# Choose between 100 family/friends dying or 10,000 strangers **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 11, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651 "2011-07-11T18:27:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/1 "2011-07-11T18:27:06Z")
A variation of [this thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=615291) Odin will pick either 100 of your friends and/or family to slaughter, or 10,000 strangers. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/2 "2011-07-11T18:34:48Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > A variation of [this thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=615291) Odin will pick either 100 of your friends and/or family to slaughter, or 10,000 strangers. I don’t have 100 friends & family I care about. I don’t even have 100 Facebook friends (and I actively use Facebook). So I’ll answer the question as if you had phrased it thus: Odin will kill either 10,000 strangers, or the seventeen people on Earth I give a personal, passionate damn about. The seventeen, of course. I’d feel really bad about the 10,000 and would have a great deal of difficulty getting over it, because I KNOW and BELIEVE the course I would be choosing would be the immoral choice. But I’m not letting anybody hurt my wife, stepdaughter, little sisters, and select friends if I can hurt it. It’d be the same answer if it was just my wife versus the 10,000, incidentally, thoughI don’t believe she’d ever forgive me for making that choice. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/3 "2011-07-11T18:41:22Z")
As I said in that thread, easy choice. When you consider the 6 billion people I don’t give a damn about in the word, 10,000 is a drop in the bucket. But 100 is a rather large percentage of the people I do care about. ---
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/4 "2011-07-11T18:55:35Z")
I’d choose the 10,000 strangers without a moment’s hesitation. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/5 "2011-07-11T18:57:40Z")
Reminder-please clarify as to you are picking to live or to die. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/6 "2011-07-11T18:59:14Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > As I said in that thread, easy choice. When you consider the 6 billion people I don’t give a damn about in the word, 10,000 is a drop in the bucket. But 100 is a rather large percentage of the people I do care about. Clarification: Kill the 10,000. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/7 "2011-07-11T19:19:53Z")
I’d whip out a mean parody of TNT’s _10,000 Lovers_, but there’s probably only one or two others here who would appreciate it… And yeah, there’d be a lot of bodies littering homes of people I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/8 "2011-07-11T19:22:05Z")
I said kill the 10,000 in the last thread… no reason to change that now. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/9 "2011-07-11T19:37:34Z")
I am noticing a trend here, so I am adding a bonus question: At what point would your mind change- 100 vs. 50,000? 100 vs. 100,000? 100 vs. 500,000? 100 vs. 1,000,000? Would you pick 100 friends/family no matter what? ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/10 "2011-07-11T19:43:56Z")
A hundred people would kill every friend and relative I have. And that includes facebook friends. Fuck the 10,000. I don’t know how high I would go. 10,000,000? Friends are hard to come by. I’ve got a dozen super close friends and maybe 40 people I really care about. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/11 "2011-07-11T19:52:18Z")
My friends over _everybody_ else. Period. Especially if the others are far away. Dude, I’d save my _cats_ before I’d save North Korea. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/12 "2011-07-11T19:55:08Z")
> [@MegaBee](#): > > I’d choose the 10,000 strangers without a moment’s hesitation. Agreed, easiest decision evarrrrrr. You’d have to go down at least an order of magnitude on the “100” family/friends to make this one interesting. 5 or 10 family and friends vs. 10,000 strangers? hmm. ---
**Author:** ![Zyanthia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Zyanthia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyanthia)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/13 "2011-07-11T20:06:36Z")
I guess I’m the odd-one-out in this. To say anyone’s life is more important than another’s just because I personally know them, seems inherently evil to me. It’s like saying, “We don’t dare send our troops in to save the tens of thousands being killed in this racial cleansing because 100 of our soldiers might die.” I will be one of the 100 soldiers to do what is right and choose myself along with 99 friends/family I know who believe in helping others to die, to save 10,000 lives. I do consider myself part of my family 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/14 "2011-07-11T20:15:02Z")
I feel like I make this choice every time I buy gifts or take friends or family out to lunch instead of donating money to the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders. So, I choose to kill the 10,000, and apparently at a much lower threshold than actually saving the lives of the people I care about. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/15 "2011-07-11T20:21:37Z")
> [@Zyanthia](#): > > I guess I’m the odd-one-out in this. To say anyone’s life is more important than another’s just because I personally know them, seems inherently evil to me. It’s not evil, it’s human. We’re tribal by nature. If _I_ am to make the choice, _my_ people are who are important and come first. Only once my people are safe can I start thinking about others. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/16 "2011-07-11T20:22:00Z")
> [@Zyanthia](#): > > To say anyone’s life is more important than another’s just because I personally know them, **seems inherently evil to me**. So you see it as an alignment problem rather than a moral one? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/17 "2011-07-11T20:59:48Z")
> [@Zyanthia](#): > > I guess I’m the odd-one-out in this. To say anyone’s life is more important than another’s just because I personally know them, seems inherently evil to me. > > It’s like saying, “We don’t dare send our troops in to save the tens of thousands being killed in this racial cleansing because 100 of our soldiers might die.” > > I will be one of the 100 soldiers to do what is right and choose myself along with 99 friends/family I know who believe in helping others to die, to save 10,000 lives. > > I do consider myself part of my family 🙂 Would you choose to die along with your kids to save me and a couple of hundred of my friends and family ? ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/18 "2011-07-11T21:36:18Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I am noticing a trend here, so I am adding a bonus question: At what point would your mind change…? My friends and family are my tribe (well, most of my family… there’s one or two… nevermind…). I’m with **Skald** – choosing my tribe over countless strangers would not be the moral choice but I cannot see how I could ever choose the alternative. That said… If Odin opens with an “offer” of tribe vs. 10,000 but on being told I want to save the tribe counters with “OK, how about tribe vs. 50,000?” then… That’s not a game I could play – screw him and the eight-legged horse he rode in on! :mad: (And I’m going to nurse the faint hope that attacking him in a berserk rage will amuse him just long enough that he might forget about his game for today – highland Scots by descent… probably even have some genes from his old worshippers in there – or he won’t, but I won’t know about it…) ---
**Author:** ![Zyanthia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Zyanthia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyanthia)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/19 "2011-07-11T21:36:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by **The Flying Dutchman** > > Would you choose to die along with your kids to save me and a couple of hundred of my friends and family ? Yes, if it were in my power to save more than die, I would. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651/20 "2011-07-11T22:12:28Z")
> [@Zyanthia](#): > > Yes, if it were in my power to save more than die, I would. Tell me, how does someone acquire a morality like you possess ? Does your spouse concur ? You are truly amazing to me. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-between-100-family-friends-dying-or-10-000-strangers/588651.md?page=2)