From Mohammad Mehdi Daneshi
Supposing that the concept of guilt is made obsolete by hard-wired brain functions, Bill Foster proposes that the purpose of judicial punishment is either deterrence or retribution (6 November, p 28). I think there is a third possibility.
If we humans are just very complex robots without genuine free will, we can punish and reward in order to correct or maintain certain behaviours. When a robot malfunctions the engineers will try to find the fault and correct it. If our human robot malfunctions, it is quite proper to take steps to correct him or her.
If putting someone in prison for the malfunction of having committed a crime will correct their behaviour, it should be done for their own sake and for the sake of society. Similarly, good behaviour in a human robot should be rewarded. Thus, we can bypass the idea of punishment as retribution.
Tehran, Iran
