https://theapeiron.co.uk/eight-ethics-thought-experiments-to-build-moral-muscle-3a0a9153ac42

Rudimentary though experiment: Choose an elected representative for your district which is majority Asian. Choices include multi-millionaire philanthropist, white male working class socialist organizer, Asian woman Trump supporter, recent (state or private?) college graduate.

• conditions, if sharing as a poll to people:
  • what info should they know about the choices?
  • how to keep experiment consistent?
  • what is effective survey experiment design, for measuring morals and value systems? Do research on this.

Intersection among philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758/CABN.8.4.390.pdf

Thought experiment value:

• understanding sacrifices and risks that come with each decision in the TE
• the "ideal" solutions often aren't executed perfectly; often, it may exacerbate existing problems
• forces participants to think about and address various factors that will impact the outcomes of policy decisions

Thought experiment qualities:

1. Time sensitive
2. High stakes, high risk and reward
3. Decision is final and fixed in the long term
4. Used as tool of reflecting on one's subliminal values
5. *for Phan and Tri, each TE can be in draft form when presenting to Rad Cafe, collective workshopping

Examples: Armed hostage situation, prioritizing vaccine distribution, colonizing another planet

Thought Experiments

TE1: Are we better off piggybacking?

Imagine you are a local community organizer whose mission is to advance the interests of the local Southeast Asian diaspora. Your organization is developing a new long-term strategic plan for building political power through issue and electoral campaigns.

What is the tradeoff of organizing a minority population versus the majority group (i.e. white) around an issue or election? Would you be able to achieve more success for your goals through mobilizing people and powers that are not Southeast Asian? What are the obstacles and tradeoffs of either strategy?