An SF dilemma

[pendell]

Saw this in the Lydian option comic and thought it was an interesting question. So I'll pass it on to you.

You and a small group of companions are in a prison on a space station. There has been a mutiny. The guards have evacuated and are about to vent all the atmosphere on the station.

You come across a band of prisoners who haven't got the word yet, and are busy eating, drinking, and being merry.

If you say nothing, they will die.

If you say something, there will certainly be a mad dash for the escape pods. The odds are extremely good that you will be either trampled in the rush or not have an escape pod yourself.

What do you do?

The obvious binary choice is to speak and kill yourself, or keep silent and save your companions. But bonus points for a third option that satisfies both imperatives to save the lives of others and your own.

http://www.meetmyminion.com/?p=1072

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[arguskos]

Use the PA system to announce it when you're around the corner from the exit then let everyone else do their best. You ensure your survival and you give everyone else a fighting chance. Seems to work for me.

[H Birchgrove]

What arguskos said. Though if they were murderers and rapists, I might not give a hoot.

[Traab]

Is this a real prison with real criminals? Or are we talking a new folsem style prison for political dissidents and those who dont toe the line of the empire that locked them up? Case A? Forget them, im not risking my life to try and spare some murderers rapists and arsonists. Option b? That gets a bit trickier. Id probably do something like, Write them a fast note and chuck it at them as I dash by yelling, "READ IT!" If I could. That way I get a head start, they get a warning, and I can still most likely escape. Worst case? Id yell out the message as im leaving the room. My head start wont be as good, but I should still have several seconds of top speed running before it sinks in and they get moving. Lets see whose adrenaline works the best.

[pendell]

Is this a real prison with real criminals? Or are we talking a new folsem style prison for political dissidents and those who dont toe the line of the empire that locked them up?



The particular scenario is directly from the comic above. The aliens in the story run it as a real prison. People who are in there are the assortment you'd find in a real prison, ranging from the truly nasty to the occasional mostly-innocent given a raw deal by the justice system, with average being "pretty nasty."

If it changes anything, people get thrown into this prison for crimes that we humans consider very minor. But the aliens in the story aren't like that -- the guys running the prison don't have the concept of "misdemeanor" or "just a little bad". Among the dominant aliens, they never go just a little bad. When one goes bad, they go all the way. No middle ground. Either you're a fully upstanding citizen who never steals so much as a paper clip from the office, or you're a "defective".

Humans who fall afoul of the alien laws get treated the same way. Of course, humans don't fit that box. The justice system doesn't care.

So there are humans in prison for things no one would go to prison for on earth. But there are plenty of the other sort as well.

The protaganist and his escaping friends aren't exactly in prison for jaywalking. Let's see if I remember the rap sheet -- one drug smuggler, one murderer, one guy in a bar fight (assault and battery), 1 embezzler, and 1 person in the wrong place at the wrong time (the token 'innocent').

Were I in their shoes, I wouldn't be deciding whether people deserved to live or die based on their previous crimes. After all, if that's the standard I'm using, then by rights I and my group should just sit down and wait for the end. But if *I'm* going to try to go on living, why shouldn't they as well?

As of this moment, I think arguskos has it right. Walk through the area, then pull aside an obvious leader type and give HIM the word. Let him worry about getting his own people taken care of while the rest of us bug out.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Traab]

Well obviously MY life is important, since its mine,(:smallcool:) so if im going to put that at risk by warning people, id need to have a damn good reason. I read through the comic, and you know what? Id keep my damn dirty mouth shut. This isnt like running down three corridors and heading for the life rafts, this is crossing through potentially a dozen different habitats, each full of aliens that would mostly be more than happy to cut my throat if it meant one more of them would get out alive. Warning any of them would start off another stampede and make my chances of escaping bleak.

[Lord Raziere]

I can't be sure of what those prisoners will do if I let them know, and I can't be sure of what they are in for.

I'm taking the escape pods.

[Telonius]

My option:

Tell the prisoners that the escape pods have all been jammed; their only hope is to storm the guards' outposts to try to stop them from venting the atmosphere.

While they're doing that, I quietly slip out the back to the escape pods.

[H Birchgrove]

Telonius is wise. :smallamused:

[Raddish]

I would assume they are remotely releasing the atmosphere since the guards have evacuated from the station. Therefore if that is your intention there would be no need to even talk to the prisoners, just get in an escape pod yourself.

The only other option I see is get close to the escape pods, make sure your companions get in and then tell the prisoners from a distance and run like hell.

[tensai_oni]

People who are in there are the assortment you'd find in a real prison, ranging from the truly nasty to the occasional mostly-innocent given a raw deal by the justice system, with average being "pretty nasty."

Then by law of averages I keep my mouth shut and rescue my friends rather than people I know nothing about but are most likely not nice. The last word was an understatement.

If I am an innocent, then this is a morally superior choice. If I am a hardboiled criminal like in that comic, then I most likely not care about other prisoners' lives anyway.

[THAC0]

Save myself and my friends. That wasn't even a dilemma for me, honestly.

[Mewtarthio]

The protaganist and his escaping friends aren't exactly in prison for jaywalking. Let's see if I remember the rap sheet -- one drug smuggler, one murderer, one guy in a bar fight (assault and battery), 1 embezzler, and 1 person in the wrong place at the wrong time (the token 'innocent').

The "token innocent" attempted to steal a spacecraft, though it's dimly possible she genuinely did mistake it for a derelict. It's also worth noting that the "drug smuggler" is almost certainly lying through his teeth about being imprisoned for drug smuggling.

Heck, the guy's a former war criminal. And he rips out a poor bastard's eye over an insult at one point. Even if he was arrested for smuggling, that's nowhere near the worst thing he's capable of.