Those are premises and if one of those is not true, it’ll lead us to a different conclusion. And humans have needs and needs have values. So, we can narrow it just to humans, and we need to agree that many humans are more than a few (or one). Spock is talking about humans, but the statement could be more generic, including pets, trees, starships, planets, etc. Let’s breakdown the Spok statement of “The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few”.įirst of all, we need to agree on some abstractions. The process is a more machine-like thing, it’ll use models (abstractions in their minds) and arguments from sensors to make a decision. Logic is a process of going from a question to a definitive answer, logic explores arguments for truth.
#Good of the many outweigh the good of the few code#
Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of conduct from a particular philosophy, religion or culture, or it can derive from a standard that a person believes should be universal. This could be a sign that Spock has developed a moral system called utilitarianism, which asserts that each person should act to serve the greater good, with the greatest amount of people in mind (for more discussion about it read Utilitarianism in Robot Ethics). ” Kirk finishes for him, “The needs of the few.” Spock replies, “Or the one.” Spock quickly perishes, and, with his final breaths, says to Kirk, “Don’t grieve, Admiral. Spock says, “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Captain Kirk answers, “Or the one.”.Īt the end of the film, the Enterprise was in imminent danger of destruction, Spock enters a highly radioactive chamber to fix the ship’s drive so the crew can escape danger. The statement in the title was made by Spock in The Wrath of Khan (1982). An autonomous robot, in a life-death situation, who should it save? This is the Trolley problem, for the humans a moral and cultural decision, for a machine is a simple matter of logic.
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