SNW s1e6 "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach"
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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Re-route power to the shields, emit a tachyon pulse through the deflector, and post all the nonsense you want. Within reason of course.
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Thus condemning an entire civilization to literal collapse. Pike's look of resignation and disappointment just before he beams away is chilling.
it's one of those trolley problems made to put a mirror on our society. not only there isn't a right answer, but to find one misses the point.
I highly recommend you read the actual source material by U.K. LeGuin "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas".
No, collapsing a society based on child suffering is good actually. Go vegan today.
going vegan doesn't stop child suffering
yes it does, a lot of cows need to give birth to produce milk for example
that has nothing to do with child suffering. and going vegan doesn't stop dairy production anyway.
yes it does x2
then will you collapse our society? which relies on much more child suffering??
why am I asking? this is Lemmy, I'm sure you already have the matches to burn it all up
pretty sure our society is gonna collapse soon. Capitalism is nearing it's end.
i wish. any moment now
Someone mentioned it in another comment. I was surprised to not have heard of it before now. It's on the list.
It's like two pages and a powerful metaphor that gave me a good push towards veganism.
it's like 2 pages. put it at the top of the list and get it done
that would be a pretty extreme trolley problem hahaha. did you learn ethics from michael? "kill one child, or kill an entire civilization. tick tock!"
(just kidding! i agree that the point is that there isn't an answer")
not sure if the story predates the trolley problem (definitely predates its memification), but yhea, it can be abstracted into a trolley problem.
the story also asks to look at all the suffering which out society relies on and asks us why aren't we leaving it if we choose to leave Omelas
Was that ever established? I remember having the impression that this was some ancient technology they had just always used and didn't necessarily understand. Somewhat like that society in TNG with the planetary cloaking shield that was slowly killing them all.
Just the visual of the orange lines connecting from the platforms to the machine. Other than that, we have to extrapolate from the dialogue:
Presumably because they read The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas!
why would you re-traumatize me like this
That does appear to be much more than coincidence. Strange that it never came up for me in school aside from the usual dystopian readings (1984, The Giver, Island, Fahrenheit 451, etc.).