True Virtual Torture III

And now, the moment all you virtual readers have been waiting for: What would virtual torture, as implemented by the Pentagon, be like? Would it be legal? Would it work?

The imagination boggles, at least at first.

Prisoners and redacted people of all stripes, the "New Disappeared", as it were, would have to be inculcated with a sense of the near-supernatural possibilities of Virtual Torture as part of the orientation process during matriculation at [redacted]. This might include bogus Popular Science articles strategically placed in the numerous waiting rooms that every bureaucracy has to prepare clients, giving them a number, etc. But this would be mere stage dressing, for the real work of convincing clients would be to plant carefully designed clues, half-heard conversations of earlier inductees' inability to resist the awful, and strangely wonderful, power of virtual torture.

Having been suitably softened, the prisoner would be in near panic as the virtual reality goggles and other instruments of obfuscation are arrayed about his body. Then, unexpectedly, perhaps within a multimedia diorama constructed with the help of memory fragments dislodged by earlier interviews, the prisoner finds himself observing himself at a distance, surrounded by trappings worthy of the Arabian Nights. Fear begins to melt away after a time, as the prisoner struggles to reassemble his perceptions within this concocted reality.

This treatment, crafted carefully by highly-paid consultants working under legal immunity in a work-for-freedom program of their own, continues for a predetermined period in this vein. Gradually, the untoward circumstances of their apprehension and detention is allowed to fade away, perhaps discretely helped along with advanced pharmaceuticals. Soon, the prisoner finds himself looking forward to these periods of wish-fulfillment with an earnest fervor.

Unbeknown to prisoner and jailer alike, the whole operation is documented by well-hidden cameras and combined into an entertaining stream for none other than President George W. Bush, for whom the whole operation is a mixture of ultimate miniature railroad and reality TV show. One can imagine our Dubya, bored by the mundane business of state, slipping into the study off the Oval Office at the White House, perhaps fondling the late Saddam's pistol, and avidly watching the activities of his very own prisoners.

Now, if Dubya doesn't like what he sees, he throws the interrogation process into high gear with a call from the highest level. Emerging from behind one of the diaphanous veils at the virtual harem is Tom DeLay, wielding a not-so-metaphorical hammer, virtually striking the helpless prisoner where it counts most, instantly redistricting his brain and rendering further resistance futile. Dubya finds this irresistibly amusing as he turns away, shaking his head and smiling broadly.

Now, unlike the bad old days of stress positions, water boarding, sleep deprivation and the rest, our prisoner has been untouched, except by the gentle hands of laboratory assistants, who may not even know he was a high-value information source. It cannot be demonstrated that the prisoner even experienced pain, even though his will-power has been shattered along with his virtual body-parts.

The remaining problems are simply technical: How is data actually to be mined from the jelly that the prisoner's brain has become? Some hints appear in a recent series in the LA Times, called Chasing Memory. Although Gary Lynch at UC Irvine is still working on microtomed slices of rat brains, one can safely project that it's only a matter of time until non-invasive methods are perfected.

Hopefully, even if it's decades into the War on Terror, mind-bending techniques will have been developed to imprint upon the emptied brains of former maniacal terrorists a completely new identity, so they could be returned to civilian life and become productive wage slaves to really pay their debt to society. A fascinating corollary of malleable-brain work is that any, any personality could be impressed upon cleansed brains, so our former terrorist could be released as a happy-go-lucky but pious kibbutzim, sure to harm no one.