(Kind of relevant because Ross Ulbricht was just sentenced to maximum charges—two concurrent life sentences and so on—and he’s young enough with many favorable demographic traits, 31/white/well-educated/intelligent/fit, that he could easily live another 50 years to 2065, and who knows what will happen by then?)
Indeed, Surface Detail was an excellent book, one of the best Culture novels, imo.
Yes, technology which made immortality possible could also making torturing/punishing people forever possible, but this does not mean that death is good, rather it means that its important for people to have empathy, and that we need to evolve away from retributive justice.
I usually find articles like this from the deathists annoying, and this wasn’t an exception.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_Detail
See also Rebecca Roache’s discussion of the topic: http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2013/08/enhanced-punishment-can-technology-make-life-sentences-longer/
(Kind of relevant because Ross Ulbricht was just sentenced to maximum charges—two concurrent life sentences and so on—and he’s young enough with many favorable demographic traits, 31/white/well-educated/intelligent/fit, that he could easily live another 50 years to 2065, and who knows what will happen by then?)
Indeed, Surface Detail was an excellent book, one of the best Culture novels, imo.
Yes, technology which made immortality possible could also making torturing/punishing people forever possible, but this does not mean that death is good, rather it means that its important for people to have empathy, and that we need to evolve away from retributive justice.
I usually find articles like this from the deathists annoying, and this wasn’t an exception.