The Trick of the Switch

By Haven Duddy

A Living Lattice Field Note from the series “The Five Tricks of Reality”

Introduction

The Trolley Problem has been used for decades to test our moral instincts:

a runaway train, a lever, and two imperfect choices. Pull the switch and one life ends; do nothing and five are lost.

It feels like a story about ethics, but what it really reveals is the human obsession with control—our belief that if we just pick correctly, the world will align.

The Trick of the Switch

The trick isn’t that we’re powerless.

It’s that we think there’s a right lever to pull.

In truth, we can act. We can intervene, redirect, or try to stop the harm.

Our choices matter—energy moves because we move.

But the illusion is that a single decision can produce a perfect outcome.

Every switch we flip reroutes one pattern but creates another.

No choice exists in isolation; each one sends ripples through the field, touching more than we can see.

And even when we choose to do nothing, a pattern is still unfolding - because the energy of inaction is still energy.

So the trick of the switch is this: you do have agency, but not mastery.

You can influence the motion, not command it.

Lessons of the Lattice

In the Living Lattice, every act of will enters a network of forces already in motion.

The lattice doesn’t freeze while you decide—it keeps flowing, absorbing your choice like a new current in the river.

Action matters.

But so does humility.

You can pull the switch with courage and compassion, yet still face outcomes that ache.

That doesn’t mean you failed; it means reality is larger than calculation.

Perfection was never the point—participation was.

Treats of the Lattice

The treat comes when you stop searching for the flawless lever and start trusting the intention behind your hand.

When you act from alignment, not anxiety.

When you remember that life isn’t testing your precision; it’s inviting your presence.

You can’t solve the world, but you can shift it.

You can’t guarantee the ending, but you can honor the motion.

And sometimes, that’s the most sacred kind of power there is.

“The trick is thinking the perfect choice exists.

The treat is realizing that choosing with heart is what changes the world.”