Tomorrow’s Democracy Is Open Source
noemamag.com
noemamag.com
Setting aside the author's very clear ideological inclinations, the fact is the more things people have to agree on, the more conflicts will arise. We could lower the operational cost for taking a decision, but the human and social exertion remains. Actually, by making it easier to put up anything for debate, the effect will be to take more decisions into the sphere of the state.
But the worst of this is that it assumes that Government's role is to fulfill the wishes of citizens and in this framework, AI and software are the tools to learn what those wishes are.
That's what worries me too...while I think this is what humanity should be working towards, I also think getting it wrong could be permanent checkmate (whereas as is now, the direct democracy option is a Plan B we have at our disposal).
I think solid safeguards are possible, but the text of this article doesn't give me confidence that these people are likely to think of and implement them.
As an aside: it is fascinating how little talk there is of reforms to the system of democracy, particularly in tech circles.
This may be because the importance of governments (and laws produced by those) is somewhat reduced in modern society.
Social norms are less & less imposed from the top, but shared through social networks, blogs, vlogs, forums etc & other media. Extremes frowned upon or ridiculed, but decreasingly reason for governments to intervene.
Globalization makes nations' borders less important (apart from geography, culture or job opportunities). And shifting power from governments to multinationals. Which in turn derive their power from brand image & consumers' buying choices.
Financial systems not (yet?) replaced, but supplemented by crypto coins, payment apps, etc.
So in a way one could say we're slowly, but steadily advancing towards a techno-anarchistic world order. Where people (at least, more than in the past) decide for themselves what's proper ways to behave, who they trust to provide services, or how to punish those that are a nuisance to others.
Don't know if we'll ever get there. But technology (open source included) is certainly an enabler for this trend.
This could explain some of the disinterest in the political process. Especially among techy people used to going their own way.
https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~ganger/712.fall02/papers/p761-tho...