... Hayley began his chapter on metalaw with the rather shocking statement that "the indefinite projection of anthropocentric law beyond the planet Earth would be the most calamitous act man could perform in his dealing with the cosmos." In his view, metalaw, which he defines as dealing "with all frames of existence-- with sapient beings different in kind" from humans, could not simply be an extension of international law. Instead of the usual Golden Rule, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," Hayley proposed the Rule of Metalaw, sometimes called the Interstellar Golden Rule: "We must do unto others as they would have done into them," in other words, we must act as aliens want us to act.
Steven J. Dick - Astrobiology, Discovery, and Societal Impact
I want to fact check this and everything, but I love the idea that this updated golden rule I only learned as an adult might be a product of someone trying to extend greater sentience and autonomy to hypothetical aliens than we do to beings on our own planet. Or, less cynically, that thinking about the cosmos as an opportunity to do better, this allowed him to consider universality with a wider lens.
