QueeneMUSE@aol.com wrote:
I wrote:
> >immortality. If we acheive it, will we loose the ability to defend ourselves
> with deadly force as a result?
>
> In a possible future where we have the means to put an end to death, future
> posthumans would be unlikely to call this an "ability' - but some sort of
> neanderthal recession into pre-posthuman primate memes.
Inability to defend oneself against a opressor of lesser technology but greater numbers I think is likely to be a very valuable ability. If such opressors need to be exterminated to stop their opression, so be it. I think though as things advance, increased intelligence will help establish a more rational understanding of how to responsibly use such capability.
> > If it is seen as common that all are immortal, and that immortality is some
> sort of right, would not imposing death of any kind be seen as too excessive
> to allow as a punishment for a crime or for a defense against a criminal in
> the act. Thoughts, anyone?
>
> OK, THOUGHTS: if the advances in medicine and extropy have given us the
> ability to reanimate and/or rejuvenate living tissue, putting people to death
> would hardly be a solution to any encroachment upon personal property or
> bodily harm. Thought: perhaps bodily harm (if one can repair through "body
> work") will be seen as *less* of a crime, or considered more of a litiganous
> (SP?) one, rather than a violent one.
Wow, I would love to see what most feminists would think about that. All of the things I hear about rape is that the damage is psychological, which would likely be far more expensive to repair, if at all possible. I wonder how many raped women would be satisfied that justice is served just by civil proceedings? "Oh, I'm scarred for life (i.e eternity), but I'm quite happy since I won my civil suit against the bastard."
So while a woman is busy suing some nutjob, he doesn't care how much it costs so long as he kills her. How do you solve that problem with a civil suit?
I doubt very much that this will be tolerated much, no matter how much pacifists push it. There will always be some acts which are completely intolerable and which the offenders must pay for with their lives.