Democracy Needs Friction to Function

noemamag.com

Back when "AI" meant a midget hiding inside a supposed chess-playing machine, elected politicians had a technology called "actually care about the voters and their feelings" to do this.

The human organization needed to implement that well at scale was far more laborious than AI - but just like a well-staffed "live human customer service" department, it generated a lot of loyalty.

Sure, AI can be vastly faster and cheaper. But as the article points out, it can also quickly go wrong, even if the folks running it are well-intentioned.

I recently talked with a researcher in social sciences, he told me that the point of political systems like citizen assemblies is about making good decision as much as teaching people how to discuss difficult topics in non violent ways.

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