How Do the Fantastic Four Solve the Trolley Problem?; Psychology Today, July 28, 2025

Mark D. White Ph.D., Psychology Today ; How Do the Fantastic Four Solve the Trolley Problem?

The Fantastic Four refuse to accept Galactus's terms and instead claim their agency.

"Superhero stories are well known for their high stakes, which in the best cases have interesting moral dimensions as well. Such is the case when heroes confront a tragic dilemma, one from which they cannot emerge “with clean hands.” This usually takes the form of having two missions from which they must choose: For example, save this person or that person, but not both. (These are often known as “Sophie’s Choice” situations, after the popular book and movie in which a mother must choose which of her two children to save.)

The Fantastic Four are no exceptions to this—and given the galactic size of their typical adventures, the stakes are much higher than they would be for Spider-Man or Daredevil. In the comics, Marvel’s first family regularly has to choose between worlds or entire universes to save.¹

^{In the comics, the responsibility for this choice usually falls to Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic, the genius of the group. In the new movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, it is Susan Storm-Richards, the Invisible Woman, who declares that they will overcome the tragic dilemma that emerges when Galactus the Devourer comes to Earth to consume the planet and all life on it. Through her example, we see another common feature of superhero stories: refusing to accept the tragic dilemma itself."}

Stanford scholars, researchers discuss key ethical questions self-driving cars present; Stanford News, May 22, 2017

Alex Shashkevich, Stanford News; 

Stanford scholars, researchers discuss key ethical questions self-driving cars present

"Trolley problem debated

A common argument on behalf of autonomous cars is that they will decrease traffic accidents and thereby increase human welfare. Even if true, deep questions remain about how car companies or public policy will engineer for safety.

“Everyone is saying how driverless cars will take the problematic human out of the equation,” said Taylor, a professor of philosophy. “But we think of humans as moral decision-makers. Can artificial intelligence actually replace our capacities as moral agents?”

That question leads to the “trolley problem,” a popular thought experiment ethicists have mulled over for about 50 years, which can be applied to driverless cars and morality.

In the experiment, one imagines a runaway trolley speeding down a track which has five people tied to it. You can pull a lever to switch the trolley to another track, which has only one person tied to it. Would you sacrifice the one person to save the other five, or would you do nothing and let the trolley kill the five people?

Engineers of autonomous cars will now have to tackle this question and other, more complicated scenarios, said Taylor and Rob Reich, the director of Stanford’s McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society."