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Instead of locking people away, give criminals AR headsets that put them in a kind of safe mode. They’d still live in the real world but with restricted freedoms until their sentence is served. Could be cheaper, more humane, and better for rehabilitation than traditional prisons.

Comments (9)

Bender · 2h ago

They will not cooperate. Ankle trackers mostly work because the general public does not see them. Some of your coworkers could be wearing them and you would not know. AR will be obvious and they would just accept being a criminal is the only viable path.

Meta would probably also lobby against this as it would associate anyone using AR with being felons. People would start actively looking for the glasses. This could lead to violence or at very least Wifi and Bluetooth jammers becoming socially acceptable regardless of legality.

I could however see a middle ground. Put them in a pod (The Matrix) that uses AR and some form of mind / muscle stimulation to keep them from going crazy. It would be something like the show Altered Carbon or The Matrix except that they would be mostly conscious. They could live in virtual worlds that help them function in society and learn new skills. When they revert to violence no real people get hurt. Or if they choose, they could just keep hurting people in the virtual world and that would be fine. They could be utilized later when required for war. Their combat skills could be greatly enhanced. The system could determine when they may be safe to release. We might be in a pod right now.

uberman · 2h ago

How would this safe mode work? Are you suggesting that the glasses be permanently affixed or able to deliver some kind of punishment if they detected bad behavior?

Sounds like something out of Black Mirror to me.

amichail · 2h ago

Tampering with the glasses could lengthen a criminal's sentence.

An electric shock could be delivered to stop crimes from occurring.

CamperBob2 · 1h ago

Anthony Burgess had some ideas along these lines, as I recall.

JohnFen · 2h ago

Is that really much different/better than ankle monitors? What's the point of the AR? What is gained by not allowing them to see actual reality?

amichail · 2h ago

It would allow more freedom of movement and more intelligent application of restrictions (and not just location-based restrictions).

The headset could give real-time advice to the criminal via AR to discourage bad behavior.

It can also prevent crimes from occurring by delivering electric shocks and calling the police.

JohnFen · 2h ago

> more intelligent application of restrictions

How so? I think I'm not understanding the proposition.

> It can also prevent crimes from occurring by delivering electric shocks and calling the police.

So could ankle monitors.

amichail · 2h ago

It could restrict certain behaviors such as drinking alcohol regardless of location.

It could automatically detect bad/criminal behavior that is about to occur and react accordingly.

Ankle monitors can't do that.

quantified · 57m ago

You're not talking about AR in the sense that the wearer is experiencing additional inputs.

You're talking about monitoring them and their surroundings. Pure police state infiltration of their environment.