In Technic civilization, information is extracted from prisoners either by telepathy or by hypnoprobe. Lacking these means of interrogation, Dominic Flandry once uses sensory deprivation - which I regard as psychological torture and a Bad Thing.
Time Patrolmen and their enemies, the Exaltationists, extract information with a helmet called a "kyradex" that obliges its wearer to answer truthfully.
This relatively benign aspect of the Technic civilization and Time Patrol universes contrasts sharply with two other series that we have compared with Poul Anderson's works:
as a matter of policy, SM Stirling's Draka punish serf rebellions with public impalements;
everyone knows what James Bond is put through, e.g., in Casino Royale and Dr No.
Fleming's emphasis on torture definitely differentiates his James Bond series from Anderson's Dominic Flandry series.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And Dominic Flandry refused to use the crude methods torture inflicted on James Bond because they were unreliable and there would be no guarantee the victim had not lied or, more cleverly, told a misleading part of the truth.
I fear we have to disagree about sensory deprivation. I think, given the qualifiers outlined in my "Sensory Deprivation" article, that it can be sometimes be legitimately used on a prisoner unwilling to cooperate in being interrogated. If a prisoner is reasonably likely to know valuable information and the need is critical or even dire, sensory deprivation can be used. Next, sensory deprivation can be used only as long as it takes to induce the prisoner to cooperate.
Sean
Note that real lie detectors (that didn't compel speech) would make torture more valuable. The big problem with using torture is that you don't know if the prisoner is telling the truth.
This is one reason it's more widely used if the answers can be checked -- "where is the bomb?" sort of things.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
That was GRIMLY interesting, that real, workable lie detectors makes torture usable! But I'm not happy with using crudely physical torture even in dire situations where a captured terrorist knows where a nuclear bomb was hidden in a city. If at all possible, I would prefer to use only sensory deprivation on a prisoner unwilling to cooperate with being interrogated.
It's grim to think that people like your Draka and Shadowspawn would have no hesitation to use the cruelest of tortures while their enemies agonize over the issue.
Sean
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