Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1737 Punishment
Many things were originally invented as instruments of torture, but later became medical devices.

For example, treadmills were originally used to punish mortals with hard labor. They were large, interconnected rollers connected to the gears of a mill on the other side.

Later, it was discovered that treadmills allow heart patients to engage in reasonable exercise and can also be used for rehabilitation in sports medicine—after all, if a patient were to run around a track, doctors couldn't constantly follow behind to monitor their speed. But on a treadmill, the speed is essentially constant, because going too fast or too slow would cause them to fall off.

As for the method of dealing with this "fallen angel," Shangluo is unsure whether it was originally intended as a torture device or a medical facility.

Because it has the function of both—by blocking the memory of the "past life," the person being punished can be deprived of immortality and suffer the pain of birth, old age, sickness and death in the cycle of reincarnation, and suffer all kinds of unfulfilled desires.

On the other hand, if someone has suffered a major psychological trauma, then temporarily blocking out that part of their past life might be a good option in order to prevent them from going completely insane.

So if it's really going to be used as a medical procedure, shouldn't it be adjusted?

"Yes, indeed." Shang Luo nodded.

Even in a society inhabited by celestial beings, there are problems inherent to them. Celestial beings not only need medical care, but also discipline.

Because celestial beings only improve their cultivation level, but not their combat power. Just as mortals can have antisocial personality disorder, celestial beings can also have it.

A mortal's madness might at most cause bricks to explode, but a celestial being's madness could cause buildings to explode or even streets to collapse. In fact, ordinary prisons might not be able to contain a celestial being—this is a major problem, because if special materials are needed to restrain their actions, then the rules of society would entirely depend on the celestial being's self-discipline. Because at this stage, it's impossible to make all the materials for streetlights and walls using spiritual objects.

"So, it feels like I've gone back to the Stone Age overnight."

In the Stone Age, due to the underdeveloped state of productivity, the materials used to make items were not much better than the human body. This raises a question:
Restraining a person in the Stone Age wasn't difficult; ropes were sufficient. However, for long-term imprisonment, a cell made of wood and stone was unlikely to truly confine a person. Furthermore, to carry out penal punishment, it was impractical to keep someone bound indefinitely, ultimately requiring a significant manpower for supervision.

Slavery existed in the Stone Age as well, because the conquered, criminals, and those of low social standing in the community were subjected to coercive measures. In that era, the only means of restraining their freedom was human supervision.

If facilities cannot be used and people can only be monitored through surveillance, the cost of law enforcement and the administrative costs of society will suddenly rise to an unacceptable level—because no matter how stable a society is, there will inevitably be criminals.

Even if each offender is monitored individually, each offender would require an additional law enforcement officer. This makes long-term enforcement impossible, as it would likely result in the futile waste of hundreds of thousands of loyal officers on pointless surveillance work, generating no benefit whatsoever.

Therefore, in the Stone Age, and in more advanced eras, when social productivity was insufficient to restrain unsettling elements in large numbers, the means of coercion were not imprisonment, but rather—

exile.

Exile is one of the five punishments, along with flogging, caning, penal servitude, exile, and death.
Flogging is a means of punishing minor offenses. Consider it a form of punishment.

Caning is an extremely severe form of punishment, sometimes causing irreversible physical harm—after all, the cost of imprisonment is too high, so it's better to just give him 20 strokes of the cane. After that, he would lie at home for six months, which is equivalent to locking him up at home.

Leaving aside the death penalty, while imprisonment shares a similar name with current fixed-term imprisonment, it essentially involves performing a period of labor rather than being primarily confined. However, it still requires administrative costs to manage. After all, in ancient times, there were no conditions to build large prisons like those we have today, nor did modern prison management technology exist. Concentrating a group of people in long-term confinement would consume a vast amount of manpower. Therefore, when the crime warranted flogging or caning, but not enough for the death penalty, and imprisonment was too costly to execute—

Exile would then be the best option.

This is a common choice among classical civilizations worldwide—when administrative costs cannot cover the costs of solving the problem, then dealing with the person who caused the problem becomes the efficient option. And exile is an efficient means of dealing with the person who caused the problem.

However, the methods of exile differed between the East and the West.

Ancient Greece also had exile, which could be triggered not only by crime but also by means such as ostracism.

Once exile was triggered, the person was expelled from Greek civil society.

However, in the East, because all land under heaven belongs to the emperor, even exiled criminals were still part of the world—this later exile was more like a modern form of imprisonment, which could imprison a person.

After all, if you want to imprison someone in a place like Jiangnan, you need to build a huge prison to keep them under control. But if they run away, there's food everywhere, so they won't starve.

However, if you're in a harsh, cold, or malaria-ridden place, then running away is perfectly acceptable. Because once you escape, aside from the possibility of your sentence being changed to indefinite, given the natural environment there, it's uncertain whether you'll even survive.

To avoid starving or freezing to death, and to avoid seeing tigers and crocodiles baring their teeth, staying in the exile camp was the safest option.

In such cases, the cost of guarding the exile camps is much lower. Because when prisoners have nowhere else to go, they can simply be given regular work.

"So," Shangluo nodded, "we're actually restoring exile, aren't we?"

In the current context, restoring exile does have its value. To enforce the law, one must either address the issue or the person responsible.

The current environment is the same as in ancient times. When administrative costs become too high to solve the problem, exile can be reinstated to deal with the problem.

And now, there just happens to be a good place for exile—

It's clear we can't just exile people to remote, uncivilized places like before. These aren't ordinary people; they're superhumans, extraordinary beings.

According to the current plan, anyone staying within the territory of Shenzhou will automatically become a Celestial Being, making it extremely difficult to strip them of their power in a natural environment. However, if they were exiled to the borderlands, things would get much more complicated.

(End of this chapter)