Ask HN: What would you like to see included in a 21st Century Bill of Rights?
With the explosion of machine learning and artificial intelligence, the ever decreasing cost of storage and compute, and the apparent disregard for individual privacy on the part of both government and industry, which rights would you include in a "Bill of Modern Rights"?
I can't answer this question, but just to put it in context, the United Nation'a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, put together after World War II, is a truly beautiful document. I had never read it or really knew anything about it, but if you read through it, it's an absolutely inspiring vision of humanity and of a world that one day might exist. It's wording is concise, clear, and beautiful.
Here's the foreword from the most recent published copy:
"The Universal Declaration promises to all the economic, social, political, cultural and civic rights that underpin a life free from want and fear. They are not a reward for good behaviour. They are not country-specific, or particular to a certain era or social group. They are the inalienable entitlements of all people, at all times, and in all places — people of every colour, from every race and ethnic group; whether or not they are disabled; citizens or migrants; no matter their sex, their class, their caste, their creed, their age or sexual orientation."
And here is the original document:
"Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
Sorry not to hijack this thread and I know you technically said Bill of Rights, which is also very inspiring, but I feel like less well known in the US."
If the 2nd Amendment is for A) self-defense without the government, or B) eventual resistance against the government itself, then surely it should be interpreted to protect strong encryption.
The Right To The Best Available Deal:
To have all applicable financial / tax regulations applied to you automatically.
This way you don't have to discover tax breaks/credits/deductions — they just get applied to you.
This is important and effects something like 250M Americans.
Outside of criminal and civil law, much of the US system of government is enforced financially through the tax code.
The benefits of the Internal Revenue Code are applied unevenly because richer people are able to develop the sophistication or acquire service providers who help them make sure they are getting the best available deal.
Can you imagine if hackers/coders got better deals on products Amazon then non-coders? It would be absurd to say "well, learn to code or higher an engineer and you'll save $1000 a year!" That's a pretty close metaphor—we say "get financially literate! The information is out there! get an accountant!".
Computers, tech, machine learning, and AI are great at making sure all Americans get The Best Deal Available.
Right to a defensive trial: If you are prosecuted, you should be allowed to do nothing, let the court sort it out with a free, publicly-assigned defender, and if you don't like the verdict, you can dispute it in a second trial. That way you only have to spend money and time defending yourself against suits with serious merit. Would seriously hurt patent trolls, and all nuisance/extortion lawsuits in general.
Freedom from imposition by any non-public government process. If the government does anything it must be open to public knowledge and scrutiny.
How about:
The principle may seem familiar, but it is not currently applied in a broad sense; Facebook's News Feed algorithm, which can swing elections, is secret. So is Hacker News's. Our behaviour is carefully shaped and we are not allowed to know how.A community has the right to transparency in the forces that govern it.The right to privacy of thought, and the right to think anything.
The Preamble to the Bill Of Rights is important: http://drexel.edu/ogcr/resources/constitution/amendments/pre...
I expect this post the become massive, as questions like this are so large a kind of bike-shedding exercise goes on, but my own 2c:
I think religious rights should have never evolved the way it did.
Religion is clearly different from creed color, etc, it also includes belief, personality, motivation etc. Instead of becoming power real estate for established religions to fight over (do 'cults', or atheist institutions get the same protections), it should have evolved into the right to believe anything that doesn't motivate you to break the law; in other words, protection against though-policing.
The flat-earthers should get the same protections as catholics - the right to hold any belief, be it on faith or otherwise.
The right to innovate and invent without anxiety. To me this means clarifying copyright and trademark, reducing their abuse by claimants, and abolishing all patents altogether.
Freedom of communication. In other words, "unreasonable search and seizure" extended to all communications. The same caveats - the authorities should be required to obtain an individual and targeted warrant before being allowed to (attempt to) intercept, and this should be granted only upon reasonable suspicion of a crime as determined by a judge.
If they fail to intercept, they could always get warrants to secretly surveil the suspects, swap or backdoor their hardware, etc.
I haven't seen anything on here about the right to be forgotten which I believe is extremely important.
I also think the right to human autonomy is absolutely crucial. I want the freedom to choose to drive my own vehicle. I don't want a self-driving vehicle to dictate where I can and cannot go.
I really think, and this is entering muddy waters, that there should be a right to anonymity. I should be able to say or do things without people knowing who I am.
Is "right" the correct abstraction? An alternative might be "obligation".
Bill of obligations:
Article 1: All parents are obligated to either support their children and provide their physical and educational needs, and give them the emotional support they need to grow up or leave them up for adoption at the earliest opportunity.
Article 2: Adult children must financially support their parents by a percentage of their income while their parents are over the age of 65.
Article 3: The nearest relatives with income to a person with disability are obligated to support that person financially.
Article 4: The government have obligation to help the needy, the disabled, the elderly, the abandoned, to search for their nearest relatives and garnish their wages and income to ensure the persons' needs are fulfilled.
Etc etc. Instead of centralising social welfare payments through the government, we can place this obligation back towards those nearest to those who need help. Instead of paying taxes to the government for who knows what causes, they go directly to those nearest to us, and if supporting them is too onerous, search for the next nearest relatives.
These articles obligations can be extended to include companies, governments, institutions. Any entity that doesn't fulfil their obligations can be sued by anyone, rather than only when they violate the plaintiff's "rights".
The right to total privacy in email and messaging communications.
The right to a speedy trial - you get freed from jail ROR if not tried within 3 months.
The right for the energy (food, fuel), insulation (clothes, room) and information (internet) necessary to live long and prosper.
Freedom of Information:
Its rediculous that one can be jailed, thieved or killed for: possessing someone else's number, telling someone a secret number, or refusing to share the correct number with someone.
These problems only exist because society believes in, and enforces, ownership of ideas
Why do we need a "Bill of Rights" at all?
Rights exist because they are insisted upon and asserted by the people, not because a government or a document declares that they exist.
The right to be secure from unreasonable electronic Surveillance
Free access to internet and online university for those that can't pay for brick and mortar degrees would be reasonable in terms of cost and efficacy.
The right to food and shelter. It really is ridiculous that we don't guarantee access to basic human needs.
hello friends can you help me
The Right To The Best Available Deal:
To have all applicable financial / tax regulations applied to you automatically.
This way you don't have to discover tax breaks/credits/deductions — they just get applied to you.
This is important and effects something like 250M Americans.
Outside of criminal and civil law, much of the US system of government is enforced financially through the tax code.
The benefits of the code are applied unevenly because richer people are able to develop the sophistication or acquire service providers who help them make sure they are getting the best available deal.
Computers, tech, machine learning, and AI are great at making this easy.
First of all, make sure all of the Christians commit suicide. Put that in as a right: I have the right to force Christians and Jews to commit suicide. They are mental lepers who need to be put to death so their disease does not spread.
Next, we need to drive home the point that dialectics means Christian. Not dianetics. I'm not talking about Scientologists. I'm talking about Communists. Communists are closet Christians. Obviously Scientologists with Christian and Communist sympathies will be upset by this new Bill of Modern Rights. And a great many others no doubt, such as Islamic and Chinese students of religion.
Break a few eggs, make an omelet.