We are all living in a village and a terrible horde of Mongols descend on our hamlet. So many Mongols that there is no way to fight them, we all have to go down into the cellar and hide. Here we are, 100 hundred of us, huddling in the cellar waiting for the villainous Mongols to move on, if we make one tiny sound they will find us and slaughter us all!
And you brought your baby and the baby is hungry and is about to cry.
Would you smother your baby and kill her to save the village?
What a crazy question right? I was listening to Radiolab tonight and their topic was “Abstract Thought.” Have a listen, Killing Babies, Save the World.
If we asked our little village of 100 what they would do, it would split down the middle 50/50. Half of us would kill the baby and half could never.
That split would likely fall down the line of who has kids and who does not because if the question is, “Would Jeremy kill Madelyn to save all you fuckers?” then my answer would be no, I would not. Sorry folks, but you’re all target practice for those murderous Mongols’ arrows.
However, if the question is, “would you kill A baby (no baby in particular, but just A baby) to save the lives of 100 people?” your (and even my) rationale brain would say, yes it must, sadly, be so.
weird stuff to think about. The podcast goes on to discuss this abstract scenario.
You’re walking along the Sea Wall sporting a mighty fine $1,000 suit (or you ladies might be rocking a signed R Patts T-shirt) and you happen upon a drowning woman in the ocean. Do you jump into the sea to save her but ruin your new suit?
The answer for almost all of us is, yes I would jump in the sea and ruin my $1,000 suit to save the life of this drowning woman.
Now you feel like a hero and you get home and in your mailbox is a letter asking for a donation of $1,000 to save the life of A girl somewhere else in the world. Do you cut the cheque and drop it in the mail? The answer for most of us is… no.
Why?
To quote Pearl Jam, its evolution baby. The woman we know, we see drowning… we save because basically, she is part of our tribe. We have an emotional attachment to the situation. The woman dying of starvation in Ethiopia is an abstract thought. What lady? who? where? never heard of Sierra Leone… and we move on. Am I bad guy? Kinda when you think about it, but not really because my simple brain can’t comprehend it. I have no emotional connection to the starving lady across the world but I have an emotional connection to $1,000 err $300 in my bank account.
This is a super duper problem because right now, the biggest issues facing our planet, pollution/global warming/war/starvation are global abstract problems. neat.
***
I love listening to the radio. When I am not working on the radio and I am driving around I enjoy punching around the dial. I find that I am more likely to find something I enjoy somewhere on the FM dial than I am am poking around my TV.
Today I was listening to the CBC and they had this great documentary about the history of the Steam Engine.
Listen to the Story of Steam. amazing bit of radio both sonically (sounded great) but also a mighty fine story. Basically it talks about how huge the invention of the steam engine was for all of us today. If you’re a dork like me, it’ll be worth your time to listen to the show.
Go with yourself.
The Morning After 
interesting thoughts…
it’s very “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
that’s right, i just went wrath of khan on you, lol. yey star trek!
really though, if the outcome either way, is that everyone dies… then it makes no sense to spare the life of a baby momentarily, only to have them be killed in a more horrific manner within minutes.
that being said, not many people have it in them to murder babies. which is a good thing for society, lol.
yeah it what the Harvard cat was saying, we’re not evolutionarily hardwired to kill babies, even if… it unfortunately would be the right thing or the only true option.
Crazy mental exercise indeed.
If I could afford it, I’d cut a check for a grand to save someone in another country in a heartbeat; once I start working again, I probably will try and do what I can … and I don’t think i could kill a baby no matter if it was my own or yours or theirs! But the rest of my answers are the same 🙂
i wouldn’t kill a baby ethier tha is soo sad
That is sad. Thank you for finding my old blog post!
that’s the rub… if you could afford it… but even if you couldn’t afford a new suit, you dive into the water to save the woman drowning in front of you.
i would help a baby in a heart beat that is soo sad when they do not have homes to go to or to have someone hold and care for them… 🙂
hi
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nice and beautiful i love it
Google image searching for “babies” brought my baby-crazy 15 month old and I here. Yes, it’s a very old post but I can’t resist answering:
I would nurse my baby (thereby cheating and avoiding the difficult question) and I’d never buy clothing worth $1000 (not even my wedding dress). I’d strip my jeans though and I’d swim naked so the clothes wouldn’t drag me down and I’d be more likely to save said drowner. The problem for me with the letter in the mailbox is that people lie. It’s a question of trust. I don’t really believe that my $1000 will save someone’s life if I mail it to some random stranger. I think it’s more likely to line their pockets or further their campaign of random political beliefs.
thanks for the very random comment to my blog Laura. I love the internet… your random search today brought you to an old thought of mine on a blog post from what? 2009?
Thanks for stopping by.