Splash at JHU is a one-day educational initiative event in which high school students can sign up to take interesting classes taught by Johns Hopkins undergraduates.
Since taking an economics class in high school and reading “A Beauitful Mind”, the biography of game theorist John Nash, I’ve had an interest in game theory, especially behavioral economics. At Splash 2019, I taught an interactive introductory lecture on game theory with many favorite examples of mine.
At Splash 2018, I taught a class on moral philosophy, specifically with regards to the famous Trolley Problem thought experiment which goes as follows: There is trolley headed down a set of tracks on which five people are tied to and will be run over. However, you have the option to divert the trolley to a different set of tracks on which a single person is tied to, sacrificing their life for the other five. Do you do it?
I attempt to illustrate various views of moral philosophy through this example while introducing further thought experiment variations popular on the internet. Lastly, I show how these dilemmas have applications to the decision making of autonomous vehicles. Check out a recent paper here related to this.