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by Prison Policy Research InstituteThe US has a higher incarceration rate per 100,000 people than any other NATO country and even higher than the next five member states combined (the UK, Portugal, Canada, France and Belgium).
So what’s the solution? In an interview, Hashem Al-Ghaily, a molecular biologist and science communicator from Yemen, claims to have found the answer. Wired: Build a virtual prison instead. He’s not talking about stapling copious amounts of Meta Quest 3 to prisoners’ heads for years, but he’s not that far off from the concept.
Al Ghairy is proposing a new neuroprison system that he calls Cognify, and he posted a video of his proposed virtual justice system on his blog. Instagram and YouTube Channel And it looks downright terrifying.
In simple terms, the theory behind Cognify is that instead of locking prisoners up for long periods of time, they are given the opportunity to experience artificial memories in a virtual environment. The system creates customized AI-generated content, converts it into visual information and sends it to the prisoner’s brain, along with the parts of DNA and RNA involved in memory formation, to establish long-term memory patterns.
Currently, no such technology exists and Cognify is merely a proposal, but Al-Ghaily claims that animal studies have proven the process could one day work in humans. For example, a study published in March in the journal Science found that: Nature A study in mice in March found that memories may be formed by cutting and repairing DNA.
Of course, there are ethical implications and ramifications that would need to be addressed if such a system were to become a reality, and Al-Ghaily says Cognify could be here within the decade, “if we can overcome the ethical constraints that limit testing of such technology.”
If that doesn’t send shivers down your spine, check your wrist for a pulse. Horror anthology fans like me will remember this episode from the 1990s reboot. The Outer Limits There’s a show on Showtime called “The Sentence” in which a scientist played by David Hyde Pierce invents a very similar virtual prison system that simulates a life sentence in a matter of minutes. Of course, he throws himself into his own invention that makes him believe he committed murder and is serving a life sentence. He wakes up and starts decrying the very system that he was supporting just minutes before.
You can see Watch the whole thing on YouTube For free. Someone please send it to this person.