Quote Originally Posted by ThisYouWillDo View Post
Thorne: OK ...

But those "virtual" punishments ...!?? Wouldn't they have the effect of turning the criminal into a gibbering idiot? In what way would this not be cruel and unusual too?
Yeah. Exactly. It rests on the assumption that only real pain, (ie pain transferred from the physical body) can count as torture. But if we simulate it, we transfer the same torture to the brain, which is what counts. The sum of the effects from pain transferred to the brain is what torture is. So it would be exactly as inhumane. At least as far as the pain is concerned.