# Could prisoners serve 1,000 year virtual sentences in 8 hours in the future? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 6, 2022, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762 "2022-06-06T17:35:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/21 "2022-06-07T16:10:10Z")
There’s also the fact that if we had the technology to make a person’s consciousness perceive 1000 years in a mere 8 hours in the real world, then everyone would always be using that technology for everything. The only way sentences would go quicker than free life would be if, for some reason, society decided that prisoners deserved the expenditure of extra resources for overclocking. But everyone would want overclocking, which would make prison a reward, rather than a punishment. Far more likely that prisoners would be condemned to underclocking, to spare resources for free people. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/22 "2022-06-07T16:30:30Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > I think there’s an interesting story if there was a choice between virtual prison or real prison. (assume the virtual prison is the same, mostly boring, experience of real prison). On one hand, with virtual you know you’re completely safe and you get the rest of your life back when you’re done. On the other, you have no contact with the real world, meaning experience years without any contact with your family, no chance to appeal the sentence, etc. Agreed, there are a ton of sci-fi stories that explore these sorts of options as ways to examine our assumptions about what we want the roles of prisons to be. Years ago, I watched Demolition Man, and said to myself that this makes limited sense - you’ve taken your offenders, and imprisoned them in a way that utterly separates them from anything that could stabilize them, increasing their disconnect from the society, but have in no other way either punished them or reduced their ability to commit new crimes (although I find the instilling useful skills for a new life while in cryo to be a fun twist). After this musing, I had what I felt was an ‘improved’ version (still _damn_ dystopian) that may well show up in other works. My plan is that you give criminals the option of a normal sentence, or a 2/3 sentence in a medically induced coma. From one POV, hey, you do your time in a heartbeat, so super easy, especially since it’s shorter anyway. From the POV of a profit / loss, it’s probably easier (if you have the tech) to have a few hundred quasi-corpses being watched by a rental cop without worrying about break outs, visiting, meals, etc. And they’re still removed from being any threat to society while serving their time, and they aren’t ‘keeping’ that time the way the cryo option would have. But it is, like the OPs option, or the cryo option, unlikely in the extreme to give the felons any reason to try to re-integrate into a society that is now alien to them after a period of time separated, and leaving the only people who understand what they’ve been through their own fellow felons. If anything, that separation feels like it would increase the chances of new criminal acts for anything but the shortest (say sub 1 year) of sentences in the cryo/coma options. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/23 "2022-06-10T06:14:26Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Imagine having the technology needed to learn so many skills in a thousand years. How good a piano player could you become, or a poet, or an architect? This would only really be feasible for skills that don’t have a physical component like poetry or architecture. Sure, you would have the sight reading skills and muscle memory to be a concert pianist, but you would not have had the physical practice to have the real dexterity. The same as if you were a virtual top ranked virtual Krav Maga fighter getting your teeth kicked in by a second rank with real life training. Or being a bass guitar player with no calluses built up with years of experience. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/24 "2022-06-10T06:22:56Z")
The saddest thing about this entire story is the profound lack of imagination that can only ever envision a technology such as this used as a torture instrument. Like, why if we had a technology like this, could we not use it so that mathematicians could retreat deeply inwards and spend 1000 hours proving some important theory overnight, or for investigative journalists to dive into a tranche of newly leaked financial documents and report the next day on financial malfeasance performed by the rich and powerful? Instead, nope, the vision of the future in this authors mind is that such technology would be best suited towards torturing prisoners. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/25 "2022-06-10T15:51:47Z")
If I spent a thousand years practicing kung fu in a virtual environment, my doughy body wouldn’t be able to utilize the skills I learned. But imagine a real-world master who sustains a grievous injury and spends several years in recovery. When they go back to training, they’re going to bounce back pretty quickly, and **much** more quickly than a total novice. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/26 "2022-06-10T17:56:08Z")
Why does this magic technology specifically take 8 hours? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/27 "2022-06-10T18:44:10Z")
I think the hypothetical is that a judge issues the sentence today, and you have finished it by the next morning. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/28 "2022-06-11T13:39:37Z")
This is actually an interesting idea that might merit a separate thread, or a SF story. You could use such technology to do say a week of boring work in the virtual environment (scanning documents, programming) in 1 hour real time, and have the rest of the week off as leisure time. Effectively having much more leisure while still being productive. But I guess the potential use as a torture instrument makes such technology rather undesirable. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/29 "2022-06-11T14:05:32Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Why does this magic technology specifically take 8 hours? - No one wants to pay overtime. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/30 "2022-06-11T14:54:50Z")
> [@Tusculan](#): > > You could use such technology to do say a week of boring work in the virtual environment (scanning documents, programming) in 1 hour real time, and have the rest of the week off as leisure time. Effectively having much more leisure while still being productive. And why not spend your leisure time in the virtual environment, too? ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/31 "2022-06-11T15:05:33Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Why does this magic technology specifically take 8 hours? Not 8, 8._5_. You obviously couldn’t do it in 8. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/32 "2022-06-11T15:15:26Z")
Sounds like the plot to Harry Harrison’s _The Technicolor Time Machine_. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/33 "2022-06-11T15:53:49Z")
At least they didn’t suggest 1000 years of daily virtual executions. Not Orson Scott Card fans I guess. > **[A Thousand Deaths (Card short story)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thousand_Deaths_(Card_short_story))** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > "A Thousand Deaths" is a short story by American writer Orson Scott Card. It appears in his short story collections Capitol and Maps in a Mirror. Card first published it in the December 1978 issue of Omni magazine. > In a future where the USSR has occupied America, playwright Jerry Crove is found guilty of knowing about the planned assassination of a Russian high official and not reporting it to the authorities. After he is convicted of this crime... A 1000 year sentence is purely punitive. If you can stick someone in an accelerated virtual reality (AVR) why not just give them a normal length sentence and use the AVR for cheaper and more intensive rehabilitation work? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/34 "2022-06-11T16:45:14Z")
As well as the authorities IIRC, except in those, you were just unconscious and basically woke up to an entirely different future. Kovacs himself had been sentenced to several of those sentences- his objective age was 41, but the actual time since he was born was upwards of 100 years. IIRC the _Gateway_ series had something similar in the later novels- people were sentenced as virtual beings; the upshot being that even if your physical body died, they’d just upload you and you’d continue your sentence. I would think that sentencing would have to be reasonable; a 1000 year sentence would be absurd for nearly anything. And I’d think at least in the US, a cruel and unusual punishment debate would ensue- especially around incorrigibles and extreme offenders like mass-murderers and child molesters, etc… Is it more cruel or unusual to let them serve out a huge sentence virtually and turn them loose, or just execute them? What is the length of sentence that’s cruel and/or unusual? And so on. > [@ParallelLines](#): > > But it is, like the OPs option, or the cryo option, unlikely in the extreme to give the felons any reason to try to re-integrate into a society that is now alien to them after a period of time separated, and leaving the only people who understand what they’ve been through their own fellow felons. If anything, that separation feels like it would increase the chances of new criminal acts for anything but the shortest (say sub 1 year) of sentences in the cryo/coma options. Beyond that, it seems to be so… disproportionate. I mean, other than to be cruel, what’s the difference and point between virtually incarcerating someone for 100 years vs.1000? Everyone anyone knows is likely to be dead after 100 years (maybe someone’s newborn is a centenarian when you get out), so that aspect of life is going to be the same. Culture shock will be even worse the longer you’re out. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/35 "2022-06-13T16:16:28Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > This would only really be feasible for skills that don’t have a physical component like poetry or architecture. Sure, you would have the sight reading skills and muscle memory to be a concert pianist, but you would not have had the physical practice to have the real dexterity. I think that would still be a significant headstart though. Dexterity seems like it would not be so hard to hone if you already have the other parts in place, as it would be if you have to develop them all together. I don’t think there’s any reason to imagine that a holistic approach is necessarily better - why would it be? ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/36 "2022-06-13T23:41:45Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I don’t think there’s any reason to imagine that a holistic approach is necessarily better - why would it be? Dexterity might be one of the easier to develop physical skills. But agility, strength, endurance, and the ability to take a punch do take years. Been there, done that. You would also have to deal with the mental dissonance of having a black-belt mind in a Pillsbury Dough Boy body. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/37 "2022-06-14T07:38:59Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > You would also have to deal with the mental dissonance of having a black-belt mind in a Pillsbury Dough Boy body. I mean, that’s me every day, except not black belt ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762/38 "2022-06-14T14:26:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And why not spend your leisure time in the virtual environment, too? I’d go for virtual leisure time interspersed with seemingly infrequent weeks of boring “real work” to do in order to earn your 6 months of virtual vacation to a tropical wonderland. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-prisoners-serve-1-000-year-virtual-sentences-in-8-hours-in-the-future/965762.md?page=1)