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In my previous email, I introduced the Temporal Rights view of natural rights. During the interim, I have turned that concept every which way but loose and in the process have learned more about its implications, which seem to be considerable.
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For centuries, philosophers have talked about an elusive "unification theory", a way of looking at all the diverse aspects of existence and basing them on a single principle or a much simpler, more fundamental principle. Plato had his forms, Kant his critical view, Hegel his "absolute idea", and Spinoza his "monism". There were many others.
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Meanwhile, I have been looking at the fallout of the Temporal Rights view of nature for fear that it would facilitate evil in some way (It does seem to say that "might makes right" (But only if you see victory in a rights collision as a confirmation of a natural right.)) However, when approached with the understanding that natural rights have a natural hierarchy of ascending rights, where the right to existence is seen as fundamental, then it becomes a moral structure founded on objectively observable facts. This I did not expect.
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In the context of a unification theory, Temporal Rights dissolves boundaries between living/nonliving, civilization/nature, Eastern/Western Thought, the is/ought dilemma recurrent in moral philosophy, and the normative/prescriptive categories of philosophical discussions. These are shown to be artificial or false dichotomies where we have separated things into silo's of comprehension. I did not expect this either.
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Finally, the fallout that is exciting to me is that Temporal Rights and the natural hierarchy of those rights can be cooperated in a way that creates a moral agent to align artificial intelligence with human values while being grounded on a purely secular or physical system. It has produced a "physics of morality". This alignment problem is the most challenging and worrisome aspect of the growing AI capabilities. Here is a discussion of this method I have called Artificial Intelligence Moral Machine (AIMM).
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I will be sending another newsletter in a week or two that explains the unification aspects of Temporal Rights in some detail. It will come from a new website at universalrights.ai.
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Thank you for listening. Hope all is well with you as our Semiquincentennial begins!
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