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Cognify - A Prison Of The Mind We've Seen Before In SF
The basic idea of Cognify, a concept by Hashem Al-Ghaili, is that it might be more humane to make modifications to a criminal's brain with implanted memories, to convince them that they had spent years in prison and had matured their outlook - after just a few minutes!
The process itself would begin with a high-resolution brain scan that would be used to create a map of the prisoner’s brain, which would tell Cognify where to ‘inject’ the artificial memories and how to tailor them to that brain’s specific structure. These fake memories would be used to influence the prisoner’s future behaviour, which seems intrusive enough, but in the meantime the prisoner would also be handing over their brain data to a “central computer for scientific research” to help “understand the criminal mind” and “determine the best approach” to tackle future crimes.Then, there’s the question of how to reintegrate someone into society with just a few minutes of treatment but years of ‘memories’ to show for it. “Family members of the subject could be provided with a comprehensive report on the new artificial memories,” suggests a Cognify press release...
Science fiction fans are very familiar with this idea; fans of the Outer Limits may recall The Sentence (1996) in which Dr. Jack Henson, an ambitious inventor, comes up with a "virtual prison" government officials are interested in its cost efficiency. Rather than life sentences, criminals would only have to spend hours being subjected to harsh treatment.
Compare to virtual punishment from Complete Sentence (2011) by Joe Haldeman:
"We went over the pluses and minuses before you opted for virtual punishment." "So I serve a hundred years in one day -""Less than a day. Overnight."
... She looked over at Draper, lying on the gurney next to hers. His black helmet was more complicated, a thick cable and lots of small wires...
(Read more about Haldeman's virtual punishment)
See also a 2014 concept called Biotech Prisons - Serve A Thousand Years In a Day . Thanks also to Humble Square (aka Gatomon) for a long ago comment!
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/20/2024)
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