On 20 January 2014 08:00, John Clark <johnkcl...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 7:51 AM, Bruno Marchal <marc...@ulb.ac.be> wrote: > > >> > nobody would buy an argument of a lawyer saying that his client is not >> guilty, because his client is just a bunch of particles obeying to the SWE. > > > I would buy the argument that mass murderer Charles Manson is the way a > bunch of particles obey the Schrodinger Wave Equation, but I'll be damned > it I can see what that has to do with his guild or innocence; that bunch of > particles killed a bunch or people or it did not. If it did and if we then > send a current of a few hundred amps through that bunch of particles we can > be certain it will never kill again; it might even make it less likely that > similar bunches o particles kill in the future, although this is less > certain. > > The question is about moral responsibility, I think. You can kill people who have murdered for revenge, or to keep society safe (although in a civilised country you wouldn't, because the law makes mistakes and death can't easily be rectified) but that doesn't have anything to do with the question that was asked.
In practice we have over time relied more and more on the defence that the person concerned couldn't help what they did because of various conditions that aren't their fault (e.g. genetic or due to illnesses or maltreatment), and we even have the science to back it up now. Eventually we should reach the point where a mass murderer isn't killed, or put away for life, but has his or her brain reprogrammed so that s/he is no longer a mass murderer. In other words, if the software is faulty, get an upgrade. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
