| | Thanks for the support, guys. And here is a part that accidentally got left out of the story:
After Princess Praxis requested that the Egals be brought out on stage, she pulled out a long scroll entitled The List of a Thousand Harms, which was actually known more simply as the List of Thousands. Because the super computer was able to ascertain the effects of political policies on real people, it became possible to charge people with crimes even before all of the necessary effects of their actions played out (or when some of the effects went unseen). This dynamic was displayed in the movie, Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise. Just like physicists can calculate with rough certitude how many people will die if an atom bomb is dropped in a populated city, the super computer could perform these same kinds of 100%-certain estimations with things less straightforward and immediate than a thermonuclear blast radius (things as roundabout and delayed as the effects of public policies).
For instance, let's say a politician wanted to raise taxes on some group of people during an economic slowdown -- whether it be the rich, the poor, or the middle class, it does not matter. In cases such as that, the super computer could calculate all of the expected harms from such an unjust decision -- and then categorize the harms into, say, groups of 1000.
Princess Praxis began to read aloud:
According to the super computer's calculations, these are the tallied harmful effects which are more than 99.99% probable, and that also involve more than 1000 people. Egals, I hereby charge you with the following inhumane transgressions:
Count 1:
A thousand working people who unnecessarily died prematurely, because they could only afford 80% of the cost of the medication that would have cured them -- because of the economic slowdown resulting from your policies.
Count 2:
A thousand close relatives (either working or unemployed) of the individuals above, who lost a loved one due to your policies.
Count 3:
A thousand people who were unnecessarily put out of work at a precise time and position in their lives where it was not possible to regain work, thereby placing them into the care of others -- with the resulting loss of their dignity and happiness.
Count 4:
A thousand working people who died prematurely due to heart disease, precisely because they could not afford to eat right -- precisely because of your policies.
Count 5-39:
[34 separate cases just like above (e.g., cancer, diabetes, etc), in each of which there were at least another 1000 working people who died prematurely, due to not being able to afford good food -- because of the inescapable effects of poor public policies.]
Count 40:
A thousand working people who got behind on loans and experienced a loss of credit so severe it affected their lives for at least 10 years, because of not being able to plan for all of the negative and harmful effects of your policies.
Count 41:
A thousand working artists who will never be heard or seen, because they do not have the capital required to reach an audience -- for no other reason than because of the effects of your policies.
Count 42:
A thousand high school graduates who could not afford college due to your policies.
Count 43:
A thousand middle-school children who could not engage in their favorite sports because of not being able to meet the cost of the needed equipment, directly because of your policies.
Count 44-900:
[The list goes on to explain the unnecessary harms -- harms of choice, not of necessity -- which were brought upon 900,000 people; all of which were "shared harms" where at least 1000 people experienced them. The reason for this is to achieve empirical certitude.**]
Ed
**The super computer might not be able to predict with absolute certainty the precise number of individuals harmed -- but would definitely be able to predict with complete certitude whether the number would be higher than 1000 (just like physicists can do when calculating the expected devastation of an atom bomb). For instance, if a neutron bomb were dropped in the middle of a remote island with an area of 1 square mile, and the island was evenly populated with 900 people -- a physicist might not be able to tell you the precise number of people who will die, but he will be able to tell you with absolute certainty whether the number of dead will be greater than 5.
(Edited by Ed Thompson on 12/17, 9:23pm)
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