[ExI] free-will, determinism, crime and punishment.

[Samantha Atkins]

On Aug 17, 2007, at 2:12 PM, Jeff Davis wrote:

> On 8/17/07, John K Clark <jonkc at att.net> wrote:
>> "gts" <gts_2000 at yahoo.com>
>                       <snip>
>>> the goal of a correctional facility should
>>> be  simply to correct the nature of the criminal
>>
>> But we have no idea how to do that ...
>
> John, don't you think that if some sociopathic (but not organically
> defective) "offender" was placed under your tutelage, and you were
> given wide lattitude regarding what measures you could employ, that
> you couldn't straighten him/her out?

Given sufficient intelligence and time then this is likely.  For  
current levels of human intelligence and time it is much less likely  
as past efforts have shown.  There is also a question concerning the  
difference between leading a horse to water and forcing it to drink.   
With sufficient skill you could conceivably overwrite a seriously  
broken brain, broken in ways that led to seriously criminal behavior  
say.  But at some point this would be the ultimate invasion of the  
self and the result may arguably not be the original person at all  
but something else written over the original.   This concern is  
applicable on a large scale in transhuman possibilities of course.

>   Perhaps not completely, but
> substantially?  Without surgical intervention.  You know, like place
> the individual in a new environment, where old (bad) habits don't
> work, and new habits have to be learned to gradually supplant the old?
>

Possibly toss them into a high speed simulation.   Instant karma  
going to get you indeed.

- samantha