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SoylentGreen · May 22, 2007, 06:28 am

I recently attended a workshop where thirty of us were broken into six groups and given a sheet of paper with the following question.

Imagine the following situation is true.
The world is about to be destroyed and there is one space ship capable of carrying five people to another planet where the human race can carry on. You have been given the task of deciding who those five people will be.
Here is a list of twenty people and you must choose five to go on to the ship.

A police officer A doctor A nurse A farmer A mechanic
A pregnant teenager A housewife A businessman A priest
A captain of an ocean liner A soldier A teacher A university student
A child A librarian A cook A veterinarian A engineer
A scientist A bioligist

These people are in the next room and the spaceship is just down the hall. Destruction of the world is imminent, you have 20 minutes to make a decision. You have never met these people and the only information you have about them is what is written above.
Which five people would you choose and why?

Well after a bit of discussion I managed to come up with a rather controversial answer that took a bit to convince the others but in the end I did manage to convince them. When the different groups got together I again had to try and convince the others and although there was a bit of head scratching and disbelief I managed more or less to get most of them to agree.

So I thought I would put this to any of you who might be interested and see what answer you come up with.

May 22, 2007, 06:28 am	#1 (permalink) (top)
SoylentGreen Volcanic Erupter Posts: 3,692	If the world was about to be destroyed I recently attended a workshop where thirty of us were broken into six groups and given a sheet of paper with the following question. Imagine the following situation is true. The world is about to be destroyed and there is one space ship capable of carrying five people to another planet where the human race can carry on. You have been given the task of deciding who those five people will be. Here is a list of twenty people and you must choose five to go on to the ship. A police officer A doctor A nurse A farmer A mechanic A pregnant teenager A housewife A businessman A priest A captain of an ocean liner A soldier A teacher A university student A child A librarian A cook A veterinarian A engineer A scientist A bioligist These people are in the next room and the spaceship is just down the hall. Destruction of the world is imminent, you have 20 minutes to make a decision. You have never met these people and the only information you have about them is what is written above. Which five people would you choose and why? Well after a bit of discussion I managed to come up with a rather controversial answer that took a bit to convince the others but in the end I did manage to convince them. When the different groups got together I again had to try and convince the others and although there was a bit of head scratching and disbelief I managed more or less to get most of them to agree. So I thought I would put this to any of you who might be interested and see what answer you come up with.