An episode of “Stargate: SG-1” some years back featured a character who committed murder and then used neato advanced technology to remove the memory of having done so from himself. Additionally, the ability to selectivelty alter or delete memories is a common idea in science fiction. If such memory-tinkering-tech was available, then it’s clear that, on occasion, people would use the technology to delete their own memories of having comitted crimes… either for the purposes of being able to pass lie detector tests (hit men might find this tech appealing) or because of feelings of guilt & remorse, especially in cases of crimes of passion.
The question would then become, what’s the proper legal punishment for someone who commits a crime of passion and then deletes the meory of the crime and the incidents that led up to it? Do you jail someone for a crime they don’t remember, and could not imagine themselves doing?
On the one hand, yeah, I can see the ethical problem there.
On the other hand, we regularly lock up drunk drivers and drugged-up jackholes who commit crimes and then cannot recall them once sober.
On the gripping hand, if we have the tech to delete memories, we might have the tech to *add* memories. Thus perhaps the memory of the crime could be re-installed… even if the memory has to be re-created from scratch.
13 Responses to “Sci-Fi criminal justice”
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A friend of mine is a psychologist who worked with criminals for about 15 years. There is a recognized pathology which results in a total lack of memory of an event that is sufficiently out-of-range to be considered “impossible” and therefore not to be remembered. I don’t recall the terminology (we were talking about the women we have loved and lost).
If we could install memories, I have some I’d like to install in That Certain Woman. And, come to think of it, in my idiot ex-brother. He was always terrified of the movie “Them!”
Ethical minefield here. Fascinating, though.
But if they can install memories, what’s to keep them from inserting memories of a crime and thus manufacturing a handy felony to lock you up with…
> inserting memories of a crime and thus manufacturing a handy felony
IIRC, that’s what happened on “Stargate…” the killer removed the memory from himself and pasted into Our Hero’s brain, thus getting Our Hero into trouble.
Same kind of thing happens in Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth series. (Memory erase/storage/download into new, cloned body.)
I’m not quite recalling the SG episode but I DO recall, that I recall it…
(Or is that an artificially inserted memory…Hmmm :o) )
I seem to recall either SG or someone, (might have been one of the later Star Trek series, possibly DS-9) the punishment for certain crimes (murder included) was to INSERT the memory of the victim into the criminal which would “pop-up” at random intervals as the “criminal” was forced to re-live killing themselves over and over again.
As I recall the sociaty-view was that any killing or injury was “wrong” and therefor the criminal couldn’t be given the death penalty or even imprisoned for more than a short time but there was constant monitering to ensure the “criminal” didn’t try to ‘escape’ by commitint suicide.
Another ethical “mine” to add to the field is can you really murder someone if they have made a “back-up” recently? For that matter there is an offshoot of the genre where someone ‘steals’ or otherwise aquires someones back-up (it’s been used a lot with stories of “Universal-Soldiers” who are “brought-back” whenever there is a war to fight) and makes dozens of copies for their own uses. As the Uni-Soldier stories often use for a ‘twist’ people end up fighting themselves because both sides are using the same ‘template’ to build soliders with…
Lastly of course is the basic ‘question’ of what constitutes a “person” and is it JUST the sum of ones memories? One On-Line-Comic I have been reading is “Little-White-Mouse” (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/paulsizer/littlewhitemouse/series.php?view=single&ID=163532) where the main character’s sister dies but has managed to upload her entire memory into computer storage. The Main Charecter obsesses with build a new body for her sister from robot parts and while the memory download and install is sucessful she realizes (as does the “sister”) that the new robot is NOT her “sisiter” but JUST a copy as “she” has no emotional attachment to any specific memories, no “feelings” for her sister, etc.
So what is human and can you actually “copy” that would be a pertinant but HEAVILY debated question.
Randy
Part of the Doc Savage world is Doc’s secret hospital in upstate New York wherein the minds of criminals are modified to make them “normal.” In the books, it works, but I don’t recall ever reading about a patient helping Doc.
Give him 20-50 years time for crime, then remove memories of serving it. So now he is 50 years older w/o knowing why.
I always thought that the best punishment out of sci-fi came from Babylon 5… “death of personality.” For those convicted of really bad crimes, their entire memories and personalities would be wiped, and a whole new personality, programmed to want to serve the community, would be installed. One the one hand, it’s a truly nifty and appropriate punishment; on the other hand, the government of Earth was shown to not be the sort of government you’d want to hav ethe ability to tinker with peoples minds.
The existence of this system would certainly explain much of the support for Obama…
Long ago I was given a document called “Mind Control,” by Martin Cannon. It looks like someone’s master’s thesis. All the citations are correct. While the basic element in the paper is that UFO abductions are government experiments, the information concerning electronic and chemical control of the mind appears to be accurate reporting on existing projects that were documented. Every now and then I wonder about that paper.
(I’ve never been able to find “Martin Cannon” except in references to his paper.)
Michael; Mind control and/or minipulation doesn’t exist… The government says so… ;o)
Randy
So? Does this mean we can use this to torture to death all the lying assed environazis a$$holes? Just wondering.
Can we used mind control to torture them? Hmmm…. I suggest leaving their green drive in place but change their appetites to include raw meat.
@ Randy Campbell:
ST Voyager Ep: Ex Post Facto.
http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Ex_Post_Facto_(episode)