From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@ricochet.net)
Date: Mon Jun 04 2001 - 21:12:10 MDT
Felix Ungman <felix@hu.se> wrote:
>> All important qualities of a system depend only upon the
>> present configuration of the system, and in principle any
>> given characteristic of the system can be captured by some
>> (perhaps extremely large) description.
>So, how does statism shape the legal system with regard
>to forking? Collective punishment?
and Eugene Leitl wrote
>When the transporter malfunctioned, and the other Ryker
>commited a crime you won't get a judge in the Star Trek
>universe confusing them, and prosecuting the wrong fork
>prong.
A very good question, "Who should get punished if one of a
number of duplicates commits an evil act?".
I can only guess, this being the kind of question that
takes societies generations to evolve answers for.
Classically, are four reasons societies punish wrongdoers:
1. Deterrence
2. Removal
3. Retribution
4. Rehabilitation
(Personally, I believe that right now only 1 and 2 are
both logical and feasible, but 4 is a possibility for
the future, and possibly works on animals right now.)
So if one of N close duplicates commits a crime, should
that duplicate alone receive punishment, or should all
the close duplicates? I would say that if the crime
related to "lower level" impulses, then the individual
duplicate should be punished, but if the crime directly
resulted from beliefs, ideologies, or other "higher level"
patterns, then punishment for all the duplicates ought to
be considered.
Lee Corbin
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