On 2008-04-24 17:41:55 -0500, Doug Jacobs <djacobs@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> said:
> In rec.arts.anime.misc Bill Martin <bill_r_martin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> This reminds me more of an episode from the TV sci-fi series,
Babylon5. In
>>> the episode, you learn that the death penalty has been done away with,
and
>>> instead Earth now uses a procedure that wipes the personality and
memories
>>> from the brain. A new personality is then implanted - one that wants
to
>>> serve society. The ex-convict is then released and given a menial
labor
>>> job - which he happily does - until he dies of natural causes.
>>
>> You call being beaten and crucified "natural causes"?
>
> That wasn't supposed to happen. The guy who was killed had been a
serial
> murderer who was caught and had his personality wiped. However, some
> family members of his victims didn't agree with that sentence, and set
out
> to find him, use a telepath to undo his mind-wipe so he'd remember, and
> then kill him out of vengenance.
>
> As you recall, the man who was mainly responsible for killing the former
> criminal was himself sentenced to death of personality, and ended up
back
> on Babylon5 serving in the very same job his victim had. As the head
monk
> stated "Forgiveness can be a very difficult thing."
Actually, he was going to be leaving B5 shortly thereafter. It also
makes me wonder, are most of the low-ranking monks in that galactic
order all mind-wiped criminals? And I'm sorry for jumping at you
earlier, I misread what was typed.
> I'm not sure if this story was partially inspired by Rector or if it was
> more of an exploration of what justice could be like in the future.
>
> Both situations bring up the same question though. Is killing the
> personality the same as killing the body that contained it?
Nope. Personality & memories in humans is not like data on a hard
drive, floppy disc, etc... You can wipe out the directory of where
stuff is stored, but the stuff's still there, and amnesiacs that have
recovered their memories. Even the B5 episode discussed has memories
thought wiped being remembered (or re-linked in memory), so unless the
area of the brain where the memories of something are stored is killed
or removed, the memories are there. Also, if you think about it, Ricky
Ray Rector didn't get a new soul after his failed suicide attempt, so
even if he couldn't easily rememeber what he'd done, his soul wasn't
innocent. Therein, lies the debate. Is a soul responsible for it's
actions if it can't remember them? The truth cannot be found on this
side of life, however, since we did not create our own bodies, nor our
souls.
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