On Sun, Aug 14, 2022 at 7:39 AM Stathis Papaioannou <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Everybody is always subjected to force, sometimes, as when an >> electromagnetic force enters your eye and prevents you from walking into a >> brick wall it's a good thing because you don't want to walk into a brick >> wall, and sometimes, such as when the gravitational force prevents you >> from jumping over a mountain, it's a bad thing because you want to jump >> over that mountain. >> > > > *>It's different if you say "I was forced by someone holding a gun to my > head" or "I was forced by the laws of physics".* > If it could be proven that I murdered because somebody put a gun to my head that would be a legitimate mitigating circumstance because it would be unlikely that in the future somebody would hold a gun to my head again and thus I would be unlikely to murder again. But if I did it because of the law of electromagnetism that would not be a mitigating circumstance because I am likely to encounter electromagnetism again and thus likely to murder again. > *> there is no point in punishing a sleepwalker who kills someone because > it won't deter other sleepwalkers from doing the same thing.* > But a few amps flowing through his body for just a few seconds would improve him immeasurably and prevent the sleepwalker from ever murdering again. And because he is likely to sleep again, he would be an extremely dangerous man that needs to be dealt with. Imprisonment won't solve the problem, in 2019 in the USA 143 prisoners were murdered by other prisoners who had already been convicted of murder, and the man who murdered Martin Luther King was an escaped prisoner. John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis> com wcom -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv0MWsBKpw5r6wysXjYY8VKhgR-PJnTfMQvf9ryPc9tQjA%40mail.gmail.com.
