Global Gaming
By 2016 a host of companies have been created with the intention of inventing a working Brain Computer Interface (BCI). In 2024 human trials are started. In 2054 the first voluntary surgery to have a BCI implant was conducted. By 2064 a decade later they are more commonplace. They are commonly called neural links or jacks - though some brand names are also prevalent.
In 2073 the first BCI-required to play, massively-multiplayer online roleplay game (MMORPG) is launched by a games company – a true full deep-dive sensory experience. In 2083 a decade later, the new 3rd generation deep-dive VR MMORPG “Gates of Baraadon” is launched worldwide. It has over 200m players on launch, all using a cybernetic neural link to play. The game is rated R/15+ for violence.
The game is lauded for its cutting-edge sensation and feedback systems which are seen as pushing the boundaries by offering a full range of touch, taste, smell and more.
US Law and Justice
In 2066 US politicians, faced with a public perception of waves of unsolved murders taking place, changed the Constitution and law to allow for in-absentia trials to take place in the case of murder. For a murder trial to take place, the accused no longer needs to be present to face the charges and to defend themselves. The due process of law no longer requires that the defendant be notified of the charges and have an opportunity to be heard. Murder trials can now be conducted with just a judge, with evidence presented only from public prosecutors based on law enforcement testimony alone. A bounty system is established which allows for capture or kill of convicted murderers: dead or alive. US Opinion Polls that year showed an 86% approval rating for these changes.
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In 2068 after years of legal suspension and wrangling, the Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) finally rules on in-absentia murder trials and the bounty system, ruling them legal in a split vote 6 to 3.
In 2073 US politicians vote to strike the “or alive” section from the Constitutional amendment due to jail overcrowding concerns. Bounties will now only be paid out on dead murderers via a confirmatory retinal-brain scan handheld device.
Citizens are encouraged to use appropriate technologies to identify convicted murderers and shoot-on-sight. The net streams are filled with shows which are made which glorify the profession of being a professional bounty hunter. In 2075 research shows that citizen bounty hunters have the highest mortality rate of any US profession ever recorded.
In 2024 murder trials represented a very small number of trials in the US system, around two to five percent, and the entire process, from arrest to verdict, typically took one to two years to convict a defendant who claimed not guilty at trial for murder. By 2070 30% of all US trials were in-absentia murder trials. The average trial length to convict a murderer in-absentia had fallen to 15 minutes.
By 2083 - it was just three minutes - inclusive of the time taken to read out the charges.