trolley-8
Explanation
This comic is another entry in SMBC's long-running series of trolley problem variations, satirizing thought experiments in moral philosophy.
The setup presents an absurdly over-complicated trolley problem: "You are in a runaway trolley that can predict the future. You can either kill a crowd of 500 people who are all past reproductive age, or you can divert over one guy's nuts. That guy was going to have 500 progeny who will not exist if you use the trolley to absolutely kick-blast him. Which choice is more ethical?"
The caption at the bottom reads: "Studying Population Ethics has completely obliterated my belief in consistent moral frameworks."
The humor operates on several levels. First, the trolley problem itself is hilariously convoluted, piling on increasingly absurd specifications (a future-predicting trolley, reproductive considerations, the phrase "kick-blast him") that parody how academic ethicists construct increasingly baroque thought experiments. Second, it specifically targets population ethics -- a notoriously thorny branch of philosophy dealing with questions about the moral status of potential future people. The joke is that once you start seriously considering population ethics, every simple moral intuition collapses because you can always construct a scenario where different ethical frameworks give contradictory answers. The professor's defeated conclusion that consistent moral frameworks are impossible is a genuine sentiment many philosophy students experience after wading through enough trolley problem variants.