2. You meet a man who has killed someone and done time for it before. Does this factor into how you treat him? Will he ever truly escape that sin?
«Yes, of course it does. He is a mech capable of bringing himself to kill another being, and he is a mech who has experienced incarceration; these are not facts which are true of all mechs, and he ought to be treated accordingly. However, I should clarify, since the tone of this question implies judgment: it would “factor into how I treat him,” but that does not necessarily mean I will treat him negatively. It just means that I will account for these facts in my dealings with him, the same way I would account for any other fact I knew about him, from hobbies to prior work experience to beliefs.
«I would, for instance, know not to order him to work with a retired prison warden with a reputation for cruelty to convicts, or assign him to bunk with a friend of the mech he killed. I would know, if he was about to venture into enemy territory with a partner who was a pacifist, and I only had one gun to offer them, if I hand it to him there is a higher likelihood that both of them will survive. To not factor it into how I treat him would be a disservice to him and everyone around him.
«I am not a theologist; I am not qualified to speak about sin. … But neither punishment nor penance undoes a crime once committed.»
