If there was a machine that could see into the future

cheesemonkey · #1 05-03-2008, 05:55 PM

If there was a machine that allowed us to witness crimes that would happen in the near future and allow us to prevent them from happening. Should the people who were going to commit the crime go to jail? I wondered this as a thought of the movie Minority Report. I mean they were going to commit a crime but because of this machine they didn't. what are yalls thoughts?

peterbright · #2 05-03-2008, 06:57 PM

Happynoj · #3 05-03-2008, 09:00 PM

No.

Think about it like this -

If someone is going to commit a crime, and you can look into the future and see it, and then you arrest them and put them in prison, you have prevented the crime.

But that person has not yet committed a crime, and in fact would never have committed a crime - as they would be in prison. So if you put them in prison before they committed the crime, then you would see them in the future in prison, not committing the crime.

So you are imprisoning someone for a crime that they could NEVER have committed.

Unless the machine shows possible futures, but that would be ridiculous - anything is possible, and potentially anyone could commit any crime - you would have to keep track of all of everyone's possible futures. Not going to work.

ehque · #4 05-04-2008, 12:47 AM

Well, we arrest terrorists for planning to blow up stuff, using technology that "looks into the future" like intelligence and all that. So i say it's already happened.

If something like this would be built, i'd stop crime at the last minute. Clearly i have all knowledge of the time and location of the crime, so i could just hop in in the last minute and stop it. there should be no plea of innocence then, considering intent and action were present.

tplyons · #5 05-04-2008, 12:56 AM

Don't know where we're talking, but the American mantra of innocent until proven guilty prevents it from ever working. They couldn't possibly prove your guilt because the crime never happened. It never will work.

canopener · #6 05-04-2008, 12:59 AM

Vegas would be out of business if there were such a machine.

thefruitfarmer · #7 05-04-2008, 12:59 AM

Thoughtcrime?

I would much rather use your machine to know which horse to back!!

sublime0bass · #8 05-04-2008, 01:07 AM

god i hate tom cruise

although, in relevance to the thread, motivation is everything. assuming the machine told the truth, it knew WHY you wanted to do "it", and thats really all that matters

ehque · #9 05-04-2008, 01:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tplyons

Don't know where we're talking, but the American mantra of innocent until proven guilty prevents it from ever working. They couldn't possibly prove your guilt because the crime never happened. It never will work.

Innocent until proven guilty only works if you're looking to jail the guy. "We're holding you for further questioning, and your trial is slated to begin in the year 2152." is the way it works for people of "extraordinary danger".

ahkiatt · #10 05-04-2008, 09:26 AM

Well, the police could hide in ambush until the crime is committed, and then nab the culprit in the act.

Then again, if it doesn't work 100% of the time, the police would be sued time and time again for invasion of privacy.

Spector_Ray · #11 05-04-2008, 09:30 AM

What if we could build a machine the would prevent people from posting stupid topics...

Man, talkbass would be empty.

Peaved · #12 05-04-2008, 09:38 AM

I'm certain that Google is already working on such a machine.

Happynoj · #13 05-04-2008, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahkiatt

Well, the police could hide in ambush until the crime is committed, and then nab the culprit in the act.

Then again, if it doesn't work 100% of the time, the police would be sued time and time again for invasion of privacy.

...and if the police didn't manage to prevent the crime they would be up for some serious criticism. Just imagine the headlines:

Police fail to catch crook even though they knew exactly when and where he was going to be!

Techmonkey · #14 05-04-2008, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peaved

I'm certain that Google is already working on such a machine.

aha! so I'm not the only person that's suspecting Google's impending taking over of the world.

Lalabadie · #15 05-04-2008, 06:36 PM

So it would predict crimes, but would it predict what happened when people learned of the crimes they would commit before they did?

The earth is not flat. But I think timespace should be

gold_member_321 · #16 05-04-2008, 09:16 PM

screw catching criminals...how about the 2009 superbowl scores!?