Digital Prison
Given to the Machine
Just a fish, a mysterious fish
Jul 06, 2025
The digital prison system enabled the humane interment of any and all criminals. A recent invention, this electro-ball contained a hundred terabyte capacity and could store the full human population twice over. It was lauded by prisoner welfare activists worldwide as a solution to the cruel conditions of previous penal institutions—overcrowding and rampant corruption—and gained the begrudging approval of the lobbyist interest groups infesting and festering within the government.
A prisoner was tried and convicted, and his essence was uploaded to the machine. The deterioration of health and time of the prisoner was of no consequence, as he served his round in the non-existent existence within the bowels of the machine. Centuries or decades were irrelevant, as time did not pass there as it did for the rest, allowing the prisoner to complete their sentence at the same age they were given to the machine.
The criminal’s punishment was the changing world. With every passing year, their loved ones grew older and neared death. With every passing decade, their previous lives became antiquated. With every passing century, an empire fell or one sprouted. Emerging with their health intact, they were nevertheless subjected to the ebbs and flows of the currents of time and brought into a world utterly unfamiliar and strange to them.
The seamless sentencing unshackled the restraints of the world powers. With a safe electro haven for the world’s prisoners, the checks and balances diminished in the presence of accommodations of the machine. Full-on campaigns were unleashed against political dissidents and naysayers, in safe and sterile purges reminiscent of Stalinist pogroms.
Not a single man, woman, or child was safe from the sweeping sentencing occurring in all sectors of life. No one was spared the dictates of madmen, acting on deranged whims. Inputting thousands was of no moral strain on the powerful or the powerless, for no harm was ever to be received by the electric prisoners. Disappearances went unnoticed as the abuses grew rampant.
Ignorance, as always, reigned.
One man was spared this ordeal, for he was the creator of the prison ball, and his popularity made him more famous than leaders of men.
He had created this techno-storage in hopes of alleviating the plight of those trapped in prison complexes. In hopes of offering expedited terms, from the perception of the prisoner, the ones stored in the machine were awoken from their dreamless slumber shortly after they closed their eyes.
But the receptacle had come to be the home of the void for millions. The guilty and the innocent were lumped together in the electro-guts of the machine.
Man, blind and power-seeking—blind to their power-seeking—in fully hypocritical accolades praised the creator and pleaded with him to accept the honors they conferred upon him.
The creator was invited to a ceremony and was expected, in enthusiasm, to deliver a speech worthy of his achievements.
He arrived, dressed shabbily—unbecoming of his stature—and accepted what he was rewarded.
He left without a word, to the bewilderment of the guests, abandoning his car and possessions to undertake a journey on foot to where he knew not. He departed into the night.
The night was stifling, the mosquitoes ravenous. Step after step, mile after mile took their toll. Minutes seemed like hours, and hours like days.
The sun arose, as it always had, and bathed the countryside in its light. The cool morning turned into midday, and the heat bore down on the creator. Dehydrated and disoriented, he collapsed.
He was spared death when a man reported his collapsed body to the local authorities, who sent an ambulance to revive him.
The darkness was overwhelming, but peaceful. It was silent for so long.
But the darkness dissipated as the creator opened his eyes. He looked around to find the sterile, clean surroundings of a hospital room. He noticed the IV needle in his arm. No one was around, for he was in stable condition.
He ripped out the IV, and in his hospital gown walked out of that clinic and resumed his journey.
The creator finally arrived at a small town, where he quickly found work as a dishwasher. He worked with others from that small town, in obscurity. They knew not of him or his exploits in the academic field, and this was what the creator desired.
He toiled during the day; the nights were spent half sleeping and half reading in a rented, small upper room.
This was his life until he saved enough money to buy out the rooms below him, which provided him with the space to open a small used bookstore.
Not much time on that Earth was allotted him, and he was soon found dead—for he lived alone—with a copy of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days clutched in his hand.
He died as he lived, in quiet solemnity.
He passed in total anonymity.
A Human perspective on the Trinity
“I want to emphasize that God and Christ are the same, because their
unity of will. If there is not subordination, then there is no less
in this relation, because there is equality. Again, God and Christ
are the same.”
Obviously i am reading about the trinity. Now, I want to discuss
something i see as practical, and not necessarily - not in this
discussion - divine.
In regards to the death of Christ, I have always wondered about
the significance of this act. I understand the transmission of sins
onto something other than us - like animals in the old testament or
Christ in the new - and the subsequent propitiation there of. Now, in
practical terms I can come to understand this, compared to what God
might understand or desire from this. I realize the bible speaks of
this, but having read the bible multiple times and still being
confused, reading the bible was of no avail. Thus, in practical
terms, humans willingly sinning demands God's wrath. But, this wrath
is re directed from us onto something else. It is like saying "I
have sinned, and so I deserve to be punished. But instead of me
receiving this fate, take your fury on something else, like this
animal." This is in regards to the old testament. In connection
with the new, Christ and his sacrifice does the work for this animal.
It is as if Christ's sacrifice calls Gods attention, saying "Look!
These men and women sin, but I am willing to die for them, on their
behalf, as a sin offering. I am willing to get punished in their
place, so your wrath maybe satiated." In this sense, Christ was
a martyr, but made distinct from other martyr because he was God. In
fact, I think Augustine overlooks this point, because i have not yet
read that Christ died as a martyr, as a human martyr, but offered
distinction because he died as God. He died the martyr's death,
similar to human martyrs, but set apart because he died as God. Its
all strange o consider, and perhaps inconsequential, but there is a
human aspect to all of this, set apart from divinity - maybe, since
separating divinity from Christ is hard, even with the hypostatic
union of man and God - but necessary for me to understand.
Next, what does it mean Jesus was the word of God? Likewise, can
we achieve this state? I ask the latter because it is from my point
of view i consider things. If i judge correctly, and I believe I do
since the holy spirit works in me, then my thinking is in line with
the bible. Look at this quote from the book the theological
epistemology of augustine's de trinitate -
"Then, with regard to Christ’s mediatorial role and his
sacrifice, we have seen that the Incarnation is not simply the union
of divine and human nature, but the act through which the Son of God
unites human nature to himself and leads it to participate in his
personal unity of will with the Father."
Christ is one with the Father for having participated in His will.
So to do the will of God, at such a singular, granular level is unity
with God. Now, in human terms, is this something that can be
achieved? And if so, what exactly does it confer? In regards to my
first question, i think it can be achieved by man, this unity amongst
man by doing one's will, and as for the latter, it is wrongly asked.
Instead of asking what is conferred - like unity - the question
should rather be : "What does doing the will of God or of man,
at a singular, all encompassing level, ENTAIL?"
In terms of man carrying out of this will, perhaps the status is
given to name distinguish this relation. It can be said of man that
his is like the man he is carrying out the will for. No further
distinction can be given then one of subordination. This relation
cannot be characterized by equality between the persons, because one
is taking a lesser role by not exerting his will, but anothers. In
terms of Christ, however, this is not the case as Christ is not
unequal to God. Therefore, if no inequality, then there is no
subordination. The distinction lies in the same - ness of coinciding
will, or that the will is the absolute same for God and Christ at one
moment to the next, for all eternity. This to me, implies, rather
directly, that God and Christ are one, as so it ca be said Christ as
man, in complete alignment of will, is one with God. Further, this
cannot be replicated by man, for the act of being made less is always
present in the face of another man. One can never completely match
another's will so perfectly, for then this person would be the same
as the other person. But Christ can, because whether man or God on
earth, this total unity entails divinity. Man cannot hope to reach
this state, but nevertheless takes his delegated role in this trinity
by the grace of God, as again quoted in the book the theological
epistemology of augustine's de trinitate -
"Scripture reveals the characteristics of God’s act of
salvific self-manifestation, which Augustine envisages from the
viewpoint of the divine attributes of invisibility and immutability
(also attested in Scripture).72 The Trinitarian shape of the doctrine
of revelation follows from these attributes which require that only
from his own side can the invisible and immutable God make himself
known: since God is invisible, that is unknowable, no one can know
him unless he reveals himself through Christ in the Holy Spirit;
since God is immutable, the act through which he comes towards us is
always a grace, is always free, is always the consequence of his name
of misericordia."
I don’t know if I captured anything from a human point of view
with this writing, but I think the distinctions are need to bring
something divine down to human understanding. For, truth is true no
matter the direction, be it up or down, left or right.