Transhumanity may seem spoiled for choice when it comes to criminal justice, with innovations such as psychosurgery, minders, and freemen morphs, but ethics and politics complicates most situations.
Psychosurgery can alter many of the traits that lead to criminal behavior, and while many justice systems allow for voluntary treatment as a form of rehabilitation, involuntary editing is a powerful taboo. Post-singularity technology makes secure physical imprisonment difficult, and on most habitats it is seen as a waste of resources. Egos could be paused and stored as a form of imprisonment, but this seems like dodging the issue by palming it off to an unknown future.
The most used forms of punishment are restitution and exile. Restitution is not always enough, and societies that send their criminals to other habitats don't make many friends, and so some of the groups fond of that option have created Exile.
Exile is a simulspace server in an isolated main-belt orbit. Those whose societies no longer want them, and would otherwise have only debt, imprisonment, or editing to choose from, can volunteer to be uploaded there in lieu of other punishments. Each prisoner is given a portion of Exile's processing cycles and loaded into a simulspace under their sole control, sufficient for satisfying realism. Prisoners can link their simulations to socialize, try create their perfect life, or request therapy and/or psychosurgery for rehabilitation and eventual release.
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
293. Moochers
Throughout the system, in both the old and new economies, mooching is one of the most frightening of crimes. Moochers are parasites, implanting themselves into people's lives for as long as possible and feeding on their resources, and the terrifying truth is that you can't ever be sure when its happening.
There are two methods. By far the most common is to take the place of someone who actually exists, usually a reasonably distant relative. The usual method is to create a predictive profile, use it as the basis for psychosurgery turning yourself into a reasonable imitator, either discretely assassinate them or arrange for them to be out of contact, then step into their place.
The much more difficult method is to create a relation out of whole cloth. This requires creating a fake identity and supporting evidence such as social networking, and psychosurgically implanting the appropriate memories into the target, and usually many others. Creation of an identity capable of fooling someone while maintaining a false relationship is a very difficult piece of forgery. No public proof exists of this having ever actually been done, but rumors abound that such and such person is completely fake, created by Anarchist/Consortium/Jovian agents.
The extent to which these crimes actually exist is debatable. Their very nature means it is difficult to determine when one is occurring, and often when one has occurred. There have been only eleven proven cases, none of which lasted longer than two weeks. The social networked, sousveillance societies of modern transhumanity make it a virtually impossible crime in most places.
Plot Hook: One of the PCs has an old friend. At least, they have memories of them being a friend, as well as videos, photographs, chat logs and mutual friends, but what does that prove, really?
There are two methods. By far the most common is to take the place of someone who actually exists, usually a reasonably distant relative. The usual method is to create a predictive profile, use it as the basis for psychosurgery turning yourself into a reasonable imitator, either discretely assassinate them or arrange for them to be out of contact, then step into their place.
The much more difficult method is to create a relation out of whole cloth. This requires creating a fake identity and supporting evidence such as social networking, and psychosurgically implanting the appropriate memories into the target, and usually many others. Creation of an identity capable of fooling someone while maintaining a false relationship is a very difficult piece of forgery. No public proof exists of this having ever actually been done, but rumors abound that such and such person is completely fake, created by Anarchist/Consortium/Jovian agents.
The extent to which these crimes actually exist is debatable. Their very nature means it is difficult to determine when one is occurring, and often when one has occurred. There have been only eleven proven cases, none of which lasted longer than two weeks. The social networked, sousveillance societies of modern transhumanity make it a virtually impossible crime in most places.
Plot Hook: One of the PCs has an old friend. At least, they have memories of them being a friend, as well as videos, photographs, chat logs and mutual friends, but what does that prove, really?
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