Unalienable Rights

Understanding the historical philosophical puzzle in the mind of Jefferson, during the time of his discovering life's Unalienable Rights is insolvable. Jefferson left no account behind such discovery, where Pro, Con, and anyone else, can only assume the sources behind Jefferson's wisdom in the formation of such concept.Con stated, “Note the system for the ethical basis is deterministic. While my opponent provided no evidence that Jefferson would have cited Democritus to begin with it is completely evidence that if he had he would be contradicting himself as liberty is contrary to determinism.”The point of bringing Democritus into the debate is just to show that scholars in the distant past were talking about freedom and causes of human happiness, whether, Jefferson read Democritus or not.As for “liberty is contrary to determinism” Professor Bjorn Brembs' research may take issue with that. “Free Will is an Evolved Brain Function” (http://vimeo.com...). Brembs research empirically demonstrates a “Free-Will” zone within a spectrum between deterministic and stochastic. Although such philosophical history about Jefferson's conceptual formation of Unalienable Rights is interesting, new developments in scientific research discovered a critical physical Law in Nature called the Constructal Law taking Unalienable Rights to a new level. This Law provides a traceability path from life's Unalienable Rights to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, elevating Unalienable Rights from metaphysics to the physical Laws of Nature. At the macro level, Constructal Law is an outgrowth of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, explains how everything that moves or flows, whether animate or inanimate, naturally evolve in ways that facilitates such movement. The following video short is an overview of the Constructal Law: () Evolution started moments after the Big Bang. The foundation to evolution is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and in part, this Law deals with flow. That is, the natural flow of heat moves from high temperature to a lower temperature. When dealing with pressure, there is a natural flow from high pressure to a lower pressure. Electrical current flows from high resistance to low resistance. Water flows from the height of a mountain to the lowest level in a valley or the ocean. And so on. Since humanity is a product of the Laws of Nature, it is fascinating to see symmetry in populations of human behavior relative to the Second Law. That is, the desire to take a path from high to lower resistance. Do less work for the same result. Population migration from the high resistance found in tyranny, to the low resistance found in freedom. The desire to move from a higher taxed area, to a lower tax community having the same standard of living. To go with the flow within a social group, rather than facing the high pressure struggles going against the flow. The enjoyment of the transition from high emotional stress to lower stress. Choose the lower price supplier for a given product. And so on.Life's bio-program operates in the shadow of Thermodynamics, having an organically persuasive, self-adjusting, fine-tuning algorithm throughout the flux of life's Unalienable Rights; encouraging life to freely take the path of least resistance, in the attempt to satisfy the pursuit of its objectives, to maintain survival, or search for new levels of positive-feedback; this is the machinery of the evolution of life. According to Adrian Bejan (http://www.amazon.com...):“Life is movement. Every living system performs better when the power that is required for maintaining its movement is minimized. Just as lightning bolts and river basins should generate treelike structures to reduce thermodynamic imperfection and increase flow access, animals should have evolved to cover a greater distance for less effort, which means per unit of useful energy derived from food.”Con stated, “The phrase "Pursuit of Survival" is not supported.” It should be obvious for any life to survive, it must have the freedom in “the pursuit of,” as in the energy needed to hunt, grow, or work for food; otherwise, there is no life. Therefore, the “the pursuit of survival,” the enjoyment of satisfying one's hunger with a fine meal, is “Happiness” for us humans--bon appetite! After a fine meal, we have the Right to live another day. On the topic of food, Con may find inconsistency with a nature-wide Unalienable Right to Life with the fact that all animal-life depends on killing other animals or at least plants for food. “The world is one big restaurant.” We humans are free to dine in a universe where we too could be the next meal from the appetite of viruses, parasites, cancer, occasionally lions, tigers, bears, etc. Therefore, nature is not cruel or kind, just indifferent as it gives all life the Right to Life through Liberty in the pursuit of survival, which includes the evolution of reproductive quantity, self-defense and hunting skills. This balance in nature made human evolution possible and beyond. Con stated, “Tribalism is actually a source of contention. Wars and whatnot are fought through tribal behavior so the concept of an "Unalienable Right" would eliminate, esp. if naturally instilled in humans, practices like slavery, abuse, war, etc. particularly because all of these violate at least Life and definitely Liberty if not also the Pursuit of Happiness…” Quite the contrary, Unalienable Rights is part of social evolution, where competing cultures tend to move in the direction benefiting the Unalienable Rights of humanity. Cultural blending is not always a peaceful event, however. For example, Adolph Hitler exercised his Rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of his Happiness by obstructing the Unalienable Rights of others. This obstruction went against the Laws of Nature, causing distress, death, and a global nightmare. Nature fought back, for humans are part of nature. Hitler, who had an ideology that opposed nature, became history upon his demise, well before his natural time. According to Adrian Bejan:“Good ideas travel and persist. They keep on traveling. This is why culture is a constructal design [Constructal Law]--a tapestry of morphing linkages in our minds and on the globe--all superimposed on the same area (the globe) and in the same volume (the brain). As such, culture is the same kind of design as the tapestry of vascular architectures, animate and inanimate, all superimposed on the Earth’s surface.”Another example is the US governance based on a Constitutional designed with the mission to embrace and protect the individual's Unalienable Rights. The US started with a difficult task relative to the cultural reality of the day. Cultural norms do not change overnight, because they are inherently Conservative. Slavery and woman's standing in society were deeply rooted in the culture, including the norms of the ruling-class, for they too reflect the culture of the day. Our Founding Fathers knew Unalienable Rights will remove cultural ills. As a result, slavery, the treatment of woman, and today's treatment of gays, etc, in time during the Conservative evolution of culture as a function of our Unalienable Rights and the design of Congress to make law, fine-tunes our culture in the evolution of social “Happiness.” On the subject of “good ideas travel and persist,” the US Founding Fathers developed a configuration of government supporting social evolution eighty some years before Darwin came on the stage ().Evolution is slow, real, and can be a painful process, directed by life's bio-program (aka Unalienable Rights) having the freedom in the pursuit of positive-feedback. From single cells to humans, such feedback changes DNA, memory, knowledge, technology, markets, social-systems, etc. Observations in recorded history, shows positive improvement in the standard of living, as humans walked from caves to the moon and beyond. The scientific method is also a slow evolutionary process in understanding the awesome machinery of nature. Where that too could be a painful process relative to classical metaphysical beliefs, while going forward with new knowledge that may help make this world a better place to live. In closing, I thank Con for the time spent in debating this topic and I wish Con a long and healthy “Life,” with ample freedom (“Liberty” aka a function of money), in the moral pursuit of “Happiness.”