Discussion Who would you save - your lover or random strangers?

QUOTE="Ai chan, post: 5404044, member: 3215"]Unfortunately, this question is completely dependent on a person's natural instincts. In other words, the answer will change depending on the situation. It is not a question you can answer just because someone ask it. You have to experience it before you can know what kind of person you are.

Ai-chan doubts anyone here has had to make such a choice. Therefore, the answers given

If these answers reflect our ideals, then it’s looking dark for humanity considering 70% of us would rather see millions die than our lover.
Ps: I’m one of them, but it doesn’t have to be a lover or anything, if I had a pet cat I’d probably still choose it over millions of people I don’t know.

 

And i would save millions of the worst race to ever have stepped on this planet over my lover because...?

 

Well, sometimes I feel like I'd be willing to sacrifice my life to save someone else's.
...other times I just don't care what happens to anybody, even if they were in front of me and I had the chance to save them without suffering any consequences, I still don't feel like I'd save a complete strange.

Anyway, today is that day when I just don't care about the lives of a million strangers so I'd say imma save my hot non-existent lover.

Edit: Novels have a huge effect on this mentality of mine so I recommend making me read a novel where the main character sacrifices himself for the good of mankind type of story before making me decide. Cause then I'd feel like a generous god.

 

tbh if it's billions of people i might consider but a million is too small compared to our worlds current population

 

It's all in the delivery. If OP turned out to be some kind of superpower that killed based on each people replied without informing us, we would feel nothing more or less than what we normally would if our lover died or if we heard about how some random million people died somewhere. If we knew that someone would specifically inform our lover of our decision and of each person who was killed and of their life we would have to consider if our lover had the mental fortitude to survive knowing they live at the cost of a million others. What if a million parents were killed leaving over 500k children orphans? What if you and your lover were over sixty or seventy years old and have lived a good life, you could let the million people live and choose to join your partner in death.

If we said the situation wasn't particularly unpleasant and that either your lover died or one million completely random people not including you, your lover or children died, then most people would pick their partner to live. Life is pretty selfish and most people don't care about things that aren't tangible. Plus, life is basically one big exercise in problem solving and so who has time for other people?

Although, if he is a very pretty trap, I would at least consider it.

 

Plot twist - among those millions of strangers is the author of your favorite novel!

 

On the contrary, I'd say millions is in the range where it's about the people
At billions though? That's starting to be about humanity as a whole. At the current point in history, getting rid of, say, 4-5Billion humans might be a boon on the long term, so then it wouldnt just be about lover vs. Stranger, but also a now vs. Future, an overarching purpose vs immediate benefits.


Though personally, I'd probably choose a till date nonexistent lover over the others
Though; that would of course change if it were me, myself instead of a lover, haha

 

i can get a lover for the low price of a million strangers?

 

When Batman chose to save Harvey Dent instead of his lover (effectively trying to save the millions) the consequence is he created a villain Two-Face. Until now Batman is alone. So I save my lover.
Just like Argos said to D’Artgnan in (2011 - The Three Musketeer) “...Life is too damn long to go through without someone at your side. Don’t end up like me. Choose the woman. Fight for love, D’Artagnan. France will take care of itself.

 

lets be realistic here

 

I recall reading something like this in an economic book. According to the economics theory, there should be a way for the millions of stranger to combine their strength and make it worthwhile for you to save them instead of your lover. If these millions are unable or unwilling to do so, they will die so they will be motivated to come up with something.
In a dark setting, these strangers will kidnap your lover so your lover will die either way, and the choice is taken off your hands.

 

i would save the lover, hell i would even tell the million of strangers "Yoh, you deed, rip lulz" if it come down to it...

as for how the lover would react...well if she is my lover and she knows me, she should know better what i would do in that situation xD

 

A lady with deep thoughts

Yeah me too, I'm not a hero i'm not a savior.
Honestly i'd mostly be the one forcing others to make the choice *evil smirk*

Well humans go both ways not all are pure good or pure evil.

Hahahaha that's twisted but honestly it would be ironic to choose lover only to find MU forums and others interesting forums instantly going quiet.

 

Yes a waifu for a million souls out of billions is a bargain...........with the devil *evil smirk*

So uhm a million frenchmen wiil end up dying ???

Reality is overrated.

 

is it a game plot???
of course i'll save my lover,million people could go to hell

 

My point is that this is not a question that can be answered on the spot. You can only truly answer this question when you're in that situation. You will only know what kind of person you are once you're faced with that situation.

There was a thought experiment once:
1) Would you save a single person who's tied up on the railroad unwillingly or would you save a group of people who's standing on the railroad?
2) A normal person would either choose one or the other, or not make a choice.
3) A child was asked this question. She was given a toy locomotive, with tracks that diverged leading to the tied up man and the group of people. Her answer to the question? She killed everyone.

Everyone can give hypothetical answer to a hypothetical question. But that answer will not reflect reality. If you ask the child, she would probably ask you back, "Why can't the group of people help the tied up man? Why must I choose who live and who die?"

If you ask Ai-chan this question, Ai-chan will arbitrarily say that Ai-chan will save Ai-chan's love ones. But will that really happen? When the time comes, will Ai-chan really make that choice or would Ai-chan instead choose to sacrifice Ai-chan's loved ones to save the masses. Ai-chan has never come across such situation before. Ai-chan wouldn't know what Ai-chan would actually do when the time comes.

However, Ai-chan had a similar dream before. You can read here on what Ai-chan actually did.
https://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/ai-chan-has-a-philosophical-question.53420/

 

Of course, a hypothetical situation is hypothetical. A real situation would have various other possibilities and factors, that would all influence us and our thoughts.
In most any situation, we wouldnt even be aware of it being an 'either or' type of thing.
You are right, this doesnt technically tell us about who the voter is as a person, but...
I think it tells us about who we want to be, about what we think we should value more, if we had to actually, conciously choose in such a situation.
It's unrealistic, yes, but so is our ideal self, usually xD

And yeah, a child of course will choose arbitrarily. My opinion here hinges on the voters taking the situation seriously and not searching for a way out, of course

 

weird question, I'd save my lover probably...

 

In that case he's probably a zombie and I'd launch him at one of the most overpopulated countries. Nice.

 

I'll save my own ass ofc
Im not superhero and i dont have a big heart