according to Prison Policy InstituteThe United States has a higher rate of incarceration per 100,000 people than any other NATO country, and it is higher than the next five member states (the United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, France, and Belgium) combined.
So what is the solution? Hashem Al-Ghaili, a molecular biologist and science communicator from Yemen, claims to have achieved this in an interview. Wired: build a virtual prison instead. It’s not talking about sticking a bunch of Meta Quest 3’s heads in the heads of prisoners for years, but it’s also not too far from that concept.
Al-Ghaili proposes a new neurological prison system he calls Cognify. He posted a video of the proposal of the virtual justice system on his page Instagram and YouTube channel and it looks absolutely terrible.
How Cognify works in a nutshell — instead of incarcerating prisoners for long periods of time, prisoners in a virtual environment will be exposed to artificial memories. The system creates personalized AI-generated content that is converted into visual information and delivered to the inmate’s brain, as well as transferred to parts of their DNA and RNA associated with memory formation to create a long-term memory pattern.
Currently, no such technology exists, and Cognify is just one suggestion. However, Al-Ghaili argues that animal experiments prove that this process could work on humans sometime in the future. For example, a study published in a scientific journal in March Nature In March, researchers using mice as test subjects discovered that memories are formed from broken and repaired strands of DNA.
Of course, there are ethical implications and implications that must be addressed in order for such a system to become a reality. Al-Ghaili says Cognify could happen within a decade, but only if “we can overcome the ethical constraints that limit the testing of such technology.”
If that doesn’t send a shiver down your spine, check your wrist for a pulse. Horror anthology fans like myself will remember an episode from the 1990s reboot External borders It’s called “The Sentence,” in which a scientist played by David Hyde Pierce on Showtime invents a very similar virtual prison system that simulates an entire life sentence in a matter of minutes. He is of course subject to his own invention, which convinces himself that he has committed murder and is in prison for the rest of his life. He wakes up only to begin decrying the very system he defended moments ago.
You can see everything on YouTube for free. Someone should send this guy.
