New Testingstan

RyanThunder wrote:Hey, how about we derive a means to run the planet from first principles.

You know, a sort of constitution for a hypothetical global union with the goal of being all ethical and shit. Or whatever, if you think that'd be a bad thing. I'll start a thread. That can be the first item for discussion.

Since you all probably think I'm some sort of idiot I'll just moderate the discussion instead of submitting ideas.

SO, I want this to be friendly, so let's try not to get into shouting matches. Ideally we'll all find some sort of middle ground that's agreeable on any given issue, and if not, I guess that'd be a good argument to split into states or something and we can branch off from there.

So, first item I guess would be the underlying goal of this hypothetical government.

The floor is open for suggestions.

What is ethical and what is not? A lot of this stuff is subjective or relative.

I can easily concieve of a system that embraces eugenics in the name of whats best for humanity, etc.

Well, this is more about what you personally think is ethical in this context. i.e. "what do you think a good government should do?"

The goal is to find a system of government for the entire planet that we can all get behind.

That may mean a single global state. That may (and I kind of expect will) mean many states. That may mean total anarchism. There are no preconceptions here except what you bring to the discussion. So have at it.

Well, I'm on my phone right now so I can't go into much depth yet, but if you know about Maslow "Hierarchy of needs"....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_h ... y_of_needs

... ideally, for me the duty of any form of government would be to ensure the fulfillement of the lowest/most fundamental levels of the pyramid/hierarchy (physiological needs and security in general - social, medical, against crimes, etc...) ; and to promote at the best of its abilities the fulfillement of higher needs.

That's where I'd start.

Ideally I'd like the maximum amount of personal freedom with minimal interfered from the government. mated with a high amount of social services.

so is this within the confines of a socio-economic system based on wage labour, buying and selling of commodities with the goal of turning a profit, and restricted access to the products of society?

No. As far as I understand this exercise, you start by conceiving the specs of your system of governance, in that you define what it should work for / against ; and only then, after you defined what you WANT, on the most basic level, you start thinking about the HOW to achieve it.


Basically, we're starting by defining the specs, we'll later think about how to program that shit to meet the specs.

Yeah, that, pretty much. We can discuss economic systems later.

Related (as an element to possibly discuss) :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... chon-video

I guess nobody has anything to add to that? xD

how many gigatons am I entitled to under the constitution?

I guess there could be a vote on that.