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Do you think these natural rights, as they are divined by insights into human nature, are subject to change if, for instance, human nature changes because of something like genetic engineering that changes our core mental structure or if we install networked communications into our brains and start merging thoughts with one another?
I know its hypothetical, but I am probing the philosophy to see its rigidity.
Something like Ghost in the Shell like? In using reason to probe the natural rights of humans, one usually starts by considering the natural environment. That is, one in which the individual exists in an environment free from external pressure and force; and from there you can derive the natural rights. What you are talking about is almost a merging of consciousness into maybe some super being. You start to get into differing philosophies at that point. Cassirer theorized that under such circumstance you would cease being human; thus human rights which are essentially what we talk about when talking of natural rights, would cease to apply.
"There is, at least, one right that cannot be ceded or abandoned: the right to personality...They charged the great logician [Hobbes] with a contradiction in terms. If a man could give up his personality he would cease being a moral being. ... There is no pactum subjectionis, no act of submission by which man can give up the state of free agent and enslave himself. For by such an act of renunciation he would give up that very character which constitutes his nature and essence: he would lose his humanity." - Cassirer
Does that mean that the rights of the individual, such as life, liberty, and property cease to exist? It's an interesting consideration because under such a circumstance the "individual" ceases to exist and instead everyone is part of a greater consciousness. Perhaps that consciousness is given the rights and the pieces of the whole are considered just building blocks to that consciousness.
"The right to what is in essence inalienable is imprescriptible, since the act whereby I take possession of my personality, of my substantive essence, and make myself a responsible being, capable of possessing rights and with a moral and religious life, takes away from these characteristics of mine just that externality which alone made them capable of passing into the possession of someone else. When I have thus annulled their externality, I cannot lose them through lapse of time or from any other reason drawn from my prior consent or willingness to alienate them." - Hegel
If you're really serious about wanting to learn more about natural rights and the philosophy behind them, I'd suggest picking up some works by Hobbes, Locke, or Paine.
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