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Kaiser Basileus's avatar

The Three Laws implies they encompasses all ethical situations, but they do not.

Laws and rules are explicitly for the ignorant. If the law says you can do harm you still have a responsibility not to and if the law says you cannot do something harmless you are ethically free to do so.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse unless you're charged with upholding it, then you get qualified immunity.

Whether you have fully informed consent can't always be known in the moment and is debatable anyway. You need to take that idea to its logical conclusion for any of the laws that depend on it to be useful. The other terms could use the same treatment: fraud - intentional or negligent misrepresentation for personal gain, or whatever.

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Morality is ( best understood as ) a personal understanding of best practices when dealing with other creatures. Ethics is formalized, usually shared, morality. Ethics is contingent - possible to the extent people share priorities.

These are ethical universals:

a) survival is a prerequisite for all meaningful

b) truth is a prerequisite for all non-arbitrary goals

c) sustainability is a prerequisite for all non-temporary goals

d) reciprocity is a prerequisite for civilization

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Poisoned Kiwi's avatar

It's all word magic. And I don't spell.

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