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Oddly enough I was thinking about this very thing today. IN a society, laws are established to invoke precision, but people tend to operate on generalities. For
by seanalltogether 15y ago
Oddly enough I was thinking about this very thing today. IN a society, laws are established to invoke precision, but people tend to operate on generalities. For example, speed limits on roads have to be a precise number so that there is an established standard, and in general a cop won't pull you over for doing 37 mph in a 35 zone. However they technically can throw the book at you if they want due to the precision of the law.
I don't know how this can be fixed though. At the moment we have to rely on judges to save us from the precision of the law, and we all know that judges can be just as corrupt/resentful/bored/petty as the rest of us.
- shabble 15y agoA good test might be, "if every single person obeyed this law strictly as it is written, would society still operate the way we intend?" (c.f. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Work-to-rule https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Work-to-rule )
- jackpirate 15y agoI think that is not true in general. Consider, for example, the charge of reckless driving. I think (although have no data) that there are probably more laws requiring human judgment than are based on strictly numerical criteria. Off the top of my head, the various degrees of murder, perjury, hate crimes, divorce settlements, and probate court. These all may have very specific criteria to meet them, but there is no way an algorithm could determine innocence or guilt. The only numerical laws I can think of are speed limits and the lines between grand theft / theft.