And yet there can never, and will never, be a situation where an infinite number of people are tied to a railroad track. So this thought experiment is meaningless.
It’s more about set theory than the actual numbers.
Let’s say you have 100 people with everyone tied up across both tracks. Heads on one track and legs on the other. Let’s assume they die if the train touches any part of them, but you still need to choose between running over heads or legs.
The best choice is then legs, because there’s a probability of some of them being handicapped and not having legs.
The real numbers also includes the integers.
The practical consequence of this example is that the integers die regardless of what you choose.
However infinitely many people will survive if you choose the first option.
And yet there can never, and will never, be a situation where an infinite number of people are tied to a railroad track. So this thought experiment is meaningless.
It’s more about set theory than the actual numbers.
Let’s say you have 100 people with everyone tied up across both tracks. Heads on one track and legs on the other. Let’s assume they die if the train touches any part of them, but you still need to choose between running over heads or legs.
The best choice is then legs, because there’s a probability of some of them being handicapped and not having legs.