From: Chris Russo (extropy@russo.org)
Date: Tue Nov 28 2000 - 08:29:34 MST
>Sigh. Broken record. Okay, let's try this one more time.
Sorry, I haven't been here very long and was just chiming in. I'm
willing to play, though. :)
>If... an... industry... cannot... stay... afloat... without... the...
>government... propping... them... up... does... it... deserve... to...
>continue... existing?
No, unless the industry is of vital importance to protecting the
lives (and property rights) of the citizens of the country, like the
military.
>If... a... "right"... is... unenforceable... is... it... a... natural...
>right?
Unenforceable? Copyrights aren't unenforceable. They're difficult
to enforce, but they aren't "unenforceable". Have we switched
subjects here?
Another approach:
You have a societally agreed upon right to live: agreed?
We may discover a deadly poison that takes effect one month after
skin contact. Since this is an extropians list: imagine a nanobot
that would burrow into your skin and then lie dormant for one month.
After that month, it would release some deadly toxin into your blood
stream.
Imagine further that we reach a point where creating nanobots is
something that anyone can do with a reasonably-priced kit.
Just think of how easy it would be to kill someone without anyone
knowing who did it. Your right to live would then become an
"unenforceable" right. Does that mean that you should no longer have
it?
Regards,
Chris Russo
--
"If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought
or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet
hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance
which does harm."
-- Marcus Aurelius, MEDITATIONS, VI, 21
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