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re: Universal morals, input requested
Mary Anne — (archived)

I can only think of two that make sense from the outset:

1. The sanctity of self-defense. An organism is allowed to defend itself from immanent death, if it so chooses, by fight or flight.

2. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. It will be up to the visitors to behave in ways that don't threaten or offend the hosts, be it on a planet's surface or on board a vessel. A considerate host will, of course, try to communicate the basic rules to the guests. For instance, never salt the popcorn amongst beings evolved from snails... ;)

I guess that's pretty close to Raoul's Silver Rule: one would have to be cautious in order to decode the rules for a truly alien species, because our imaginations might not take us where we need to be.

The universal morals list would surely be a short one, whatever was on it.

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