From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Jan 15 2003 - 02:02:29 MST
Lee Corbin wrote:
> Samantha writes
>
>>If the only "real" rights are legal rights, the invention of
>>some society or other, then on what grounds would you object to
>>the inventions of some societies as opposed to the inventions of
>>others? On what grounds would you call a society "evil" re
>>its treatment of its citizens? How do you define what a "good"
>>society would be like and what "legal rights" it would promote?
>
> Most excellent questions! Due to a happy confluence of (what we
> ordinarily think of as) highly ethical treatment by a government
> coincides with what makes that society very competitive. But
> advanced thinkers, e.g. Mancur Olson "Power and Prosperity, Outgrowing
> Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships", have known for decades that
> (a) the security of individual legal rights (b) economic prosperity
> (c) large amounts of social and economic freedom (c) technological
> advancement (d) enormous regard for private property, all go together.
>
> So in a careful discussion, we might avoid notions like "good" and
> "evil", though its extremely tempting when considering ancient and
> modern states that treat people terribly.
Er... no, you've just stated that "good" consists of (a) the security of
individual legal rights (b) economic prosperity (c) large amounts of
social and economic freedom (d) technological advancement (e) enormous
regard for private property.
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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