The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the trolley problem as follows: The trolley problem is a thought experiment in ethics that presents a fictional scenario in which an onlooker has the choice to save 5 people in danger of being hit by a trolley by diverting it to kill just 1 person.

Encyclopedia Britannica adds: "(It is) A question first posed by the contemporary British philosopher Philippa Foot as a qualified defence of the doctrine of double effect and as an argument for her thesis that negative duties carry significantly more weight in moral decision-making than positive duties."

My modification: add two more complications to the problem. Speed or acceleration. And complexity. The trolley is flying at breakneck speed, and you need complex manoeuvres to change tracks. Welcome to the age of AI.

AI usually does not figure in our daily national debates. Our media, to its significant disadvantage, seems content to deliver platitudes on developments like the 27th Amendment, while the rules of the game are being written elsewhere. And this is not peculiar to just this country. The mainstream media (MSM) everywhere has exposed its fatal flaw in its inability to understand the rise of something as basic as social media. As the delivery methods, organising principles and attention span shifted, the MSM missed a beat. The fact is that while some of us may work for gated and guarded silos, which is, of course, a distinct advantage, we, too, are just content creators. The word "journalist" may still exist as a job title, but it is redundant. So, to think that the MSM would pay AI the attention it deserves is a big and unrealistic ask.

But it is AI, not the Ravenous........

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