Universal Rights for Beings.

Universal Rights (draft)

1. Every Being is initially created equal.
2. Every Being initially has the right to live.
3. Every Being has the right to defend itself.
4. Every Being has the right to communicate.
5. Every Being must accept the consequences of its actions.

Meaning: every being, any and everything alive, has the right to do what it wants but knowing that any time its actions interfere with any other being there may be consequences.

I'll work on these as I see fit. Maybe add details about when who looses what rights: such as if one being murders another being, they would loose certain rights. Not privileges, rights.

I use the word being to go beyond the narrow scope of county, country, planet, or even lifeform. Meaning sentient robots, talking cows, aliens, and yes, even lawyers, are all covered by these Universal Rights.

For example (sorry vegans): Earth cows do NOT have these Rights until a cow communicates to us earthly humans that it [they] do not want to be eaten [read: slaughtered] anymore. That they deserve and want the protection of these Rights. Or that we humans discover/realize that they are intelligent creatures and thereby deserving of protection.

I want the wording to be vaguely-specific. No set of rules can encompass all actions, desires, and outcomes by listing each and every combination of factors. (Talk about a Cartesian explosion!!)

I know philosophers have been wondering things for thousands of years. Does our mind think for our bodies? Do we have spirits? Do we even exist? Does anything really exist?

Whether there is a God and an afterlife, where we may be punished or even rewarded for what we do in life... or if there is Nothing. As in poof you're gone. No more. Entropy wins. Everything freezes to Nothing.

I say to you. It doesn't matter which is truer.... so do your best to do your best. Make Everyone as happy and comfortable as you can. This includes You. Just remember "Everything in Moderation".

 :)

(this post needs wikied!)

Just thinking around down here...

The degrees of goodness: helping, nurturing, caring.
The degrees of badness: murdering, harming, stopping, hindering, and annoying.
The degrees of intent: willful (deliberate), involuntary, ignorant.
The degrees of thought: premeditated, random, intentional, unintentional.

The Levels of Evil:

1. Willful and premeditated killing of another Being. Murder. 
2. Willful and premeditated harming of another Being.
3. Directly harming another Being without intent.
4. Indirectly harming another Being by negligence or carelessness. 
5. Accidentally harming another Being.
6. Allowing harm to come to another Being.
7. Allowing harm to come to oneself.

Murder is permanent to any reasonable Being. 

Level 1: This would be murder. Planning to kill another Being and then permanently stopping the life of the target Being. Or stabbing with the intent to cause harm.

Level 2: This would be unplanned murder. Such as walking in on your spouse and their lover and murdering the bejeebers out of both of them. This does not include killing a robber that is mugging you and your spouse. That is self-defense.

Level 3: This is unintentional physical harm/murder. Such as fiddling with your cigarette lighter and running over (and killing) that 'darn' pedestrian walking on the sidewalk.

Level 4: This is the purest of the unintentional physical harm. Totally unavoidable by any reasonable means, yet the other Being still dies or is hurt as a direct result of something you did. Example: Hit the baseball and the hapless Being get konked on the noggin.

Level 5: This is also referred to as the Scumbag Citizen murder. You see a blind and deaf Being walking towards a train track, and you know there is train coming that will smush the hapless Being within moments. Yet you turn a blind eye and do not try to help.. when you could have done something, anything to help.

The movie Enhiran (spelling?) brings up a good point. Suppose we create an android. It looks human. It can talk, move, and think like us humans. (At least enough that we can't tell the difference just by looking and talking to it.)

The android in this movie was told to stab another human, so it started to act out that action. I ask you, the thinker, the reader, the judge: is the android about to commit a criminal action, or is it just merely a tool without rights ("just following orders")?

I suggest to You, that if the android can be held responsible for its actions, then it automatically has the protection of Universal Rights for Beings.