What is this game?
Imagine a self-driving car is hurtling toward a crossroads. It has to make a choice—and you are in the driver’s seat.
In this interactive challenge, you first enter the names of 10 people you know across various categories, including family, friends, celebrities, and even your own pets. Then, you face 7 increasingly difficult moral dilemmas where the car must choose which path to take. From simple 1-on-1 choices to brutal 1-on-5 decisions, every click forces you to decide who to “save” and who to sacrifice.
At the end of the game, you will get a breakdown of exactly who you valued most and who you were most likely to leave behind.
What will I learn?
- The Ethics of AI: You will see firsthand why programming “morality” into robots is one of the biggest challenges for computer scientists today.
- Decision-Making: You will uncover the hidden values that guide your own choices when you are under pressure.
- Moral Philosophy: You will explore age-old ethical questions—like the Trolley Problem—in a modern, digital context.
Play the Game
https://learningrmps.my.canva.site/my-personal-trolley-problem-game
For Teachers: Facilitating the Moral Debate
While this game is a fantastic hook for a lesson on Artificial Intelligence and robotics, it is also a powerful tool for exploring deeper moral philosophy and ethical reasoning in the RMPS classroom.
Why it works in the classroom:
- Personalised Stakes: By asking pupils to input their own family, friends, and pets, the “moral weight” of the decisions increases significantly, making the philosophical debate feel very real.
- Prompts Deep Inquiry: It forces pupils to confront the logic behind their choices, shifting the focus from “what” they chose to “why” they chose it.
Suggested Discussion Questions: After pupils have seen their results, use these questions to facilitate a structured debate:
- Looking at your results, who did you save most? Why did you prioritise them over others?
- Was the decision easier when the numbers were 1-on-1, or did the 1-on-5 scenarios force you to change your criteria?
- If you were the programmer building the car, would you want the car to make the same choices you did, or should it follow a different rule?
- Did you find your values changed depending on the scenario? Why might that be?
Suggested Use: Use this as a 15-minute lesson opener for a unit on AI Ethics, Human Rights, or Moral Decision-Making. It is an excellent way to get pupils talking before you introduce more formal ethical theories.
