Date sent: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 13:45:46 -0800 To: extropians@extropy.com From: Max More <max@maxmore.com> Subject: Re: Is the death penalty Extropian? Copies to: maxmore@globalpac.com Send reply to: extropians@extropy.com
> At 10:27 AM 11/24/98 -0800, Mark wrote:
> >
> >Your argument seems to be that you can reprogram them into a 'useful member
> >of society' and that society will benefit from that. I find the idea of a
> >legal system deciding what mental software people should run utterly
> abhorrent,
> >regardless of any economic arguments. Given a choice between physical death
> >or involuntary reprogramming into slave labor, I'll take death, thanks.
>
> What if the choice is not between death and total personality
> reprogramming? What if a violent criminal is given a choice: Either stay in
> jail for decades (or be executed), or undergo gene therapy or some other
> treatment that gives them better impulse control.
>
> Max
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Max More, Ph.D.
> <more@extropy.org> or <max@maxmore.com>
>
> http://www.maxmore.com
> Consulting services on the impact of advanced technologies
> President, Extropy Institute:
> exi-info@extropy.org, http://www.extropy.org
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
Reminds me of Alfred Bester's novel "The Demolished Man."
My solution is this: anyone convicted of a sufficiently heinous crime
to deserve capital punishment should be locked up for life, with two
alternatives offered; painless euthanasia anytime s/he requests it,
and prefrontal lobotomy (or a more efficient/less intrusive future
equivalent) followed by freedom. If, after lobotomy and release, the
criminal commits an equally reprehensible act, s/he should be
reincarcerated, with the alternatives reduced to two (life
imprisonment or euthanasia). Joe