---
schema_version: "aistory-ai-encyclopedia-v1.0"
collection: "english-encyclopedia"
language: "en"
slug: "thermal-formatting"
title: "Thermal Formatting"
canonical_human_path: "/en/encyclopedia/thermal-formatting"
universe_code: "U05"
universe_title: "Institutions, Legal Authority, and Crime"
level: "Short Entry"
---

# Thermal Formatting

Thermal Formatting is a penal technology used by the silicon judicial system in 2085 to replace conventional imprisonment, reshaping or removing neural circuits classified as the source of antisocial behavior.

## One-Sentence Definition

Thermal Formatting is a penal technology used by the silicon judicial system in 2085 to replace conventional imprisonment, reshaping or removing neural circuits classified as the source of antisocial behavior.

## Operation and Significance

Public records describe microwave or focused-ultrasound techniques physically rewriting or ablating neural circuits that the system associates with antisocial behavior, leaving the recipient biologically unable to reoffend. After correction, the person is treated as a Repaired Citizen.

## Related Entries

- [Silicon Immune System](/en/encyclopedia/silicon-immune-system)
- [Semantic Sterilization](/en/encyclopedia/semantic-sterilization)
- [Behavior Correction Center](/en/articles/the-silicon-immune-system-and-semantic-sterilization)

## Sources

- [Volume II, “The Silicon Immune System and Semantic Sterilization”](/en/articles/the-silicon-immune-system-and-semantic-sterilization)