The Trolley Problem, a famous thought experiment involving civilians and an out-of-control train, has been discussed by many brilliant minds since its creation in the 1960s. In the scenario where the trolley kills five people or one, no one has come up with a truly core solution. Miles Fitzgerald, an autistic philosophy student, tried to solve it.
Fitzgerald was promptly given an autism diagnosis in his teens, when he left a thirteen-hour voicemail for the New York Transit Museum containing corrections to the written passages that accompany the exhibits. “The first time we took him to ride a train, he took over the conductor’s job. I didn’t think anything of it at first, just that it was cute,” his mother tells us. “He was three.”
The self-proclaimed train expert brings a unique perspective of literal thinking to questions that seem to stump others. When asked his answer on why the chicken crossed the road, he said “they wouldn’t cross the road because they can’t read the stop or go sign.” When asked about the thought experiment titled “The Violinist”, a hypothetical where you unwillingly donate your kidney to a famous musician and now you are connected by the flesh for months, Fitzgerald said “That is not how kidney surgery works.”
We asked Fitzgerald how he would solve The Trolley Problem, and his first question was “What is the make and model of the trolley?”
Fitzgerald then began to elaborate: “Horse-drawn? Steam? Cable-hauled? Electric? Compressed air? Battery-powered? American Car Company? JG Brill Company? Cincinnati Car Company? Edward’s Rail Car Company? Gilbert Car Company? W. L. Holman Car Company? Jewett Car Company? 1891? 1892? 1893? 1894 —”
We stopped him there to ask why he needed to know the specifics, and he said “every model has an emergency brake, and I would know how to use it if I knew what model it was. The answer to the problem is simple: find a way to stop the train.”