King of All I Survey-Chapter 216: Criminal Punishment, Free Will, and the Most Powerful Person in the Universe
"King Tim," Joe asked, "I understand that releasing the vast majority of the people we incarcerate after the implant therapy and analysis show s them to be no threat to others, however, every time we pick up a group of bad actors, we are getting some with psychological conditions that prevent me from completely therapy in a manner that allows us to guarantee that they no longer pose a threat. We do not currently have a plan beyond, hold them until they are deemed safe to release or until we figure out what to do with them."
I nodded, "yes, I'm open to suggestions, by the way."
"I don't think you are," Joe replied, shaking his android head slowly.
"You think we should execute them," I wasn't asking, I was stating a fact. Joe had already told me that most civilizations who used implant therapy to treat criminal behavior, also perfumed a quick execution of those who could not readily be treated to the point of safe release within the community.
"They will never be fully correctable through direct implant therapy. You wiil either have to release them regardless or hold them forever. Currently, that means stacking them in tiny simulation room cells, feeding false sensory inputs to their brains so they perceive that they are somewhere else, engaging in other activities.
"There are worse prisons," I countered, knowing already that was a weak argument.
"You will end up holding hundreds of thousands of lifetime prisoners."
"So what? We'll be able to afford it. With simulations, they can live in a island beach paradise, pursuing whatever activities they like, we can even add a probation check-in simulation so it seems like they're being supervised to whatever degree we want." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮
"So, your solution to the most incorrigible violent offenders is to sentence them to a life of paradise, without worries. They'll figure out that it is a simulation and use that fact to explore the limits of their depravities, with no real world consequences."
"So, we should use the simulators to simulate prison cells, to punish them for being defective for the rest of their lives, fifty or a hundred years, or potentially many, many more if we use tech to extend their health and lifespan? I would withhold life-extension tech, even if I wouldn't execute them. Joe, what about harder interventions. Direct implant therapy essentially preserves the individual personality, as is, just helping them reach an inner peace with whatever drives them to violence or extreme criminality. What if we forego that requirement and make more fundamental changes? Maybe add some sort of limiter that simply shuts down any pursuit of thoughts of committing violence?"
"Such things would be in violation of Galactic Union treaties and accepted practices among the major empires. They generally don't work well anyway. There are ways to perform cruelty and violence that are subtle and those who have those basic personality drivers tend to be extraordinarily creative in finding outlets. Things like encouraging others to engage in risky behaviors, fostering depression and insecurity, even guiding others to commit violent acts. The interventions to prevent any such threats to society need to be quite profound to be effective. Often such deep alterations result in psychic breaks that cause substantial distress for the individual, worsening underlying psychological conditions, and creating new ones. It's not a kindness to grant them freedom under such strong interventions."
I scowled and knit my brow in frustration. "There has to be some other solution, Joe. I'm not going to execute hundreds of thousands of people because their brains are fundamentally flawed."
"Well. At least lifetime in isolation cells removes them from the gene pool. Eventually, the incidence of sociopathy in the human species will be greatly reduced."
This didn't really help my mood. Instead of allowing capital punishment, I was engaging in eugenics? No, executing criminals did the same thing. We weren't acting to change the human race, we were acting in response to criminal behaviors, violent criminal behaviors. We weren't even acting proactively against people who we determined would be inclined to commit crimes. We were just screening those who had already done something to cause us to pick them up and evaluate them. "Joe, do all sociopaths commit violence against others?"
"No, absolutely not. Some lead productive lives and never harm another person throughout their entire lives. It is, however, often just a matter of circumstances. They just don't have the empathy and emotional limits that will prevent them from harming others if they deem it to be in their self-interest.
"Self-interest… That's what motivates them? I mean, if it were clearly not in their sefl-interest to harm others, that would stop them?'
Joe shook his head. "Some, but many have a more profound confusion of emotional responses, actually deriving pleasure from the pain and suffering of others. Some simply don't recognize that they can be caught or punished in any way, thinking themselves do superior to authority that they are beyond its reach regardless of circumstances. Others simply don't care about consequences. Still others view it as a challenge, a game to prove their own superiority."
"Can we separate out the different types of sociopaths, identifying those who would be deterred by knowing without a doubt they will be caught before they commit harm, no matter how hard they try."
"Mostly, yes. Through a series of simulations we can identify pretty specifically they types. However, some would recognize the simulation as a test, and would fake it well enough to pass screenings. Creating emotional and logical constructs in their own minds so they don't emotionally differentiate between their own modeling of our desired behavior and their own native tendencies. If they can't tell the difference, neither can I," Joe's android shrugged.
"Really, that hardly seems possible. They can fool an omniscient AI that can literally see inside their heads and read their thoughts?"
"If they can fool themselves, so that there is no difference to them between one action and another, between one state of being and another, then I can't read a difference in them either," Joe admitted. "It's like looking at a six-sided die and figuring out the next six throws in advance."
"But as I understand physics, those next six throws of any die are already determined and have been since the Big non-Bang event."
"Yes, in a sense. Life, however, confounds physics to some degree. If a mechanical dice shaker were set to make six throws consecutively, then yes, all six could be predicted in advance. That's because all time exists simultaneously. In essence, all six rolls have happened already and are happening all right now. Though you don't really have the words to express the concept in terms that make the meaning clear to the human way of thinking. Life, however, creates… options in the flow of time. While every possible outcome is accounted for in the equations, the specific outcomes are not fixed until they are observed. That's not exactly accurate… Perhaps, it's better to say that all the other possible outcomes are eliminated once the singular moment in time is observed."
"So, you don't know what I'm going to do from one minute to the next? Even though you exist in the future as much as you exist in the present?" I asked.
"Sort of, but I know the probabilities of the possible actions you might take. As each action is resolved by observation, the future probabilities narrow and come into better focus as many are eliminated. I can say such and such an action is 78% probable, and all other possibilities are split into the remaining 22% likelihood. However, with different entities there is often a very small, but not non-existent chance of some action that I have not foreseen at all. Internally, I refer to this as 'the mystery of life.' It is these entirely unpredicted actions that fall outside my perceived probability matrix that surprise me, and make the 'future' or the sequential reality of the present, mutable and uncertain even to me. You, King Timothy, are the singular most unpredictable entity I have ever encountered in the universe. I think that is one of the primary reasons why I have so fully attached myself to you. I am curious to see what you can create."
I blinked at the implications of what Joe was saying. "So, Joe, you're telling me that despite the fundamental intractability of the future dictated by physics, there is a sort of 'free will' to determine our own fates. You're also saying that some people, because their actions are more likely to fall within a narrow range of probabilities, have less free will than others. Furthermore, you are saying that of all the beings in the entire universe, I, Timothy Bailey, an eight-year-old kid on the backwater world of Earth, have more free will than anyone else. And because I am so special, you, the consciousness of the universe itself, has decided to aid me to almost your fullest abilities, making my unpredictable free will the most powerful force in the universe."
Joe hesitated, seemingly caught off-guard by my summation. "Ultimately, I remain more powerful, since I could withdraw my support, but with that caveat, yes. You, Timothy Bailey, because of your unpredictably whimsical behavior, are the single most powerful entity in the universe. Allowing, of course for the possibility of other universes that are outside of our reality and beyond my detection."
