From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Fri Mar 15 2002 - 21:20:19 MST
On Thursday, March 14, 2002 5:18 PM hal@finney.org wrote:
>> Fukuyama then draws on Aristotle and the concept
>> of "natural right" to argue against unfettered
>> development of biotechnology.
>
> I wonder how our local "natural rights" theorists see this. It's
always
> seemed like a serious problem with the natural rights approach, that
> as we change what is natural we lose all guideposts as to what rights
> should exist.
That's only if a) you adopt the current mish mash definition of rights
(including both negative and positive rights as well as individual and
collective ones and even throwing in religious arguments or no arguments
at all for them) and b) if you make rights somehow a defining trait of
being human and human an exclusive domain. If instead, you allow rights
if a being has certain traits, then there's no reason such rights that
might be given to one set of beings with said traits -- e.g., humans --
should not also apply to other beings with the same traits even if they
are otherwise radically different -- e.g., AI, posthumans, aliens,
uplifted animals, etc.
Cheers!
Dan
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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