
Puzzle
Absurd Trolley Problems: AI Edition
The trolley meets the machines
The original prompt.
Copy it. Add your own twist.
Read the complete original prompt
Build "Absurd Trolley Problems: AI Edition" — a same-mechanic companion volume to neal.fun's "Absurd Trolley Problems", as a polished mobile-first portrait web app for the Eazo community.
REPLICA MANDATE
This is a CONTENT PACK for a faithful recreation of "Absurd Trolley Problems": the mechanics, UI structure, flow, pacing and visual language must match the original neal.fun project exactly as you know it. Only the content set is new (defined below). Do not invent new mechanics, modes or menus beyond the original's.
CONCEPT
A same-mechanic themed volume of Absurd Trolley Problems where every dilemma is about machines and automation: self-driving cars, recommendation algorithms, robot rights, AGI — same lever, same track, new century.
RULES & STATES
- Identical mechanic and UI to the base recreation: track illustration, two buttons, outcome animation, snapshot percentages, death counter.
- All-new 24-dilemma AI-themed arc: a self-driving trolley choosing between its passenger and pedestrians, diverting a trolley onto a server farm hosting five chatbots, a robot pulling the lever on you, an algorithm that already predicted your choice, sacrificing a data center to save one intern, the trolley asks you to accept its terms of service first...
- Stick-figure robots get square heads and antenna — the only art addition allowed; everything else stays identical.
- Death counter splits humans vs robots at the end ("You killed 14 humans and 22 robots. The robots noticed.") — the share card.
- Same instant pacing, no menus, deadpan voice throughout.
OPENING
Faithful to the original: open straight into the experience exactly like the original neal.fun page — no cover screen, no start button and no tutorial cards (unless the original itself has one). A small floating title chip may appear and dissolve on the first touch. Keep gentle ambient motion (drift, breathing, particles) so the first paint never looks frozen.
GLOBAL REQUIREMENTS
- Language: ship a lightweight built-in i18n layer with exactly two locales, English (en) and Chinese (zh). The app ALWAYS opens in English — never auto-detect or follow the system/browser language. Provide one small, comfortably tappable EN / 中文 toggle placed top-right, about 56px down from the top edge, clear of the device status bar. Chinese appears only after the user actively switches. All share output stays English regardless of locale. Never mix two languages on one screen.
- Fully self-contained: absolutely no external APIs of any kind — no AI calls, no third-party data, media or font services, no remote backend, no login. Embed all data and content in the app code.
- Real Share to the Eazo Community: on the result screen add a real Share button. Compose the result card as an image on a canvas and share it through the Eazo SDK community share (share.compose with the image attachment plus a short English text). Read the resolved { accepted } value: only when accepted is true may the button say "Sent to Eazo"; when accepted is false the button must read "Open in the Eazo app to share"; on error keep the original button. Never claim the post was shared on the plain web. Keep a Replay button next to Share.
- Mobile-first portrait, touch-only, no hover dependence. The app root must follow the host container height (position: fixed; inset: 0; height: 100%) — never 100dvh or 100svh. Size any canvas from its PARENT element using a ResizeObserver (run the fit once on mount), and convert every touch event through getBoundingClientRect() read at event time — never cache the rect and never use window.innerWidth/innerHeight for canvas sizing.
- Safe areas: keep all top UI at least 56px from the top edge. Keep every core interactive control (start button, submit, share, play controls) fully above the bottom 88px of the viewport — the Eazo mobile app overlays a native toolbar there that your code cannot detect.
- No background music and no autoplay audio.
- Complete real states: loading, empty, success, error where relevant. Every control must actually work — no alerts, console-log placeholders or fake results.
- Visual bar: rich, generous visual feedback on every touch (motion, particles, deformation, color, light) while keeping exactly ONE core rule understood within 3 seconds. Canvas 2D preferred for effects; do not use the canvas roundRect API (older iOS Safari lacks it). Never hardcode light text colors onto possibly-light backgrounds — derive text color from the theme.