Scott Adams's post today reminded me: I was supposed to blog about free will a while back and completely forgot. Thhbbbppppt. Now it's almost not timely any more, because the Economist article that triggered these thoughts is two weeks old, but since the free will debate has been waging for at least two thousand years, hey, what the hell.
Anyway. The Economist went crazy in its holiday issue, and it seems the NYT has gone the same way today. Gist of the article: guy has tumour in his brain that makes him a pedophile. Remove the tumour, and he isn't interested in kids any more. Ergo there is no free will. Therefore, he isn't responsible for his actions and should not be punished.
Dear lunatics at The Economist: are you hypothesising some kind of floating, supernatural "free will" independent of our brain chemistry that decides stuff for us, and then proving it doesn't exist? Big fat congratulations to you, NOT.
Look, we have brains. Brains make our choices based on whatever hormone happens to be going on a kick at the moment. End of story. How does this change the way we look at criminals and punishment? Just because someone's brain "compelled" them to commit a crime, doesn't make them any less dangerous!
What needs to be done in the tumour case is: prove beyond reasonable doubt that the tumour is the sole cause of the behaviour. Remove it. Make half-yearly brain scans mandatory for the guy to ensure returning tumours are promptly removed - if he doesn't show up for scans, he goes to jail. For other criminals whose cranial causes of criminalism aren't so clear cut or easily removable, sorry, but we gotta keep society safe from you. How about we provide room and board while we try to condition your brain to behave, by strongly disincentivising bad behaviour? Coz it's a miracle organ, that brain. It can be trained.
We've accepted for centuries that the purpose of legal punishment is not retribution or revenge, but rehabilitation and restitution. (This is why the death penalty SUCKS.) The "absence" of free will changes nothing.
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