Well stated Jon, Well pivoted Glen... I'd challenge us to go further and reconsider/rethink how "Democracy" in all it's recognizable forms is only a weak attempt at achieving more fundamental goals/constraints of ??? (fairness, egalatarianism, inclusiveness, diversity, liberty, ???).
We, of course, are a Democratic Republic (modulo electoral college, gerrymandering, voter suppression, widespread disinformation, direct voter fraud) rather than a direct Democracy. Interesting the current dominant (exclusive duopoly?) Worst form of governance <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_democracy> Tyranny of the majority <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority#:~:text=While%20the%20specific%20phrase%20%22tyranny,a%20single%20unicameral%20elected%20body.> Seems to reference our discussions of the canonical nearly-decomposable hierarchy, cohesion and coupling between identity-groups or special-interest-groups, etc. I cannot put my hands/eyes on the Ben Franklin quote I remember from reading his Autobiography (inherited from my Grandfather through my Father who likely never read it) some 20 years ago. Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/20203/20203-h/20203-h.htm> A search yields no use of the term "faction" in the Pr. Gutenberg text above... I suspect he used another term which I transmogrified into "faction", or maybe I made the whole thing up, but I remember him offering a nice tension around the temporary aligning of factions to respond to a given challenge followed by a dissolution of those factions to allow for a re-alignment into new factions to meet new and different challenges. Self-organization galore? - Seize On 8/20/20 3:31 AM, uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ wrote: > The only plausible answer to this is the acceptance of a satisficing rule, a > tolerance for error/uncertainty. That's what allows us to trust the USPS, > which is simultaneously cursed by individuals on a regular basis, yet one of > the most trusted institutions in place. All this election integrity hooha > centers around quantitative confidence and perfection. > > But our first past the post system consistently tightens up our *intolerance* > for uncertainty/error. That's the change that needs to be made first. As long > as our elections are winner-takes-all and based on 50/50 thresholds, > technology can't help us. Technology will simply kick the can down the road, > leaving the main problem unaddressed. I.e. your billion dollar projects will > largely be a waste of money, perhaps resulting in a Star Wars quality spinoff > machine, but not solving the targeted objective. > > The first actionable steps are being taken. Ranked choice voting is steadily > being adopted. It's also *not* a panacea. But at least it targets the > disease, rather than the symptoms. > > On 8/19/20 10:06 PM, jon zingale wrote: >> Eric, >> >> Yes, what are the next actionable steps? In an upstream post I wrote: >> >> "Maybe a little flippantly and without dragging this entire post into design >> details, the voting app needs little more than a Facebook like-button, a >> Redis >> server, authentication, and a light-weight rest API. If the idea were to be >> taken >> seriously, such an app could be written starting now for an election in four >> years. It could be tested and verified by a trusted agency, like the NSA." >> >> While the preceding quote effectively gets at the idea, I will further spill >> e-ink in the hopes of saying something practical, but first... Given the >> power >> to do so, I might try redirecting a hundred billion dollars from next year's >> military budget towards collaboration between big tech and government. The >> acceptance criteria would include public access to the code and the platform >> would be subjected to a week-long national hack-a-thon, complete with >> outrageous >> prizes and awards. Since this fantasy risks getting to far-out, let me reel >> things >> back a bit. >> >> Let me begin with a mission statement: Our goal is to introduce a trusted, >> reliable and secure digital voting option for U.S. elections. Determining a >> metric for success will require identifying: the scale of the project (city, >> state, nation)[1], collaborators with diverse skill sets and talents[2], the >> strengths and weaknesses of the current voting options[3], the >> state-of-the-art >> for digital application design[4]. >> >> [1] Selecting an appropriate scale for the project will be crucial to the >> adoption of the application. A full-blown application backed by industry and >> government organizations (with lobbyists in D.C.) could easily find adoption >> at >> the national level. Since the sole collaborators maybe just you and I, we >> may >> wish to start small, targeting the city level. Planning for this latter >> case, let's >> be prepared to scale if excitement around the program builds. Perhaps >> borrowing >> from or explicitly using a crowd-sourcing model would be good, extending to >> the >> state or national level manifesting as explicit *stretch goals*. Getting one >> or >> a few city contracts for our application may be just profitable enough to >> bootstrap the process. >> >> [2] The program will benefit greatly from the help of a diverse talent pool. >> We will need to design, build, test, and maintain the application. I >> advocate >> for seeking out individuals versed in building scalable critical >> applications >> and encouraging a transparent open-source development process. I foresee a >> role >> for trolls and white-hat hackers as it will be important to stress test and >> subject the application to *our worst*. We will need philosophers, critics, >> and >> trouble-finders all along the development process. That said, impossibility >> *proofs* ought to be taken with a grain of salt. We will need to lobby, >> campaign, >> and rouse excitement for the adoption of our application. It would be good >> to >> inspire competition because another group may just do it better, and >> ultimately >> this is what we want. It will be good to attract individuals that have a >> history >> with and have succeeded in: affecting policy, building grassroots movements, >> and >> selling the moon. It might be good to work with a business incubator or >> apply for >> an SBIR grant. >> >> [3] You don’t have to run faster than the bear to get away. You just have to >> run >> faster than the guy next to you. By studying the integrity of the voting >> systems >> presently in use, we can know where to set the bar for success. For >> instance, >> that the meaning of the postal service is being over-loaded in the 2020 >> election >> strikes me as a notable risk and a potential point of failure. Our >> application >> should be expected to do *just one thing*, and ideally the projects future >> funding will be promised independent of political influence. >> >> [4] As mentioned in the upstream posts, large scale web-based applications >> are >> here: the FBI-Apple encryption dispute, 20M concurrent Steam users, 1-click >> shopping, etc... Our application doesn't need to be very fancy and it would >> be >> good to avoid failing like the Iowa caucus. We don't need a *big reveal* on >> election night and then to impress the world as it flies along flawlessly. >> The >> opposite is needed. By the time the application is in production, it should >> be >> road-worn and rugged, the code probed and debated thoroughly on stack >> overflow >> and subreddits. This will not be the time or place for proprietary and >> opaque >> black boxes. The tech can be as impenetrable as an iPhone, as packet hungry >> as >> a Steam server and as intuitive as drunk shopping at 2 am on Amazon. The >> time >> period allowed the application should mimic mail-in voting rather than the >> polls. >> Votes could be validated slowly if need be. Perhaps, this may be one of the >> only >> reasonable applications for a block-chain protocol? >> >> Jon >
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