4 ms·

Ask HN: What would work well in a country built on the Unix Philosophy?

• arkitaip 10y ago
  How do you define The Unix Philosophy as applied to a country? Software doesn't come close to the complexity of an entire country so your analogy could possibly be fundamentally mismatched...
  • sova 10y ago
    Yeah clearly it's not a question about how to make a country like an operating system, it's a question about how to use the philosophical advances in the THOUGHT behind unix to structure a "nation" from scratch, should the opportunity ever arise. Play along a little bit, you might be surprised to find that you can dance quite well even if the music is just tea spoons and cups clanking.
  • Numberwang 10y ago
    Well I believe that fundamentally the complexity of a country is to a large extent historical artifacts. How do you think the relations between institutions would be different, how do you think they would perform their functions differently? What would their structures be? Or focus on some specific example -How would voting be different? -How would registering for a licence be different? -How would taxation be different?
    • sova 10y ago
      I think with taxation we could also do very cool things: Say your nation taxes at 30%, what if every voter had a subset of that value (say, 12.2%) that they could choose which district or set-of-needs to fund? Like maybe I want my 12.2 to go to education for kids 6mnths-12years, or maybe I want to fund state medicines, and my neighbor and I both pay the base rate that covers necessities like roads and stuff, but he may fund shelters instead of medicine specifically with his 12point2. It could be really wonderful. In effect, people may become more participatory in their own governing systems, and could actually direct funds instead of relying on bill-makers to figure out where to spend monies/resources.
• angersock 10y ago
  The plumbing, presumably.
  • bbcbasic 10y ago
    The sewerage and garbage can be piped into /dev/null
• sova 10y ago
  If all legislation followed the model presented by git (versioning, increments, branches, merges, and total transparency) I think that it would reflect positively on a true democracy. The next step, however, would be to educate the populous so that all voters were informed, and that voters would be presented (in an elegant fashion) with what is relevant to their districts on the three tiers of national, state, and local policy. I don't know if Unix has a good metaphor or reflection of this, but unix is meant to be a) modular and b) minimalist, so if we can sponsor the idea of true modularity in voting, I think we could see some full-participation schemes that are not overwhelming. I don't have to vote on every issue, but could vote on collections of issues that reflect my general ideology or current understanding of what best suits the republic. Another issue though, is ownership. In the Feudalistic Republic of the United States (as of 2016) it's hard to describe a system that could be adopted reasonably that promotes the idea that all the nation belongs to everyone in it. We have some things like "the right to life, liberty, and property [often misquoted as 'happiness' at the end here]" and how does one reconcile this idea of property with a truly harmonious community? Good question. So in short, the basis of the Unix philosophy would help (especially with law versioning, that is just what needs to happen and is so brilliant and clear I am surprised there is not greater traction for it). All Laws need time limits (and easy renew options if they are good)... And the entire populous needs higher quality information that [forces?] causes people to consider the community at large. /rattle like a snake
  • Numberwang 10y ago
    Thank you for a brilliant answer! Re "If all legislation followed the model presented by git (versioning, increments, branches, merges, and total transparency) I think that it would reflect positively on a true democracy." I have had the exact same thought. It would be hugely inspiring for democracy and be an amazing vitamin injection into how we use the rules we have.
  • oftenwrong 10y ago
    I have been quietly advocating for version controlled legislation for a long time. Here in Massachusetts, bills describe what they would change in the text of a statute directly - a bit like an ed script. Here's an actual example: >SECTION 2. Said section 35 of said chapter 123, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by striking out the words “is an alcoholic or substance abuser”, in lines 17 and 18, and inserting in place thereof the following words:- has an alcohol or substance use disorder. >SECTION 3. Said section 35 of said chapter 123, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by inserting after the word “a”, in line 36, the third time it appears, the following word:- qualified. >SECTION 4. Said section 35 of said chapter 123, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by striking out the fourth and fifth paragraphs and inserting in place thereof the following 3 paragraphs:- As someone who attempts to keep informed about changes to the law, this style is a huge obstacle. It often necessitates a lot of manual piecing-together in order to form a complete view of the final change. A simple diff view would make it much easier to understand. I have considered tracking changes to the law in git, including representing bills as branches, as a side project idea, but I determined it would require far more effort than I am willing to put in.
• oftenwrong 10y ago
  National PKI. Every citizen would have a key pair. I believe I have read that Estonia has implemented this.
  • Numberwang 10y ago
    What could it be used for?
    • sova 10y ago
      Voting! And easily verifying a) your vote was/is counted and b) is accurate for what issues/candidates you voted for. In fact, we could eliminate most candidates because they are only there to "represent" the wills/intentions of their constituents. Gloabl PKI pairings for voting would eliminate the need for a lot of "representatives" and we could do more direct forms of democracy instead!
    • oftenwrong 10y ago
      Signing digital documents. Authenticating with online government services. Secure communication.