The Trolley Experiment

The Good Place

• Michael, a demon turned good, decides he wants to learn Ethics and Morals from a group of 4 dead humans who foiled his plans of having the best Hell 
• Since Michael is this all knowing demon, he has a hard time grasping Ethics and Morals
• Chidi, their Ethics and Moral Professor, gives Michael an example known as the Trolley experiment
• Michael being a demon of his stature has abilities to portray whatever he wants and decides to make a realistic simulation of the Trolley Experiment
• As Chidi and Eleanor watch people get run over by a trolley they find it difficult to actually choose who should and shouldn't die - they even take too long to decide at one point because they are arguing about who should get killed
• And Michael adds the scenario where you know the one person who is on the tracks

Ethics Express

The Politix behind the Ethics and Morals of The Good Place

What would we do if we had an all powerful Demon giving us realistic portrayals of ethic and moral dilemmas? Would you know what to do? 
If I were in that situation, I would have as much if not more difficulty choosing than the main characters did. I say this because I would be thinking too much about what exactly is the 'right' choice. I mean who gets to decide if killing one person over five is the ethical thing to do? What if that one person was the scientist to cure cancer? Or what if they were the worst criminal on the planet? Reverse it and what if the worst criminal ever was in the group of five? Then would you kill 4 innocent people to make sure the criminal dies? Technically you don't even know that the criminal is a criminal because you don't know anyone on the tracks. But what if you did? The one person was a close friend or even an old middle school bully? Would you kill your middle school bully in the present when they might have changed for the better? And what about the group of five, if your family was there you would save them right? But what if the person on the other tracks was the president and if you killed them instead of your family you will get thrown in jail for the rest of your life, would you do it?
It's all very complex stuff, thinking about choices in their infinite loops. 
And since we as humans don't have the exact and correct rules for ethics and morals, we are able to choose for ourselves what we think is moral or ethical. And if we want, we can agree with one another or even disagree with them. And that's okay as we have made it one of our moral rules to have the freedom of speech.