ethical-conundrums-2

A four-panel comic. Panel 1: A green big-eyed alien addresses a seated human woman, saying "Greetings, leader of humanity! We come from across the galaxy! We wish to know how your species would solve an ethical conundrum." The woman replies, "Wow, uh... okay!" Panel 2: The alien continues, "Suppose a vehicle is headed for a large group of sapient beings at such a high speed that it will kill them all. It can alter course, but only by steering into a star, killing the small number of sapient beings on the ship." The woman answers, "Oh! We call these 'trolley problems.' There are lots of solutions. Why do you ask?" Panel 3: A wide view of space shows the alien spaceship trailing exhaust as it flies away from a small Earth toward a huge yellow star at the right edge. A speech bubble from the ship reads, "No reason." The joke: the aliens were secretly asking how to resolve their own impending crash, and are now steering into the sun rather than hit Earth. Votey: A crude line-drawn alien face gazes upward and laments, "Those poor dolphins" -- implying the doomed ship will wipe out Earth's dolphins or that the aliens mourn some sapient beings regardless.