From: Paul Hughes (planetp@aci.net)
Date: Wed Nov 25 1998 - 00:52:46 MST
Simple logic would seem to indicate the death penalty is not extropian. To
wit:
Entropy not= Extropy.
Death = Entropy.
Death Penalty = Entropy Penalty.
Death Penalty not= Extropy.
"Joe E. Dees" wrote:
> Executing a
> murderer may not deter anyone else from murdering, but it definitely
> and absolutely deters the murderer. A dead murderer will never kill
> again. Joe
Quite true, it certainly stops any more entropy (murder) from occurring, but
it doesn't increase extropy either. A more extropic thing to do, once an
involuntary irreversible entropic act (murder) has been committed, is finding
out why these people were murdered in the first place. By keeping these people
alive for study and possible rehabilitation, we increase our chances of
deterring murder at its source - weather it be bad genes, upbringing, economic
status, or what have you.
A perfect example was in 1993 when a 19 year old boy of Texas, who with no
prior history of sociopathy, mental illness or criminal activity, one night
decided to murder his next door neighbor with a machete. Not only did he
commit this gruesome act, but no one, not even himself knows why he did it.
During the hearings to determining whether he should receive the death penalty
or not, he sat crying in his lap for the entire 5 days of the proceedings.
His psychologist, school teachers (where he was a straight-A student), nearly
his entire family and most of his friends appeared in the court pleading for
the jury to spare his life. In the end, the gruesome pictures of the corpse
were enough to turn the jury in favor of the death penalty.
On pure Utilitarian grounds, think of the amount we could learn from this
young man, about why someone would suddenly, without prior warning, turn into
a violent killer. It's quite possible we could determine through careful
scientific study, why this boy killed his neighbor in cold blood. Perhaps
from such study we could gain valuable knowledge about ourselves and our
society in the process, and perhaps prevent other such people from 'going over
the deep end' themselves at a later date. This is certainly much more
extropian and longer-term life-enhancing than killing a prime specimen right
after his gruesome act.
IMHO, rational, scientific and extropian.
Paul Hughes
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