 [T]he data and reflections presented … appear to constrain the answer to the question about the formation of the moral–conventional distinction to the point where it may be plausible to suggest that humans possess, as part as of their evolved cognitive machinery, something analogous to Azimov’s “First Law of Robotics” (in a nutshell: “harm no human” [even if commanded so via the authority of another human, including one’s human master]), a hard-wired proto-prohibition that serves to automatically imbue the socially transmitted rules of a certain kind (those concerned with one’s impact on the utilities of others) with a special (rule-/authority independent) status that registers as social transcendence on the moral-conventional distinction task and that appears to be an aspect of moral competence world-wide. (2009: 173)