Crime, Punishment, and the Singularity

Another interesting social issue related to the is its effect on our penal system especially the millions of folks we’ve got locked up right now. Take a prisoner with a 50-year sentence. If he has to serve his entire sentence he wouldn’t be out until 2050, but by that time we expect inconceivable advances in genetics, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence/robotics, all of which could have implications for his case. First, he could be cured, either through genetic therapy or something like nanorobots inserted in his brain. At a minimum technology could provide the ability to monitor him on a minute-by-minute basis. If you consider the first a form of “rehabilitation” and the second a form of “protection”, the only remaining reasons to keep him locked up would be vengeance and punishment, both of which, of course, seem unfortunately to be not only tolerated but actively encouraged in today’s society.

Not coincidentally, the US leads the entire world in incarceration rate and total number of people behind bars. We put about 7 times as many people in prison as Canada, and 12 times as many as Japan. Studies show that the rise is due less to an increase in crime and more to lengthier sentences (partially due to mandatory sentencing guidelines) and harsher parole policies. The longer sentences are gradually turning our prisons into nursing homes with bars; the percentage of inmates my age or older has doubled over the last ten years, and for these grayhairs, costs of medical care can be triple. That is if the systems bother to spend the money; in California last year medical neglect and malpractice killed inmates at the rate of one per week. The longer sentences have also, perversely, increased recidivism, as have picayune parole violation policies. By race, one out of eight black men between the ages of 25-29 is in jail; in some states incarceration rates for blacks exceed that for whites by a factor of ten. At the same time, prison costs are busting state budgets such as that in California, which spends over $10 billion a year on its correctional system, and that excludes new construction of $7.5 billion to be built with borrowed money which today’s Californians’ children and grandchildren will pay back. The fiscal 2008-2009 budget now being prepared is expected to slash school funding and spending on state parks as part of across-the-board 10% cuts, while spending on corrections increases

by nearly 10%. The correctional system is so big now that the guards’ union, a key element of the so-called “prison-industrial complex”, is a major force in state politics. Spending on prisons is expected to exceed that on higher education by as soon as 2010.

8 Responses to “Crime, Punishment, and the Singularity”

  1. Robert Says:

    If may be interesting, to think about, “how it may be like” after we reach singularity, but most time, if not all time, it’s just a wishful thinking. Singularity may change literaly everything we know. If we reach the Singularity, it will not be just “everything as we know” plus some nice silver “nano” gadgets.

    Kurzweil in his book has a story which conveys this a bit. Singularity is Near, p.297: two bacteria bilions years ago are talking together and one of the bacterias (a “futurist”) imagines, how one time ten trilions of bacteria will group together and form a sort of “colonies”, which will then call themselves a human beings. These colonies will communicate together and rebuild the world to their image.

    I see no way, how a bacteria could imagine, how the world with humans will look like. Similar to this, we can’t guess, how it will be like after the “Singularity” point.

  2. paul pawlowski Says:

    My timeframe is 50m himalaya but i am thinking -

    baceria origin of life on earth – who knows – possible

    Big Bang somewhere in the Universe
    Plasama makes Solar System
    plasma cooling
    bacteria fron pre-Big Bang? multiplying on cooling Earth
    evolution of Living World
    pre-Big Bang becteria evolve into Humans on Earth?
    how long ago Life on Earth as we know it – 6bl?
    How long ago Birth of Apollo?
    - just thinking
    23 days to Flower on 3 stones HOLOCAUST Altar for Apollo
    London Holy Paean in Praise of Apollo

    Vote for ME
    Let Voice of Republican England be heard in Parliament

    paul pawlopwski, Keeper
    Muzeum Sczytaja

  3. Brad Thomson Says:

    I agree and I’m glad I came across this worthy post which filled my heart with pain – Belonging to a medical profession I’m really sensitive by heart and I think its really brutal to make someone realize his mistake by jailing him for so long.

  4. paul pawlowski Says:

    50 years ago they have been locking me behind bars for Ban the Bomb
    – i spent about 8 years in HMPrisons for Ban the Bomb – cttee 100 protests – no, not in one long stretch but when i added up all the 7 days – one month – three months – 9 months one year – two years and all the reminded in prison awaiting trial it came to about 8 years behind bars –
    thats not all – I was asking to be tried by 500 as at Socrates -
    500 chosen by lot from Westminster voters list
    sandclock in court
    Prosecution finish accusing – sandclock is turned upside down now I have the same length of time answer accusation
    If Crown Prosecution Win they can do with me as they please
    -rip out my tongue – gouge my eyes – chopoff my hands Hung draw quarter burn me to ash pull the chain flush shit down the drain wipe out record that a thing like that ever existed
    But if I win
    - MPs
    STOP SATAN JEW ATOM BOMB WESTMINSTER

    I do what I deeply believe i should do to Stop Nuke War
    If you think I am wrong – lets talk it over
    but if you want to keep me in prison for the things I deeply feel I should do then
    500 or Death
    Vote for ME
    Let Voice of Republican England be heard in parliament
    paul pawlowski, Keeper
    Muzeum Sczytaja

  5. paul pawlowski Says:

    Margaret Thatcher asymmetric warfare

    1 – Serbs killing Muslims – Margaret Thatcher asymmetric job

    2 – pc Ivonne Fletcher shot and killed – Margaret Thatcher asymmetric job

    3 – Lockerbie – Margaret Thatcher asymmetric job

    4 – 911 Margaret Thatcher ride into Eurasia on wooden horse

    5 – Benghazi – Margaret Thatcher asymmetric No Fly Zone into Libya

    6 – Saddam WMD – Margaret Thatcher asymmetric wooden horse conquer Iaq

    The awakening –
    Margaret Thatcher ATOM BOMB WESTMINSTER asymmetric got stuck
    Atom Bomb Pyongyang asymmetric got stuck
    Atom Bomb Tehran asymmetric got stuck
    Golden Satan tills ringing asymmetric got stuck
    Margaret Thatcher architect of asymmetric warfare got stuck

    Bury that perfidity in Westminster Abbey – Shame on England!

    paul pawlowski, Keeper
    Muzeum Sczytaja 50m Himalaya

  6. paul pawlowski Says:

    Glorify Asymmetric War in the Abbey – England! – are you mad!

    Japan glorify war criminals in shrine
    People of China protesting
    Golden Satan ATOM BOMB WESTMINSTER looming
    Margaret Thatcher accomplice Glorified in the Abbey
    England! are you mad!

    Golden Satan asymmetric War Crimes Against Humanity
    Golden Satan pc Ivonne Fletcher – Golden Satan presstv Libya
    Golden Satan tills ringing
    Margaret Thatcher accomplice Glorified in the Abbey

    Golden Satan Lockerbie – Golden Satan presstv Libya
    Golden Satan tills ringing
    Margaret Thatcher accomplice Glorified in the Abbey

    Golden Satan Benghazi – Golden Satan presstv No Fly Zone Libya
    Golden Satan tills ringing
    Margaret Thatcher accomplice Glorified in the Abbey

    Golden Satan 911 -
    Golden Satan ride Wooden Horse into Eurasia on the cheap
    Golden Satan tills ringing
    Margaret Thatcher accomplice Glorified in the Abbey

    Golden Satan nuke Pyongyang
    Golden Satan tills ringing
    Margaret Thatcher accomplice Glorified in the Abbey

    Golden Satan Limited Nuke War
    Golden Satan tills ringing
    Margaret Thatcher accomplice Glorified in the Abbey

    Legacy of Margaret Thatcher Asymmetric Wars
    Glorify Margaret Thatcher in the Abbey – England! Are you mad!

    Vote for ME
    Let voice of republican England be heard in parliament

    paul pawlowski, Keeper
    Muzeum sczytaja 50m Himalaya

  7. paul pawlowski Says:

    England BEWARE!
    Kim Jong un ATOM BOMB WESTMINSTER
    nato Drone strike Kim Jong un
    Pyongyang children dance in the steet celebrating fall of dictator
    problem with North Korea solved on the cheap

    Vote for ME
    let voice of republican England be heard in parliament
    paul pawlowski, Keeper
    Muzeum Sczytaja 50m Himalaya

  8. paul pawlowski Says:

    I bought a book of proverbs in charity shop

    Man is political animal
    I am a political animal
    I know what my politics is
    - what was the politics of others?

    Aristotle – Tony Benn – Bismark Chamberlain
    - Winston Churchill
    - Bill Clinton – Charles de Gaule
    - Benjamin Disraeli – Vaclav Havel – Ken Livingstone
    Harold Macmillan – Mao Zedong – George Orwell – Roland Reagan
    Harold Wilson ands others

    To some
    Gold is the driving force of politics — to others – Conscience
    Conscience is politics to me

    Living Conscience lands me in jail
    Ban the Bomb landed me in jail
    court as at Apollo and Marsyas landed me in jail
    Worship of Gods and Goddesses in Heaven Above landed me in jail
    Apollo Paradise in Earth – jail
    - polyandry – jail
    sandclock in court – jail –
    500 or Death – jail — quipu sczytaja researching 50m Himalaya Satan Plagiar
    STOP ATOM BOMB WESTMINSTER landed me in jail

    Flower on HOLOCAUST Altar landed my State Pension on HOLOCAUST Altar

    Living on dollar a day like Chinese peasant carrot cabbage potato my conscience – politics of conscience

    We are the Children of Apollo and Himalaya born with Conscience
    liv in Paradise on Earth with conscience

    Have conscience
    enjoy Apollo Paradise on Earth don’t abuse it – conscience

    Have conscience
    avoid Golden Satan
    be like me
    have conscience carrot cabbage potato conscience

    Vote for ME
    live on dollar a day carrot potato cabbage conscience
    Clear conscience sleeps through thunder
    Chinese proverb

    Have conscience
    Vote for ME
    let voice of republican england be heard in parliament

    paul pawlowski, Keeper
    Muzeum Sczytaja 50m Himalaya

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