Re: "Is the death penalty Extropian?"

Paul Hughes (planetp@aci.net)
Tue, 24 Nov 1998 22:28:13 -0800

Brian D Williams wrote:

> But what about the victim?
>
> Since I believe the only current possibility of life after death
> involves cryonics, the debt owed the victim is infinite.
>
> I postulate that the death penalty is the only just solution for
> the unlawful and malicious nonrecoverable termination of a fellow
> human being.

Either you are hallucinating or you know of some 'magical' technology I'm unaware of. Since when is killing a persons murderer capable of resurrecting the deceased? Since I don't of any such device, killing someone will *not* bring the dead back to life. So how is this 'death penalty' even beginning to pay the debt to the victim? They are dead! It may feel good to exercise your savage lust for vengeance. But it is neither rational or just, let alone extropian. It is vengeance pure and simple.

Otherwise, please demonstrate how the death penalty will pay back this infinite debt to the victim (since they are already dead), and how it is anything other than an acting out of ones need for vengeance.

Paul Hughes