No Going Back

"I've lost everything, my business, my property and to top it all off my lass of six years has gone off with someone else."

Raoul-Thomas-Moat-shoots-policeman-gunning-ex-lover-boyfriend

The concept of perpetual association, the "permanent record", causes despair in people's lives every day, although we don't hear about it unless they decide to make sure we hear about it.

How can we blame people for going psycho when a criminal record stands in the way of their entire future, giving them nothing left to live for?

It's time to acknowledge and address the implications of Actuarial Escape Velocity in respect to crime and punishment. For, with infinite lifespans, ruining people's lives will not only have much greater significance, but it will not be in the interests of society. Who wants their infinite lifespan cut short by a crazy gunman?

There seems to be this incredibly misguided notion that all criminals are evil, they're born evil, and they will always be evil. Quite apart from the fact that most crimes are not dangerous or violent and exist only as a attempt to prevent further such "crimes", how can we say that people won't change for the better? Furthermore, how can we say that people who have never committed a crime will never do so?

Strangely enough, our current methods of locking people up with criminals to stop them being criminals isn't really working. Even taking the possibility of indefinite lifespans out of the equation, this insanity needs to be addressed. However, whatever the punishment, preventative measures, or rehabilitation methods, the question remains - how do we deal with the past when the future is infinite?

The problem is complex. Can someone who has committed cold blooded murder ever be trusted again? What if hundreds or even thousands of years have passed? Who knows what this trauma can do to a person, even in the extreme long term. Does it even matter, if they have been rehabilitated?

Then we throw another issue into the mix. Identity is something that even now is losing its meaning. When we can change our faces and official records, it's one thing. When we can change our entire bodies, it will be something else. When we can change our actual minds, our thoughts, memories, personalities, and emotions, then things will get considerably more complicated.

When life extension becomes a reality, we will have many questions to ask. One question that will become increasingly important is: "How important is the past?" We'll all have one, but can enough time turn us into someone else?

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