Day 8: The Gabu Problem

The following morning, Gabu went hunting again, this time crossing the river to hunt in the north side of the forest.

Mei, too, headed into the forest in search of his friends. In addition to asking Toto and Riri for their help in delivering a message to Sawa Sawa Mountain, he also wanted to thank them for their help during the meeting, which probably wouldn’t have gone as well as it had done without their intervention. He also wanted to find Sagi, who hadn’t said much at the end of the meeting, to find out once and for all whether the rabbit was still willing to be friends with him. Lastly, Mei wanted to find Greta, in case the doe had any news about whether there would be more meetings in the future.

He had been walking only a short while before a familiar fox popped into view, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Hello, Mei,” Takkan said. “Out for a morning stroll, I see. Mind if I join you?” Before Mei could respond one way or the other, the fox was already trotting along at Mei’s side.

“Good morning, Takkan. I take it you were at the meeting yesterday?”

“Was I at the meeting yesterday? Mei, I am crestfallen you didn’t notice me! I even waved and everything.” Takkan waited for Mei to respond, which he did not. “But yes, I was there, and it was quite the show. You could base an entire branch of philosophy on that wolf of yours. The ‘Gabu Problem’—how does that sound?”

“What do you mean?” Mei asked.

“What do you do when your existence is, always has been, and always will be predicated on ending the lives of others? Do you carry on living despite the consequences for other people, or do you choose the option that will cause the least suffering overall?

“Like your wolf said,” Takkan continued, “most people in that situation would choose to keep living despite the consequences, but it gets even more interesting if you’re in a position to make the decision on others’ behalves. If a mouse had the power to remove all foxes from existence, would they be right to do so?” Takkan looked at Mei. “Would any goat besides yourself choose to save the life of a wolf who would normally eat him? And would that goat be responsible for the harm that wolf would go on to cause? In short, the Gabu Problem, one of many philosophical problems to which there is no right answer.”

Mei tried to wrap his head around what Takkan was saying. He’d never thought of Gabu’s situation as a generalisable problem before. He wondered if learning about other such problems would offer a solution in Gabu’s case. “That’s...an interesting way of looking at it. You said there were other problems like it?”

“Oh, yes. I’d say the most similar one is the rolling boulder problem. Haven’t heard of it? Imagine there’s a boulder rolling down a hill, and it’s just seconds away from crushing a group of six animals who are unable to move. The only way to save them is by redirecting the boulder, but if you do that, it will crush another animal instead. So you can either stand back and let six animals get killed, or you can intervene and sentence one animal to death to save six others.”

“Who thinks of these things?!” Mei exclaimed.

Takkan shrugged. “Clever foxes with nothing better to do, I suppose.”

Mei thought about Takkan’s rolling boulder problem for a while. “Who are the animals? Do I know any of them?”

“Would you knowing them make their lives any more or less worth saving?”

“No, but it might influence my decision.”

“Okay, let’s say the six animals are all baby goats from your herd, and the one animal on his own is Gabu. Would you kill Gabu to save six baby goats? Would you let six baby goats die to save Gabu? It’s not too different from what’s actually happening, when you think about it.”

“Hmm. I suppose I’m not allowed to look for a third option that saves everyone?”

“Since this scenario is entirely hypothetical, I could just pose the same question in a different way to rule out any third option you could come up with, so that would be a waste of both of our time. The problem faced by your dear wolf, however, is anything but hypothetical.”

“I’ve spent months trying to think of a solution that will mean Gabu doesn’t have to kill anyone, and I haven’t thought of anything yet. Nothing that will work, at least. What would you do if you were in Gabu’s position?”

Takkan gave a laugh. “I’m a fox, Mei. I am in Gabu’s position.”

Eventually, some time after Takkan had left him, Mei found Greta and the sparrows talking in a clearing.

“...is that it would make some of the animals nervous,” Greta was saying. “How would they know if he was hunting or just wandering around?”

Riri was about to respond when she spotted Mei. “Oh, Mei, I’m glad you’re here. Greta has some news for you.”

Greta, not in the least bit ashamed that Mei had overheard her talking about Gabu, turned to the goat and greeted him warmly. “Hello, Mei.”

“Hello, Greta. What’s the news you have for me? Is it about another meeting?”

“Yes. It seems that a great many people were fascinated by what they heard at the meeting yesterday and would like the chance to speak with you and Gabu face to face without risk of being eaten.”

Toto added, “A lot of them are afraid that Gabu will eat them if they just walk up to you in the forest or come to visit you at the hill.”

“Gabu wouldn’t do that,” Mei said. “Not while I’m there, at least. I tried going with Gabu on a hunting trip a couple of days ago, and...it didn’t go well. I don’t think he’d kill anyone in front of me, especially not after that.”

“Be that as it may, many people would still feel safer talking to Gabu within the confines of a group meeting in which he promises not to eat anyone. With that in mind, would you and Gabu be willing to join us tomorrow for one such meeting? I’m expecting a much smaller attendance than yesterday but, hopefully, more people will be willing to come up and talk with you face to face.”

“I understand. And yes, another meeting tomorrow sounds excellent. Can we make it a little later in the day, though? Gabu likes to sleep until midday when he can.”

“That would be quite all right. Shall we say, when the sun has travelled two thirds of the way through the sky?”

“Sure, I’ll let Gabu know.” Mei turned now to Toto and Riri. “Would you two mind dropping by our hill later today? Gabu and I have a favour to ask, if that’s all right.”

A few hours later, Gabu had returned from his hunting trip and he, Mei, Toto and Riri were all back at Moonrise Hill.

“What is it you wanted to talk to us about, Mei?” Toto asked.

“I was just wondering, how long would it take you to fly to Sawa Sawa Mountain and back?” Mei said, and told them how to get there.

“About three days there and three days back, I think. Did you want us to see how your herd is doing?”

“If it’s not too much to ask. I was also thinking that you could take them a message from me. I made the decision to leave in quite a hurry, and so I never actually got the chance to say goodbye to any of them.”

“I think that’s an excellent idea. We’d be happy to carry a message for you,” Riri said. “What do you want us to say?”

The four of them spent some time talking through what the message should be.

“Okay,” Mei said. “So the final message is: Mei is alive and living in the Emerald Forest, just past the mountain to the east. He’s living happily with Gabu, the wolf he’s friends with, and the two of them have made a number of excellent friends in the forest who support their decision. He sends his love to Mii, Tapu, and Grandma, and hopes that one day, they’ll come to understand that he made the right decision.”

“I think we can remember that,” Toto said.

“Oh, and one other thing, while you’re there, could you also take a message to Kuro-san? He lives in Para Para Fields, not too far from where my herd is.” Mei described how to get to Para Para Fields. “Tell him that anything he might have heard about me is true, and if he hasn’t heard, I want to tell him in person.”

“You want to visit Para Para Fields?” Gabu asked.

“I want to go back there someday, if Kuro-san is still willing to speak to me. It would be nice to see another familiar face from before we crossed over the mountain.”

“That would be no problem,” Riri said. “Do you want us to take a message to your pack, Gabu?”

“No,” Gabu said. “If they find out we survived the avalanche, they might come looking for us again. But perhaps you could fly past and make sure Boro is okay?” Gabu described the young wolf pup whom he’d been like a brother to.

“Okay.” Riri turned to her husband. “Shall we leave tonight?”

“I don’t see a reason not to,” Toto said.

“But you’ll miss the meeting tomorrow,” Gabu said.

Riri fluttered down to stand in front of Gabu, who was lying down on the ground. She smiled up at him. “I think you two will do just fine without us. You managed to get dozens of animals to empathise with a goat and a wolf, after all.”

Gabu gave her a huge smile. “Thanks for believing in us. We’re going to miss you while you’re away.”

“We’ll only be gone a week. Now, get some rest, you two. You’ve got a busy day ahead.”