From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Fri Apr 11 2003 - 11:46:13 MDT
On Fri, Apr 11, 2003 at 06:38:26AM -0700, Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
>
> I'm a bit surprised there hasn't been more discussion about
> this on the list. Quarantines obviously run counter to libertarian
> philosophy. After all -- governments effectively "imprisoning"
> people??? But at the same time its hard to be a libertarian
> if one ends up dead from exposure to the latest "nouveaux"
> disease.
In its classical framing quarantines are the community deciding to
coerce members for the good of the many at the expense of the few. But
isolating oneself if one has a contagious disease can also be a rational
choice. If we leave out pure altruism (always a factor with humans),
showing one's dedication to the community in this way can give benefits
to oneself (the community giving medical support or recognition after
one has become well), or at least one's kin group. It is similarly
reciprocally altruistic for non-carriers to promote this behavior by
funding it, since they get reduced risks of being infected (and if they
don't, the infected have no incentive to isolate themselves). So among
rational beings you would get spontaneous quarantining.
In practice things don't work out that neatly, of course. But you could
still have libertarian quarantines in a system like Nozick's utopia,
where each member community would be based on some form of explicit
social contract. In these contracts one could have a quarantine clause,
contractually obligating members of the community to participate in
quarantines.
This isn't a perfect solution, but neither are coercive versions. I
think this might actually work better, since it makes the goals
and means explicit.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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