Society based on Statistical Probability?

[MGibster]

Is it more like the Vulcans in Star Trek with them all being 'logical'? Maybe more like the robots in that Will Smith movie where they saved him instead of his child or his wife in the car crash since he showed higher chance of survival?

The funny thing is that Vulcans are among the most passionate, emotionally driven species in Star Trek. Rather than their natural state, the adoption of logic and suppression of emotions was a practical way for them to avoid extinction due to annihilating one another. It is an affectation. I haven't seen the Smith movie, but deciding which casualties to prioritize when there are multiple injured people is called triage. You don't need to eschew emotions to apply logic to situations.

 

[Enkhidu]

This thread got me thinking about utilitarian philosophy as well. It's an interesting thought exercise though. How does society deal with it when the improbable happen? Unlikely doesn't mean impossible after all.

Modern western society deals with improbable events in half measures - we use insurance, for example, to spread risk for improbable negative events. In general we do a bad job of spreading improbably benefit, though.

Not sure we can go much deeper than that without delving into modern politics.