] This brings up a first major point: legislators do not ] pass laws in the expectation that everybody who violates ] them will automatically be caught and punished. Rather, ] they often pass new laws in order to send a message -- to ] their voters (that they're doing something about their ] concerns) and to the criminals (that if caught they will ] be dealt with harshly). There is a well-known presumption ] that criminals are acting rationally (in the economic ] sense) and their behaviour is influenced by the perceived ] reward for a successful crime, and both the risk and ] severity of punishment. This theory is implicitly taken ] into account by legislators when they draft legislation, ] because in our current state of affairs most crimes go ] undetected and unreported. A panopticon singularity would ] completely invalidate these assumptions. This article contains little material that ought to be new, although some of the links are nice. I recommend it because I said this exact thing before. People tend to believe you more readily when you can reference someone else who has already said it. The Panopticon Singularity |