One recent discussion on a bus with @sanoy brought up an interesting question:
Given a man (call him A) who is pointing a gun at another man (call this guy B). A wants to kill B because : + A was ordered to kill B + A wants something from B + A don’t like B
For any of those reason, if suddenly the life of B flash in front of A (the cliche that many media depict one would experience the moment they die), will A pull the trigger if B was indeed: + Someone innocent + Someone not worth killing + Someone very likable but is on a wrong drunk mood
This question could be simulated with video games. For example, we have you as person A, pointing a gun at person B and suddenly you learn everything about B. At the end, you choose to either pull or release the trigger.
If the answer was indeed A will not pull the trigger if he could learn that B is a good guy (according to A’s perspective), then this brought up two interesting conversation: “Data Saves life,” and “Human Loves Story”.
Maybe Facebook might save your ass one day… who know?
Stray thought aside, solution to this problem is complicated. Sub-problems such as how data are shown, how it need to be curated, how the algorithm behind the scene works to encourage no killing works…
But still, just some interesting thought.