Re: "Is the death penalty Extropian?"

From: Paul Hughes (planetp@aci.net)
Date: Tue Nov 24 1998 - 23:28:13 MST


Brian D Williams wrote:

> But what about the victim?
>
> Since I believe the only current possibility of life after death
> involves cryonics, the debt owed the victim is infinite.
>
> I postulate that the death penalty is the only just solution for
> the unlawful and malicious nonrecoverable termination of a fellow
> human being.

Either you are hallucinating or you know of some 'magical' technology
I'm unaware of. Since when is killing a persons murderer capable of
resurrecting the deceased? Since I don't of any such device, killing
someone will *not* bring the dead back to life. So how is this 'death
penalty' even beginning to pay the debt to the victim? They are dead!
It may feel good to exercise your savage lust for vengeance. But it is
neither rational or just, let alone extropian. It is vengeance pure and
simple.

Otherwise, please demonstrate how the death penalty will pay back this
infinite debt to the victim (since they are already dead), and how it is
anything other than an acting out of ones need for vengeance.

Paul Hughes



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