoe

Mrmoe wrote: »

I would take the terrorist hostage. The likelihood is that the one who gives you the gun is the leader. Put the gun to his head and order him to tell the others to drop their weapons. If he refuses shoot him and use his body as a shield. Meanwhile grab his gun and kill the remaining terrorists.

I can't imagine actually being a terrorist, but I imagine if I wanted to put someone in this situation, I could blindfold them, put them into the next room, put the gun in their hand and tell them if they move before I say they get shot in the back of the head. Explain what has to be done, THEN say remove the blindfold and hop out the door. And as a final remark say the gun has one bullet, if they don't hear a shot within 5 mins everyone else outside gets shot.

I'm not a terrorist, honestly

strobe

Malty_T wrote: »

OK right double post, but it is 3 a.m so **** it.

Here's my long possibly not well thought out but screw it I feel like typing reasoning. Ok, so here's how I would approach it, after all, I do have five minutes. Firstly what kind of gun am I given. Is it actually loaded? How many bullets do it have?Which terrorists are in the best position to kill the hostages, which terrorist are in the best position to counter the incursion of a rescue team? Are they an organised bunch, disjointed or galvanised by one particular person? Does my gun have armour piercing bullets or hollow point havocs? If it's armour piercing, do the terrorists look armoured. Can I kill one and still have enough over-penetration to sufficiently wound another. Is there a risk of over-penetration hitting a hostage? Is there something near by that may cause a lengthy diversion enabling the hostages to revolt against terrorists e.g killing all lights, shoot a Qu'ran/Bible/God Delusion etc? Is there a terrorist with a stun grenade that I could try to set off? (Wishful thinking and very sloppy terrorists.)

Finally, if I observed a hostage being treated relatively nicer than others by the terrorists away from the group from of six, I would shoot that hostage - claim it was personal vendetta or some ridiculous excuse to the terrorists, and pray that if the gunfire is enough to send it a hostage rescue team I have killed the dreaded sleeper terrorist. The entry team wouldn't have the same intel from inside the room as I had so killing the suspected the sleeper may save more lives than anything else. (Obviously, it comes at a risk though, you may kill an innocent person for nothing.)

Never, EVER!, shoot yourself. Doing so renders the opportunity you have been given useless. The terrorists have just surrendered a small portion of their tactical advantage to you, make the most of it and punish them for such an utterly stupid mistake.

When the zombie apocalypse finally happens I'm on Malty's team.

recedite

Interesting how many people would shoot themselves or a fellow hostage.
It reminds me of a TV program I saw which interviewed survivors from a ferry sinking. They said it wasn't actually all that difficult to get a life jacket and get out, but only about 25% of people really tried. That is, only a minority used their heads and made a reasonable effort to escape.

Goduznt Xzst

recedite wrote: »

Interesting how many people would shoot themselves or a fellow hostage.
It reminds me of a TV program I saw which interviewed survivors from a ferry sinking. They said it wasn't actually all that difficult to get a life jacket and get out, but only about 25% of people really tried. That is, only a minority used their heads and made a reasonable effort to escape.

I've been reading a lot about the human will to survive recently, as I've been putting myself willingly in situations of late that may require it at some point.

Of note is the SAS survival pyramid. Equipment, training, knowledge are all secondary to a persons will to survive.

You can't give it to people, or train it into them. You either have it or you don't. The majority of people living right now do not have a motivating factor strong enough in their lives that would keep them alive through adversity or disaster.

For most, the path of least resistance is to give up and die.

sensibleken

recedite wrote: »

Interesting how many people would shoot themselves or a fellow hostage.
It reminds me of a TV program I saw which interviewed survivors from a ferry sinking. They said it wasn't actually all that difficult to get a life jacket and get out, but only about 25% of people really tried. That is, only a minority used their heads and made a reasonable effort to escape.

Thats probably that ship of fools people keep talking about.

robindch

sensibleken wrote: »

Thats probably that ship of fools people keep talking about.

And not the original one?

http://www.shipoffools.com/

Just about the only religious website that's worth a browse.

ChocolateSauce

I would not be coerced. If they decide to kill five people, the blood is on their hands.

sensibleken

I would resolve the situation using the art of seduction :cool:

recedite

Make love not war; it could work.
The important thing is to react in some way.
On the car ferry ship of fools, a lot of people wasted time milling around.
They waited for instructions, searched around for their friends & family, sat down and prayed, or watched other people to see what they were doing, or just waited for someone else to resolve the problem. Those who grabbed a lifejacket and exited immediately were OK.

Dougla2

I would kill the religious person, if he is a priest he can't reproduce so he doesn't add to the human gene-pool, if not a priest I would kill the oldest person