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>Like a localized reddit for policies and issues on local, state, and federal levels. If you add in some ML and AI, you could come up with truly direct democrac

>Like a localized reddit for policies and issues on local, state, and federal levels. If you add in some ML and AI, you could come up with truly direct democracy, that is 100% open and transparent. This makes literally no sense. The US can't be a direct democracy just by throwing Silicon Valley buzz words at it. You need to change the very fundamental laws that set up the legislative systems. You can use all this fancy 'tech' and make it seem like you are the bleed-edge innovator of the future of politics...Or you can do sane things that normal people will understand like ballot initiatives or more transparency in Congress.

dluan 10y ago
Here, I'll be more specific for you since you seem to lack imagination. Candidate in SF district declares run for CA state senate with most issues already set, either as a democrat or republican. Every SF resident gets access to an app and a vote on certain key issues. So issue of affordable housing and zoning laws comes up, constituents get to discuss and make arguments for each side amongst eachother. Maybe for this issue, they also get to vote, which will set this person's vote on the senate floor. Regardless, everyone else can publicly see the district's discussions, leanings, etc. Maybe there's a way for constituents to propose new topics or referendums, or that only the top contributors or people with 'points' get to do so. Maybe points are earned through verifiable volunteer work, maybe through donation. Maybe it uses analysis of what everyone's discussing already on the site to put new issues on the table. Maybe this starts at a small local level until you can prove with enough of a track record that this works better than current politicians. If it grows, it can become president. The point is, we developed representation as a heuristic for networks, transparency, and access. We have the technology for those things today.
- stephancoral 10y ago
  >Candidate in SF district declares run for CA state senate with most issues already set, either as a democrat or republican. Every SF resident gets access to an app and a vote on certain key issues. So issue of affordable housing and zoning laws comes up, constituents get to discuss and make arguments for each side amongst eachother. Maybe for this issue, they also get to vote, which will set this person's vote on the senate floor. Regardless, everyone else can publicly see the district's discussions, leanings, etc. How is this any different than going to the candidate's town hall forums and asking them questions? Or keeping up with their views on their own site and emailing their aides with questions and concerns? Or hell, even engaging with them on Twitter (which, fwiw, seems to be one of the more effective means of petitioning these days.) Furthermore, legislative discussions are for the most part a matter of public record. There are great sites that help people with finding out where candidates and parties stand on issues, both federal, state, and local- https://ballotpedia.org/California https://ballotpedia.org/California . >Maybe there's a way for constituents to propose new topics or referendums Yea, it exists, it's called a "ballot initiative" (https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_initiative https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_initiative) > or that only the top contributors or people with 'points' get to do so. Maybe points are earned through verifiable volunteer work, maybe through donation. Maybe it uses analysis of what everyone's discussing already on the site to put new issues on the table. Do you not see how ridiculous this sounds? So the people with more free time and money get to determine the political discourse? Are you even involved in your local politics?

dluan 10y ago

Here, I'll be more specific for you since you seem to lack imagination. Candidate in SF district declares run for CA state senate with most issues already set, either as a democrat or republican. Every SF resident gets access to an app and a vote on certain key issues. So issue of affordable housing and zoning laws comes up, constituents get to discuss and make arguments for each side amongst eachother. Maybe for this issue, they also get to vote, which will set this person's vote on the senate floor. Regardless, everyone else can publicly see the district's discussions, leanings, etc. Maybe there's a way for constituents to propose new topics or referendums, or that only the top contributors or people with 'points' get to do so. Maybe points are earned through verifiable volunteer work, maybe through donation. Maybe it uses analysis of what everyone's discussing already on the site to put new issues on the table. Maybe this starts at a small local level until you can prove with enough of a track record that this works better than current politicians. If it grows, it can become president. The point is, we developed representation as a heuristic for networks, transparency, and access. We have the technology for those things today.

stephancoral 10y ago
>Candidate in SF district declares run for CA state senate with most issues already set, either as a democrat or republican. Every SF resident gets access to an app and a vote on certain key issues. So issue of affordable housing and zoning laws comes up, constituents get to discuss and make arguments for each side amongst eachother. Maybe for this issue, they also get to vote, which will set this person's vote on the senate floor. Regardless, everyone else can publicly see the district's discussions, leanings, etc. How is this any different than going to the candidate's town hall forums and asking them questions? Or keeping up with their views on their own site and emailing their aides with questions and concerns? Or hell, even engaging with them on Twitter (which, fwiw, seems to be one of the more effective means of petitioning these days.) Furthermore, legislative discussions are for the most part a matter of public record. There are great sites that help people with finding out where candidates and parties stand on issues, both federal, state, and local- https://ballotpedia.org/California https://ballotpedia.org/California . >Maybe there's a way for constituents to propose new topics or referendums Yea, it exists, it's called a "ballot initiative" (https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_initiative https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_initiative) > or that only the top contributors or people with 'points' get to do so. Maybe points are earned through verifiable volunteer work, maybe through donation. Maybe it uses analysis of what everyone's discussing already on the site to put new issues on the table. Do you not see how ridiculous this sounds? So the people with more free time and money get to determine the political discourse? Are you even involved in your local politics?