We Can End Corruption By Building Better Systems
Such As A Transparent Parallel Direct Democracy
A summary of this article in four sentences.
The "tyranny of the masses problem” (under a system of direct democracy) is when 51% of the people can vote to imprison or seize the other 49% of everything.
This “tyranny of the masses” (sometimes called the “tyranny of the majority”) is a real threat with groups of people, and the main reason why the idea of direct democracies is often shunned.
Our biggest problem in society today is that the systems that govern over our lives have been corrupted by powerful forces that collude and do not have our best interests in mind.
If we can solve the “tyranny of the masses” problem and prevent using it as a weapon against each other, we could harness the power found in Direct Democracies and aim it back on those who corrupt our systems. In fact this unity is what the Corruptors fear most, and why they strive to keep us divided.
We are guessing that simply by using the term “democracy” we will invoke an emotional response in some people, since the word has become such a political hot potato in recent times. The dual term “direct democracy” is probably even more emotionally virulent, with immediate responses ranging from “We are a Republic!” to “It will never work!” to “What about the tyranny of the majority problem?!”
We foresee people commenting on this article based just on the headline. For those who give it a fair shake, we appreciate you.
For example, the well-known modern anarchist Michael Malice once retweeted one of our comments about how a blockchain direct democratic system could save us from the current corruption that engulfs our world. The response from his followers wasn’t surprising. They immediately attacked even the mention of a “direct democracy” (of course most without actually reading the attached article).
Here is the funny thing, we completely understood and empathized with his followers’ responses, and agreed with many of them. Tyranny is tyranny, and we absolutely should be aware of when it is coming. Whether that tyranny is achieved by a network of powerful entities working together - like what we have today - or, if the tyranny is committed by a direct democracy and 51% of your neighbors vote to take the other 49% for themselves. Tyranny doesn’t care what vessel it arrives in, the resulting aftermath is the same.
But what if we could harness the immense power found in the ‘tyranny of the masses’ problem (if you are still not 100% sure what that is read more here), and aim that power back at the people who are corrupting our system?
Yes, this would be a dangerous mission. The ‘tyranny of the majority’ is a real threat. But we could build our new digital systems transparently, open sourced, and in carefully crafted ways that purposely prevent us from using this tyranny on each other, and only allow for us to point it at the people who choose to keep corrupting our systems.
Think of 'the ‘tyranny of the masses’ not as a problem, per say, but more of as a weapon.
If we as citizens wield this sword against each other we will end up crushing small and large groups of us, disregarding individual rights, and ruining the fabric of our society. However, if we harness this weapon and point it specifically at the people who are harming our systems, we could clean it up very quickly and efficiently. Remember, the “tyranny of the majority” is what the people doing the corrupting (The Corruptors, as we call them) fear most. They know once we figure out how to point it at them, they will no longer be able to control our system.
Two wolves and a sheep voting on what is for dinner is not the answer. Nor is it what we are advocating for, so please hear this next part out. The type of direct democracy we are referring to is something new — a different way for groups to problem solve together called Human Swarm Intelligence.
Imagine if we had a way to present a problem to a billion people, ask them a question, and get one creative and wise answer from the group like we wrote about HERE. This is what we are referring to. It isn’t voting. In fact, it isn’t anything you have likely ever heard of before unless you have been studying digitally enhanced collective intelligence systems, (aka “swarm” systems).
Instead of two wolves and a sheep voting on what is for dinner, a swarm would be more like three anonymous members from the same community problem solving for hunger together. A wolf wouldn’t vote to eat a sheep if it didn’t know that it was solving a problem with a sheep. In fact, the wolf has to be wary that the other people solving with it might want to eat it. In a well designed system the wolf wouldn’t know if it was problem solving with a sheep or a polar bear.
Try to imagine a better system. Not just a voting and binary choice system, but something dynamic and proven to enhance problem solving skills, resolve conflicts, create knowledge — and more — in large groups. A bottom-up, decentralized, transparent and trustworthy system that is also 100% in control of the people using it.
Human Swarm Intelligence systems can do all of this and more, like we wrote about HERE.
The classic example of two wolves and a sheep is a bad one anyway, because unlike animals, humans have empathy, explanatory knowledge, and emotions. Plus in countries like America, we have a Constitution to protect the individuals. Not to mention, three is not the best number for any group or swarm to work in. Swarms actually do much better the larger the number of people there are. So two hundred wolves and a hundred sheep would be much better. And then, if the wolves and sheep used a Swarming System to solve their problem of hunger — instead of voting — we would likely end up with a creative solution more like this: they buy a bunch of chickens and make eggs and cheese together for the wolves to eat, and leave the sheep alone to eat grass.
If you strongly oppose the idea of a direct democracy, we hope to encourage you to rethink the idea in a new framework. Simple decentralization - a leaderless society.
Our biggest problem in all of society is the corruption. Our systems have been corrupted, and the obvious symptom we can all see is that no one trusts any of our systems anymore. Also, none of our systems are getting the results we want. Those two symptoms — lack of trust and lack of results — are the two most likely symptoms fully corrupted societies have.
The point in our government where the systems are corrupted is at the politician. They are the weak link. If you corrupt the politician then you control the whole system that they control. People like Epstein and Maxwell knew this, and corrupted the most powerful people to achieve this goal. It also explains why hundreds of politicians can outperform the top stock traders on Wall Street with their portfolios, or why the family members of powerful politicians sometimes get $10 million contracts at corporations and never have to show up for a single day of work, or get $5 million speaking fees for companies that literally wrote the bills that they passed.
In other words, politicians are easily corruptible. But the answer is equally easy: we don’t need them anymore. And we want to prove it.
Yes, there can be problems in groups. But have you taken the time to unpack and understand these problems? We have. And we believe that the problems that can sometimes arise in groups - echo chambers, groupthink, and tyranny of the masses - are all solvable problems. In fact they are much easier to solve for than the current problem of the corruption in our systems.
A fully transparent non-profit digital direct democracy run using human swarm intelligence is how we can run a direct democracy safely.
Simply put: Humans solve problems better in groups. We have written about this many times such as HERE, or HERE, or HERE. Nearly all of the amazing things done on this planet were done as a result of human collaboration. So how can we get rid of the corruption, and harness humans’ problem solving ability in groups without sliding into tyranny?
It starts with epistemology. First in our new systems we need to scrap voting altogether. Of course we will still use it in the old corrupted systems, for now. But it is not the best way for the people to have a say in self governance. There are much better ways than voting to problem solve in groups and once you see how much better they are you will see that although voting was good for the time, it is too easy to corrupt to keep counting on it. We can make new systems, prove they work in a digital space, and then people will want to use them elsewhere to govern with. Governing should be problem solving, and if we approach it by starting with the problem, the chances of solving it greatly increase.
We also need to scrap labels in groups. Labeling yourself left or right, or anything - sets up for a potential echo chamber later on. In order to prevent echo chambers and thus tyranny, we need a problem solving space that just isolates problems and solves for them. We need a new place that lets ideas stand alone on their own merit.
New high trust direct democracy (leaderless) systems using Human Swarm Intelligence solve for this.
As for the perils sometimes found in groups, the tyranny of the masses problem is caused in this sequence usually
Lack of diversity of opinion and high rung thinking
Labels that divide people
Echo Chambers
Group Think
Tyranny of the Masses
We solve for these by stopping them at step #1 and step #2, like this:
1) Better systems - 100% transparent, results-based systems that use metrics for all policies. Also Human Swarm Intelligence systems that don’t use archaic voting and instead use creative problem solving techniques. Make a place where ideas stand alone - not attached to labels, political parties, or even people. The system should also have in place fail safes to prevent tyranny of the masses should they ever arise.
2) Education - each member of any leaderless system must understand what causes tyranny of the masses. Members must be independent in thought and courageous, swearing off labels for solutions. We know tyranny of the masses is caused mostly by echo chambers (as Tim Urban describes in his book What’s Our Problem?). Echo chambers are caused by labels, lack of awareness, and bad epistemology. All of these are preventable problems with good systems.
3) A constitution - a code or agreement that protects the individual. This must be enforced by trustworthy systems. The people directly must control their own constitution, not a centralized and thus corruptible power.
Of course, changing the existing corrupted systems is basically impossible. So we need to make new systems that make the old ones obsolete. We are starting a new digital country called a Network State. If you are unfamiliar with this terminology read THIS. Balaji Srinivasan defines a Network State in one sentence: “A network state is a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states.”
While we love this idea we want to edit the last part. Why can’t a Network State simply plug into existing states and then morph them into one entity?
For the doubters (and we at The Society of Problem Solvers respect the doubters - as a culture of criticism is the key to growth), we can create basically a flight simulator for Direct Democracy. If you are for it or against it, good. Bring your enthusiasm to the party and let’s run it as a modern experiment. What does a modern direct democracy look like when it is run with the following criteria:
Run directly by the people.
Run as a 100% Transparent system - we need to repair trust, and transparency is trust in systems.
All decisions are results-based, and have metrics tied to policy
To become active in the process you must graduate from Swarm Academy and learn how to problem solve in groups, be aware of the problems in groups, and how to optimize results for the entire community.
To participate you must adhere to our constitution and code, which protects individuals.
For any funds, we use a decentralized currency on a transparent ledger that we agree to (for example like Bitcoin) as our official currency so there is a transparent wallet and ledger that everyone can see at all times. At the very least decentralized and transaprent accounting.
Labels are not allowed in our systems, and fail safes in our system to prevent echo chambers, labels, groupthink and tyranny from arising. Ideas stand alone in the system.
We don’t use voting. We use human swarm intelligence. We start our sessions with problems, and then try to solve the problems together with creative explanatory knowledge.
Humans have conquered so many dangerous things. Electricity, cars, flying, nuclear power - yet we fear working in groups, and constantly echo the idea that because it is dangerous that it should not be explored. This fear is what is preventing us from reaching the next level of humanity possible.
Why do you think the powerful people work so hard to divide us? Because they know that if we unify it is the most powerful force on Earth. We have something to unify over, it is the corruption in our systems.
The fear of direct democracy isn’t wrong. It’s just solvable. Imagine if when the first plane crashed we stopped flying. Let’s look at this problem again. We can run simulations as a Network State, work out the kinks, and optimize it. Every problem you see in direct democracy is solvable. The benefit and power of a direct democracy system is that it is very very hard to corrupt when done right, and we need that the most in our society right now. America was decentralized as much as possible for the time, and it worked great for a long time, but now has been fully corrupted and needs a boost. Help us build a place like that.
Thanks for reading!
Solving problems is happiness.
And humans solve problems better in high-trust groups.
Thanks for reading The Society of Problem Solvers! Subscribe for free now and always!
Please join our think tank message board at SwarmAcademy.ai where we continue conversations like this one and where you will be able to participate in swarm intelligence problem solving with us (once it is built). NOTE: We are building it now.
Note: this is a partial reprint and rewrite of an earlier article with new updates. Thank you to all of the writers that make this possible. We are always accepting guest writers, so if you have an idea for a solution, please reach out. Let’s solve it all, together.
For over 3 billion years on this planet there were only single-celled organisms. Then one day they somehow learned to work together and make complex multi-celled creatures . Right now we are like those single-celled organisms. Our next evolution is finding how to work together, better… (like we wrote about here).
#SwarmAcademy #LEADERLESS #ResultsMatterMost #DecentralizeEverything #DemandTransparency
COMMENTS ARE FOR EVERYONE AS A PLACE TO THINK-TANK SOLUTIONS. They will never be for paid-only subscribers and we will never charge a subscription.
You had me at "leaderless." Love the possibility of a democracy run by an unlimited variety of ideas instead of the standard appeal to self-interest opening the door to corruption. Love the goal of restoring trust without which there can be no real democracy. Especially love the idea of respect from all of us for all of us, not just for those who happen to share our priorities.
False information and propaganda create fear, anger and hatred. No one does their own thinking anymore. We buy half baked opinions and blame everyone else based on our own projections, omniscience and ignorance. We are overwhelmed. Anything we can imagine is too little, too late, hopeless, and something someone else should have done already.
Our leaders claim to be helpless. Problem solving is difficult, too dangerous and it's all the voters' fault anyway. I'm sick of hearing over and over how ugly our situation is and that any attempt at change will inevitably make things worse and it will all be my fault.
Thank you for a glimmer of hope.
During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Ross Perot observed that: "a general lack of accountability among elected officials and those in the bureaucracy is the one specific reason that the people of America suffered…. and our only means of correction is to inspect their work and hold them accountable.”
Mr. Perot went on to note that this can easily be done with computer programs.
He called it: THE ELECTRONIC TOWNHALL.
“It is only logical that it will become our Fourth Branch of Government”, he said.
Objective reality:
the voting members of the US Congress and the State Legislatures do not have enough time to read, comprehend or debate any of the laws they vote on. They vote 100 times a day, every five minutes, while in session.
Approximate absolute facts:
Every day that the Congress and Legislatures are in session 100 new bills are introduced and distributed.
The representatives are given two weeks to review the bills before they are brought up for The Vote.
Two weeks into the session they begin voting on the Laws that were previously introduced, while newer laws are introduced.
Many of these bills are in excess of two thousand pages.
The arithmetic demonstrates that the elected representative does not have the time to even read the name of the Law much less the content of it.
Since the Representatives cannot evaluate 200 thousand pages of law speak per day, they vote the way their Party advisors tell them to vote.
This demonstrates that Representative government does not exist.
Thus, they have forfeited their delegated obligations to us, The Citizens.
And the only way to prevent these over worked and fallible people from making even more tragic mistakes, from which we, and the rest of the world, might never recover is to include ourselves in the final decision making process.
The Electronic Congress
How it works:
Before a new law, tax, or expenditure can be put on the books it must first be Ratified by the Citizens.
Existing laws can be Annulled by the same super majority required to Ratify them.
This program can be applied to every level of government and will ultimately solve every problem we have.
To prevent chaos, the basic law, our Constitution and Bill of Rights, would be exempt from review.
Mr. Perot speculated that the Founding Fathers would probably have done the same had the technology been available in their day.
Just imagine:
With a new understanding we will also be able to accommodate new proposals initiated by us, The Citizens, for program and infrastructure improvements.
We, The People, could actually direct the priorities and review the progress of the major agencies like the: CDC and NIH as well as the libraries, school boards and local police departments.
If our government truly is of the people, by the people and for the people then this is the only way forward.
How to implement it:
Start here:
Dear Mr. / Madam School Board Trustee
I write to you today in a sincere effort to help you accomplish your noble reasons for seeking this office.
That is I seek to help you facilitate the betterment of our schools for our children and young people.
To do this, I ask you to make the Board meeting agenda questions and the data points behind them available to me as well as all of the other taxpayers.
Upload the stack to a server where we can read, ratify and or annul the elements after log on.
In a perfect world each paragraph must have at least three possible answers: agree, disagree, no opinion at this time.
Direct democracy is a growing trend, and many companies offer these services:
hosting, voter receipts, and a running tally of totals for everyone to see.
In this way Madam Trustee you are assured that you will always have the strength of the community with you when making the decisions that really do effect the lives of our people.
Vty,
Helpful Taxpayer Citizen
++++++++++++++++++++++++++