From: Mark Walker (mdwalker@quickclic.net)
Date: Thu Nov 29 2001 - 10:25:37 MST
----- Original Message -----
From: <hal@finney.org>
> The notion of thwarting attempts to escape justice via suicide is new
> to me. What would you do if you restored a suicide bomber from a backup?
> There wouldn't be much point in giving him the death penalty. So what
> is the idea, would you torture him? That doesn't seem very enlightened.
>
>
The article does not seem to carry through with its own logic. If everyone
has a back-up then the "suicide" bomber would presumably not be guilty of
murder, but only of property damage. In a world with back-ups and nano to
fix the damage at the WTC, bin Laden-type terrorists might receive only a
100 hours of community service for slightly inconveniencing a number of
people. In response to your general point, I think there would be a
temptation to restore earlier versions of criminals to give them a second
chance. (It can't be that they are evil by nature, so the thinking goes, we
as a society (or species) must have failed them so how).
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