Grizzly Weather

[Prometheon]

OK, I want you to think of a friend. Not your best friend, but someone you would classify as significantly more than an acquaintance. Seriously, get them in your mind. Do it now.

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OK, good. This person is going to be attacked by a bear.

 

This is unavoidable. The person will live, 100% guaranteed, but the extent of their injuries is entirely unknown. They could get off with a few scratches, or they could lose multiple limbs. They could be in a wheel chair, or they could be shooting hoops the next week. But they will be attacked by a bear and they will live.

 

Magically, you have the power to stop this from happening, but at a peculiar cost to you. Should you stop the bear, it will never stop raining. Sometimes it will pour and sometimes it will drizzle, but it will never NOT be raining. This is a localized event: it won't screw up climate and it won't be over the whole Earth: just around your general vicinity. You will never see the Sun again.

 

Do you stop the bear?

 

(Note: this is taken and paraphrased from Chuck Klosterman's game Hypertheticals.)

Edited June 23, 2010 by Prometheon

[Lauren]

i wouldn't stop the bear. i need the sun or i'd just end up killing myself and if its my life or one other persons, then i'm keeping mine.

[FantasticDamage]

Yeah i'd stop the bear. why should my misfortune make my friend suffer?

[Lauren]

2 weeks later, your friend gets hit by a car and dies. you're still under the raincloud. you lose touch with your friend, they get cancer, they become addicted to drugs, blah blah blah unfortunate circumstance. the whole proposed situation is a misfortune.

[FantasticDamage]

true but shouldn't i do what i can to make a persons life better? anyways i hate the sun

[Muran]

"The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few or the one."

[Audio of Being]

I could care less, we all die anyway...

[RicardoObviouso]

i can't stand rain, and i tire of people quickly and easily so... go at it, bear.

[AnOceanPearl]

"The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few or the one."

But in this case, it's the needs of one against the needs of another. And after living in a basement suite with minimal sunlight, I know how important sunlight is to a persons wellbeing. Me not stopping the bear and being able to see the sun makes me feel better and healthier, which in turn will allow me to help my friends in other ways.

[Lauren]

but anyone that wants to be within half a mile of you needs to get their raincoat on. you can't feed your own child unless someone is standing beside you with an umbrella. buddy over their gets to live a perfectly good life, sans their index finger.

[Computer]

A bear attack would probably maim someone pretty good, probably more so than one finger. But I'd still let my friend get attacked.

[ToadMan]

I'd choose the rain.

 

I didn't get to where I by being willing to watch others suffer.

 

As an interesting addendum question you could add "they will never know you stopped the bear". That might change how people choose because the it becomes entirely self guided. I wouldn't change my answer, even though I would say the being a hero sort of played into my choice because of the friend I chose.

[ToadMan]

Hey, I also just realized that after being afflicted with constant rain I could tour the world and cure regions of drought. Oh yeah, then it would definitely be the good of the many.

[RicardoObviouso]

everyone's the hero of their own story

[Lauren]

if a rain powered golf cart could be invented, i would definitely travel to drought stricken parts of the world (too lazy to walk everywhere). or price my services correctly and just walk from one suburban lawn to another at a cost.