We've had a number of threads on the death penalty, and some well-formed views on that, so here's a variant to throw at the board.
I read about how they're working on a pill to erase traumatic memories, and in sci-fi, you always read about memory tampering and such, so how about this:
Instead of physically killing a person, we induce total, irrevocable amnesia. They remember nothing of who they are or what they've done. Then after the mind-wipe, time is devoted to teaching them a useful skill in a field they may find interesting.
Now, this would allow for the punishment that some camps desire. After all, the person who committed the crime ceases to exist. This would allow for rehabilitation of hardened, unrepentant criminals and the criminally insane. It would also allow for the state to go "Oh crap, we fucked up and that guy was innocent." It wouldn't be great, since really, it'd amount to "here's a bunch of money, please don't be too mad." And you'd need rules and relocation to prevent people from informing the mind-wiped about who they were, of course.
The major downside I see is if people from the families of victims ran in to the wiped and had to see that person's face, new personality or not. I could see some not being able to deal with a non-physical death.
So, what do you think?
I read about how they're working on a pill to erase traumatic memories, and in sci-fi, you always read about memory tampering and such, so how about this:
Instead of physically killing a person, we induce total, irrevocable amnesia. They remember nothing of who they are or what they've done. Then after the mind-wipe, time is devoted to teaching them a useful skill in a field they may find interesting.
Now, this would allow for the punishment that some camps desire. After all, the person who committed the crime ceases to exist. This would allow for rehabilitation of hardened, unrepentant criminals and the criminally insane. It would also allow for the state to go "Oh crap, we fucked up and that guy was innocent." It wouldn't be great, since really, it'd amount to "here's a bunch of money, please don't be too mad." And you'd need rules and relocation to prevent people from informing the mind-wiped about who they were, of course.
The major downside I see is if people from the families of victims ran in to the wiped and had to see that person's face, new personality or not. I could see some not being able to deal with a non-physical death.
So, what do you think?
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