RE: Is or should internet access be a human right?
This is a very complicated issue. What defines a "right"? If we break it down, every human right that we have we are intrinsically given through birth.
All of these things are self evident, therefor are our basic human rights, that are not endowed by any government but just because we are.
- We can speak, therefor we have the right to speech.
- We are living, therefor we have a right to life.
- We feel emotion, therefor we have the right to pursue happiness.
- We can move, walk, etc., therefor we have the right to travel.
- We do not wish harm upon ourselves, therefor we have a right to defend ourselves.
- As babies we are defenseless, therefor we have a right to defend our children. Intrinsic in this is the right to defend the defenseless.
- We require air to live, therefor we have a right to air.
- We require water to live, therefor we have a right to water.
- We require food to live, therefor we have a right to produce or gather our own food.
And on and on... If you think about rights in this way, where it is what we are intrinsically born with, what we require to live, then no Internet isn't a right. However, one could argue that in order to live in today's society, one must be able to access the internet, and if this is true, and the internet IS required to sustain yourself, then it would be a right.
I don't believe at this time in the human evolutionary process the internet is a right, but that doesn't mean in 20 or 30 years the internet will be required for practically every aspect of life. Once this is the case, then yes, it will be a right.
So in 20 - 30 years people will be born with it? Slight change in logic there.
But in 20 - 30 years with infinitely ubiquitous cloud-seeded nanobots autonomously connecting every human's brain (beginning in the womb) to the Internet through direct neuronal comnections, maybe I would reconsider my stance on this.
That was your line, haha.
Lol, you nailed it. That's why I said 20 or 30 years. When these types of technologies become accessible, it will need to be a right for humanity to have access to the internet. Not allowing them internet would be potentially a death sentence.
And obviously my time table is a bit fast, could be in 100 years, who knows. But it'll happen at some point down the road.
Crazy to think about. It could be sooner than people think.
I like your point of view, but you failed to follow to one critical point, humans require shelter to live, but it isn't a right.
Not trying to nitpick, I was just expecting a consideration for that point as well.
I think that would fall in the same arena as the water and food, and I agree. We have a right to make our own shelter to survive.
Right, but many of these points could be made for animals too...
Definitely.
Great reply! It’s a crazy wild world looking more like our science fiction novels of the recent past!