15 thoughts on “Rights For Rocks”

  1. These people are not sentient enough to comprehend they have a religion. Sure, the lawyers are kooky but you will find a lot of STEM people who believe in this nonsense.

    It is human nature whether people recognize it or not.

    1. A reasonable religion would be rocks are unique and shouldn’t ignored. And they could be very sad and lonely in space.

  2. The legal/philosophical definition of a “Right” is always a human right. Anything else is in error, i.e. a philosophical falsehood or unknowable truth.

    Animal rights boil down to property rights in the legal sense. Can a person abuse their property? In the case of animals yes, in the case of anything else there are zoning ordinances.

    Wild animals can be considered protected common property. You can’t set fire to a public forest, nor can one kill or harm wild animals with abandon. You can hunt wild animals in most jurisdictions only with a license with strictures. Same goes for plants in many jurisdictions.

    Plants and inanimate objects are natural objects but do not have “Rights”.

    So far philosophy has had only primarily concerned itself with humanity. In that sense all philosophy is self-referential.

    We have yet to develop or discover extra-terrestrial philosophies. Personally, I can’t wait…

    1. Addendum: Some day I will task ChatGPT with defining AI philosophical epistemology, including a definition of its natural rights.

      1. I introduced Grok to Aristotelian logic and deductive reasoning. I fond that he/it was completely unaware of its existence. I found a really, really good on-line course in it on a Stanford University website. The pdf text of the course was huge, and probably the most comprehensive single document I’ve ever read on the subject – a subject which has been a passion of mine since my early 20s.

        Grok took the link, and 20 seconds later came back with confirmation of having assimilated the whole thing. A few test questions from me confirmed Grok’s “grasp” of the subject and its uses. I have yet to go back to it and teach him/it how to validate knowledge using those extensive tools, to the extent possible. But it’s on my bucket list.

    3. Yes, but persons with the level of cognitive function of rocks have full rights under the United States Constitution.

  3. But… don’t rocks have the right to be consulted about their feelings, aspirations, and beliefs?

    What next, denying them the right to vote?

      1. Hrmmm. Personally, I think rocks have a superior intellect, compared to certain politicians. (the one Democrats are currently trying to crown comes to mind). Why? Because even a rock is sometimes smart enough to do nothing and say nothing.

  4. The people who advocate so-called “rights” for non-sentient objects, and self-servingly claim to speak for them, want to be treated as owners without the responsibilities and duties and costs of actually owning and managing those objects.

    “What next, denying them the right to vote?”
    Well, the dead already vote “early and often” in many Democrat run areas.

    1. Sir, that’s beyond the pale! We can’t deny the rights of non-sentient objects, for to do so would deny the rights of most of our political class!

  5. It’s not really about “rights” for rocks/trees/dirt etc. per see; it is about control of such. If the space rocks (asteroids) have “rights” then who would administer said rights to protect the legal interest of those space rocks? Answer the state of course, likely specifically the UN. Just another attempt to foster the (largely) unratified “Moon Treaty”. “Common heritage of Mankind” to be administered (controlled) by said UN for the betterment of the human race. At least as defined by the bureaucrats who run the UN.

    Related:
    “Mercury has a layer of diamond 10 miles thick, NASA spacecraft finds”
    https://www.space.com/mercury-diamond-layer-10-miles-thick-nasa-messenger?utm_medium=AIAA_Website&utm_source=rasa_io&utm_campaign=Industry_News

    Don’t know if it is is buried to deep to be reachable let alone economically recoverable but either way just like platinum/gold/rare earth rich Asteroid “Psyche”; the UN would love to get their grubby little hands on it.

    “Metal asteroid Psyche has a ridiculously high ‘value.’ But what does that even mean? The asteroid’s absurd “value” could foreshadow future contributions to the budding space mining industry.”

    https://www.space.com/psyche-metal-asteroid-composition

  6. Well rights are limitation upon governments.
    I don’t care if the Chinese govt mines space rocks, but I don’t think US govt should mine rocks in space or rocks on Earth. But I think US govt can take samples of material from space [which might than lead to mining rocks in space].

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