If we take away the whole effect of the trolley problem and only talk about values, I would say that given the choice of 2 human life against the last 2 of a species of some insect, I would choose not to extinct that species.
I agree on the comparison of a higher consciousness than humans visiting earth. I would in most normal cases protect my own humans instead of a bear or alien.
But if a human where about to kill a defenceless alien without cause, I would save that alien.
Some parts are different.
One thing that put me off was that the boss wasn't an insane lunatic that did random things.
The boss is the US version was a more collected, planning and evil character.
Like the scene where he called back after firing an entire department to say "I was just keeping the IT-department in line", suggesting that he knew what they where up to all along.
The UK boss wouldn't do that.
He would keep doing things that only made sense to his insane brain, until something went down hill enough that he just jumped out of a window in the middle of a meeting.
Wouldn't you say that ADHD affects the person, and therefore the type of personality would change the outcome?
(In contrast to ADHD defining the person)
But it might be something that is subjectively felt, and people then attributed it to be something that depletes.
Even if the depletion is invalidated, the subjective feeling might however still be valid.
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If I should suggest another possibility on the spot, I would suggest mental fatigue.
You get tired of denying yourself things the same way you get tired of denying your kid pestering you for a treat.
It's not directly depletion, but I could subjectively describe it as a resource getting depleted.
If it wasn't for the article being posted on HN, I would never have clicked on the title, as it includes something like "Scientists are flabbergasted".
I live in the arctic, and black out curtains in the summer is a must have (as it's daylight 24/7 for a month).
And around december it's dark 24/7, so a sunrise lamp helps a lot to wake up naturally and not feel like total crap every morning.
If we take away the whole effect of the trolley problem and only talk about values, I would say that given the choice of 2 human life against the last 2 of a species of some insect, I would choose not to extinct that species.
I agree on the comparison of a higher consciousness than humans visiting earth. I would in most normal cases protect my own humans instead of a bear or alien. But if a human where about to kill a defenceless alien without cause, I would save that alien.