Tim,
I'm entirely incapable of even pretending to be a student of ethics,
but your "first do no harm" post reminds me of playing around with
Asimov's laws of robotics years ago. For what it might be worth the
adaptation went something like this:
3. design must benefit the individual (e.g., insure individual
freedom), as long as such benefits do not harm society or planet earth
2. design must benefit human society (e.g., insure social justice),
except where societal benefit harms planet earth
1. design must benefit planet earth (e.g., insure ecological harmony)
Then when Asimov added his Zeroth Law, I added:
0. design must benefit or do no harm to life
Cheers,
Gordon Rowland
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