[extropy-chat] Declaration of Independence

[Joseph Bloch]

Kevin,

That's actually not true. Blacks (and women) were not "not allowed equal 
rights as whites". Article I, Section 2, dealing with the number of 
Representatives each State is entitled to, merely set the value of a 
_slave_ as 3/5 of a non-slave (non-taxpaying Indians not being included 
at all). Free blacks were counted fully equally to free whites.

The 3/5ths rule, often quoted, had nothing to do with rights per se. It 
had only to do with calculating population when apportioning 
Representatives in Congress. As with all such things, it was the result 
of a long process of political compromise. But the key was the status of 
the individual as slave or free, which did not necessarily map to racial 
origin. There were plenty of free blacks in the United States at the 
time (even in many of the slaveholding states).

That being said, to answer your question, no; I've never heard of any 
such thing. Perhaps it's due to the fact that it is a moot point (there 
being no "intelligent beings" in the United States who aren't human. 
Yet.). Generally, such changes don't come to the fore beforehand; they 
are done in reaction to a problem that has arisen. When the first truely 
self-aware AI, or Uplifted chimpanzee, emerges, one might very well see 
such a movement emerge, although one might well see a movement to 
specifically declare "personhood" as being restricted _solely_ to 
humans; I predict both movements emerging in response to the same 
triggering event.

Joseph

Kevin Freels wrote:

> While we are discussing some issues regarding the Declaration of 
> Independence and US Constitution, I was wondering if anyone knew of a 
> movement to change the words "person" and "people" to read 
> "intelligent beings"of something similar. Currently all rights 
> guaranteed in the Constitution are granted to "people" and nothing 
> more. If you go deeper, you begin to realize that a "person" is not 
> very well defined. When the constitution was written, blacks were 
> considered to be less than human and therefore were not allowed equal 
> rights as whites. It seems that now would be a  good time to replace 
> the word "person" with something else, or at least redefine "person" 
> as any sentient being.
>  
> Kevin Freels