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Hyperarchy: Democracy for the Digital Era

blog.hyperarchy.com

1–10 of 54 posts

Re: Hyperarchy: Democracy for the Digital Era

#2
It's an interesting idea, but I see some major problems.

1) It's currently impossible to tie a person down to a single online entity. There's quite a lot of inertia/sentiment preventing this sort of situation. If you can't insure that each person only gets one voice, then the system breaks.

2) What happens when the Goon Swarm arrives? No, I'm serious. It's hard to troll the government as it stands today. The internet sees a lot of groups out there whose only goals are to inconvenience others. This system could actually give Anonymous etc. real world power.

Re: Hyperarchy: Democracy for the Digital Era

#4
I like some of these ideas, particularly the flexible system of delegation. But right now the issue-ranking system seems like a weak link. It's too simplistic and could easily devolve into an exercise in voting on bumper-sticker slogans. There should be tools for more reasoned exploration of the issues, like an argument mapping tool for instance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_map). Don't just let me vote on a tweet-sized solution, let me see the arguments made for and against it in a structured way that I can also vote on.

Re: Hyperarchy: Democracy for the Digital Era

#5
Elected representatives have set terms. We trust them with our vote for a specific period, and they can even make decisions that hurt some of our interests. Has this been taken into consideration? If we can switch votes at will, then it's not much different than crowdvoting. What about abuse of power? Is there a third leg (justice) to punish abusers?

Re: Hyperarchy: Democracy for the Digital Era

#6
post #3

The concept of flexible delegation is really interesting, but what about secrecy of the ballot? Is there any way that can be ensured? The article does not touch on the subject, unfortunately.

From the article: > You can also drill into each person’s individual ranking to learn their personal opinion.

I hope you can turn that off!

Re: Hyperarchy: Democracy for the Digital Era

#7
post #3

The concept of flexible delegation is really interesting, but what about secrecy of the ballot? Is there any way that can be ensured? The article does not touch on the subject, unfortunately.

Secret ballots are only useful to prevent coercion. Why else would you want your ballot secret?

Re: Hyperarchy: Democracy for the Digital Era

#8
Or we could use the freedom of information, power distribution, disintermediation and distribution efficiency made possible by the internet to obviate the need for centralized government.

I'd vastly prefer that to yet another version of allowing other people to determine my life for me.

Re: Hyperarchy: Democracy for the Digital Era

#9
post #2

It's an interesting idea, but I see some major problems. 1) It's currently impossible to tie a person down to a single online entity. There's quite a lot of inertia/sentiment preventing this sort of situation. If you can't insure that each person only gets one voice, then the system breaks. 2) What happens when the Goon Swarm arrives? No, I'm serious. It's hard to troll the government as it stands today. The internet…

> It's currently impossible to tie a person down to a single online entity

Actually, it's quite possible nowadays in many countries, with the introduction of smart ID cards.

Re: Hyperarchy: Democracy for the Digital Era

#10
post #7
post #3

The concept of flexible delegation is really interesting, but what about secrecy of the ballot? Is there any way that can be ensured? The article does not touch on the subject, unfortunately.

Secret ballots are only useful to prevent coercion. Why else would you want your ballot secret?

Because I might be turned down for a job or apartment or loan because of my political views ?

And because it's frankly nobody else's business how I vote ?

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