Day Eight: Ethics Presentations, Final Minecraft Responses, and The Social Dilemma

by Baker Croyle 

On Thursday morning, we began with finishing the work that we had not previously completed for our presentations on the trolley problem, Nihilism and existentialism, and Immanuel Kant's moral code and ethics. After that, we presented and then moved into a fruitful seminar based off what we had just learned while listening to our classmates. We discussed Kant's moral responsibilities and whether it is better to lie or tell the truth, as well as nihilism and existential crises. 

Gif of Michael from The Good Place slowly falling into Chidi's lap, implying his rupture into an existential crisis (text reads "Prolonged wailing")

 

We then took a break and returned to the classroom where we worked on our individual Minecraft responses that were based on our choice of four questions dealing with The Good Place, the trolley problem, Immanuel Kant, nihilism, and other big philosophical questions.

Image of a teenager looking at his screen with various view options available on his phone, the text shows the movie title "the social dilemma"

After lunch, we returned to the classroom to watch The Social Dilemma. In The Social Dilemma, we learned about how large tech companies use their platforms to manipulate and change the way people behave on their devices, whether that means changing how long people will stay on their phone to changing who they vote for. This was a transfer of our discussion about ethics from a television show to the real world. 

After watching the movie we finished up the day by working on our Minecraft responses and then called it a day.

Baker's final Minecraft response: a large cement and glass modern style house on the edge of a lake

Rachel's final Minecraft response: a building built on a large aqua blue base