Let's Build a Parallel, Open, Decentralized, Democratic System Online that Plugs into Our Existing One

How to get the power back to the people from the colluding special interest groups that have corrupted our system, prevent voter fraud, & the lessons we've learned from the Sunflower Revolution.

If the technology of today had existed 250 years ago when the American Democratic Republic was founded, do you think it would have been used to the advantage of the voters in creating a trustworthy form of government? 

The framers of the Constitution wanted to form a government that did not allow one person or entity to have too much control or authority. They knew that centralization was one of the most important ingredients for tyranny to arise. This is why - for the technology they had at the time - they decentralized by spreading the power out over the states and many representatives.

Decentralization of power creates an efficient and reliable government, amplifies and improves local development, better ensures the rights of the voters to have a voice in government, and better protects minority groups in the long run (for example here in America we eventually abolished slavery, enacted child labor laws, and restored women’s rights to have an equal say etc. etc.). The more decentralized a government is the freer it is to debate, rationalize, contemplate itself, protest, lobby, and most importantly - evolve.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, once an entity becomes too centrally controlled it becomes dangerous to the people inside the system. As we talk about often at The Society of Problem Solvers, centralized powerful entities are always the target of corruption (for example here and here). From monopolies to monarchies, when the power resides only in the hands of the few, the rights of the individual are lost - and corruption takes root.

Understanding our systems and how they are corrupted is the key to reform.

The one safe and proven way to regain power back to the individuals in a system is this: Instead of attacking with another centralized entity, you instead create a new decentralized platform to compete against it (LIKE THIS) - or in this case, integrate with it. We’ll get to this in a moment, but first let’s make sure we all understand decentralization.

If you are unfamiliar with decentralization, let’s examine a great - but simple - example to better realize its true power. Let’s look at what happened to the music (and eventually movie) industries in the early 2000s.

In early 1999, the individual recording studios were on top of the world. Consolidated and centralized into a few behemoths, nearly all of the revenues that flowed through those industries went through only a handful of the biggest players there - MGM, Columbia, Sony, etc. However, within a very short time in the early 2000s sales were down 10% then 25% and plummeting…. what was happening?

As the brilliant book ‘The Starfish and the Spider’ explains:

“A no-named college freshman was too lazy to go to Tower Records… he wanted his music for free. Eighteen-year old Shawn Fanning, nicknamed “Napster” by his friends, launched a company out of his dorm room.”

Napster was a P2P (peer-to-peer) decentralized service. Where people online could simply copy and share files with each other. However, Napster was still a little too centralized - using a private server to operate. And it was soon shut down by the courts. But it didn’t take long for the millions of users who got a taste for the free music to become even more decentralized in their ways. Pretty soon websites like Kazaa, Grokster, and Morpheus popped up. Suddenly, the media and music giants were losing billions of dollars.

These centralized corporate entities realized they couldn’t stop the decentralization movement. In fact every time they counter attacked with lawsuits or lobbying efforts, the entities would regroup and return with even more innovative decentralization methods. In the end the massive conglomerates were forced to decentralize their products as well - forming services such as Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, Netflix, Hulu, and more.

And who benefited the most from this? The individual users (aka We The People).

If you use this example as a frame of reference you can see the same thing has been happening with the media conglomerates. The impossibly massive centralized “news” and media companies have lost billions of dollars to the decentralized media of podcasters, Youtubers, and Substack writers.

In truth, the only real power these media companies still have left is their collusion. By screaming in unison they are able to still hold on to scattered portions of the population who have yet to lift the curtain to their mind games. But each day that goes by they keep losing more and more influence.

Hopefully these examples give you a sense of the potential power that decentralization can bring to systems.

Now let’s imagine this for government.

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Over time, as the ways to corrupt our government systems have evolved, the ways to defend them have remained stagnant in the dark ages.  Our failure to advance the way we interact with government and protect the system against corruption using modern technology has allowed colluding special interest groups to seize control for their own objectives. 

But it’s not too late to change that.

Imagine a new, open sourced, voluntary, digital system created and agreed upon by all of us, and then plugged into the existing system of government, with the idea of stopping corruption and creating trust again.  Think about the way wearing body cameras changed how we police.  Now imagine something like that for all of the politicians and government.

Tristan Harris of the Netflix Special “The Social Dilemma” explains on his podcast:

“Imagine if the United States and Western states around the World - went through sweeping reforms that included a modernization of Congress, transparency of each member’s votes, video of all the conversations each Congress member had with all of the lobbyists and guests.  Imagine that expressing outrage about your local political environment turned into a participatory process where you were invited to solve that problem and even entered into a face-to-face workshop.   That pothole in the street that has been there for 4 years?  Suddenly it’s changed.”

Of course this is the dilemma. With our entire systems corrupted, how can we expect the government to reform itself? We can’t. However what we can do is take matters into our own hands and develop a new open sourced system.

As a start, we have secured the domain iGov.tech, and would happily turn this over to the open sourced community to create an “iGov” platform - or platforms - that could be used to create transparency - and therefore trust - in the government systems once again.

What’s largely appealing about an idea like this is that most people - no matter what political side they are on - find value in it.  It brings people together.  You may be from the left, right, or center politically.  But there are - and should be - a lot of things we can all agree on that are not happening right now.  

Things, for example, like eliminating the stranglehold corporate lobbyists have on the democratic process.    Of course it’s easier to diagnose problems than come up with solutions.  But if we had an open, digital iGov system built in a way to nurture those solutions - one that connected voters and representatives - we would have the foundation and tools to foster exactly that, and more. 

“Does this sound impossible?   Well, it is ambitious and optimistic.”  Says Tristan.   But this is exactly the success story that has been implemented and developed in Taiwan since 2014.  And by all accounts it is working amazingly well.  Despite being the tug-of-war chew toy between mainland China and their own citizens, Taiwan has done a masterful job of keeping the grips of the CPP from collapsing its independent government. It all started during what came to be known as Taiwan’s Sunflower Revolution.

In March 2014  Taiwan’s ruling party tried to force a trade agreement known as the CSSTA through the legislature without giving it a proper review. This created an uprising with many citizens believing that this was a backdoor ploy by the CCP to gain control of Taiwan, and on March 18th crowds of students and protestors climbed over the fence of the legislature and entered Taiwan’s Parliament - occupying it in a nonviolent protest.  

The name “Sunflower Revolution” came shortly after when thousands of sunflowers were dropped off by a local florist and the protesters held them as a symbol of hope due to their heliotropic nature.  “Heliotropic” means that sunflowers move in response to the direction of the sunlight, and the protestors were metaphorically doing the same thing (transparency, thus sunlight, is the best disinfectant).   This occupation of the legislative chamber led to a digital revolution.  And at the center of it all was the current Digital Minister of Taiwan, Audrey Tang - a civic hacker and free software programmer at the time.

Audrey was born in Taipei in 1981 and was considered a child prodigy. By eight months old she was already speaking. By 14 she had quit school and was programming full time for a leading IT tech company.

As the 2014 protests unfolded, Audrey realized the occupying protestors had no Wi-Fi. So, she showed up with 350 meters of ethernet cables and installed a communications hub that was transparent, open, and responsive to the demands of the public, making sure that truth was spreading faster than rumors and propaganda.   She set up a live stream to a large projector screen out in the street where tens of thousands of people could see in real time what was being debated in Parliament as it was occupied. 

It was so successful that after the protests were peacefully resolved, Taiwan’s government invited Audrey to build a system of communication for the entire country that she now calls “a Listening Society.”

“It transformed our society,” says Audrey.  “If you asked a random person in 2010 on the streets of Taiwan: ‘Would the people somehow unite under the banner (of this movement), people would look at you like you are crazy.”  

“Transparency (in government) creates trust” is one of her mantras.   And she lives by it. Every Wednesday from 10am to 10pm she meets with people in her government office.  Like the police who wear body cameras, anyone is allowed to come and talk as long as they agree that their conversation will be video recorded and posted online in real time for everyone to see.  Imagine if this was how government officials met in America or elsewhere?

She swears by the philosophy - what she calls “radical transparency” - where nearly all information concerning government (except the ultra sensitive) is disclosed online so that citizens can engage with the government on an even ground.     She combines this with the principles of civic participation, and rough consensus using upvoting and downvoting platforms and polls. 

Audrey adds,   “The most important thing of course is trust… So through radical transparency, through open government… we make sure that people understand the context - the ‘why’ of policy making. Not just the ‘what’ of the result of the policy. We ensure that everybody is included in the discussion.  And that makes it possible for Democracy to truly work.”

How well is it working?   Well let’s take the pandemic as an example.  Due to the participatory nature of government, Taiwan was a shining example of success.   They were able to adapt fast, fix mistakes when they were made, and never had to shut down places like restaurants or public spaces.  All while using information in real time - information that the public trusted because of the system of transparency.

But could something like this work elsewhere?  

With 23 million residents in Taiwan, it is quite an achievement.   But what if this was tried in the United States?  How could it be implemented with 330 million people?

The key would be starting small.  In a city, town, or county. We should also start multiple different formats of this to see what systems work best for the people. Once we beta test several different models, work out the kinks, and find out which ones are the most trustworthy and produce the best results - we let the iGov system spread like wildfire. 

In Taiwan, they started in two mayoral races and it spread from there.  All that’s needed is the right technology to exist, a candidate willing to run on the platform and adhere to the standards of using it, and a way to get the idea and technology to the people and get them involved to put pressure on the politicians.

Let’s conceptualize some possibilities.

Imagine downloading an iGov app that had everything you needed for participatory government.  Picture a virtual town hall for ideas to percolate, and instant feedback loops from up-voting and down-voting by voters.  Imagine representatives following that feedback with their actions.  Envision a video platform for those running to debate on, and a way for voters to generate questions to ask in the debates.  Imagine having a newsfeed of all of the bills and actions your representatives are considering and voting on in the near future, along with Town Hall ideas of how to fix problems generated by your fellow citizens.

Visualize a truly transparent government - representatives that video record every meeting, every bill that is voted on,  and posts them online in real time for constituents to check, review, dissect, and give feedback on.

Picture a way for government contracts to be only issued on merit using DAO technology.  No special favors would be possible.

Envision a system that worked tirelessly to help marginalized communities connect with representatives, with ideas percolating to the top, instead of from the top down.

Imagine blockchain technology to ensure voting fraud is a thing of the past, but the system would still have the possibility to protect anonymity - while at the same time preventing troll farms, bots, and spam (this technology already exists).

Picture reviewing all the current stacks of laws and policies publicly online.  Imagine a system so flexible it could be encouraged to reverse mistakes and remove bad laws from the books that cause more harm than good.

Visualize a platform that takes what people agree on - instead of what they disagree on - to find rational solutions to our problems (which is exactly the opposite of what social media platform algorithms do now).  The issues we disagree on most would use a developmental method to find the most balanced and innovative solutions possible.

Imagine a system providing real-time accurate polling and grading of representatives - graded by the voters and the constituents participating.    Are the representatives doing what the people want?  Are they doing what they promised? Are they acting with transparency?  How do their actions line up with the desires of the constituents? Picture a similar decentralized way to how we review products online, but for our representatives.

Envision a government not controlled by special interests or Wall Street but instead actually of, by and for the people.

Let's reimagine what real representation could look like.  For starters, representatives might have to swear to a new oath or constitution of sorts (like we wrote about here).  This of course wouldn’t change the existing Constitution or Bill of Rights, but rather simply protect them from the corruption that is happening. This oath would be written by the people, and it would be based on several fundamental tenets that simply help eliminate the ways our systems are currently corrupted - namely: decentralization and governmental transparency.

But, you might be asking…. with all this, why would a representative want to join this iGov platform?

Well, because if we all agreed to it - across party lines -  it would be impossible for any representative to get elected through normal elections unless they volunteered to be part of the new digital system. The iGov system would be a check and balance against voter fraud as our blockchain ledgers and open sourced transparency would be eons harder to corrupt than the current one.

At first there would be iGov Democrats and iGov Republicans. Those willing to strap on the digital shock collar and enter government would be the allies of the people - shining a light on all of the corruption. Their shield would be the transparency. We simply refuse to vote for anyone who doesn’t plug into the system and use it as WE intended them too.  If any politicians refuse to plug into the system, they expose themselves as having intentions of not being for the people. Don’t want to use the iGov app and agree to our new code? Fine. You are now unelectable. 

To the surprise of many (especially the entrenched politicians) this is exactly what happened in Taiwan.  Career politicians were replaced with those committed to the new system. 

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Are there obstacles to overcome? For sure.

In addition to the technology implementation and finding some fertile political ground to run this in beta, there is also just getting the simple idea across to people.
People fear technology mostly because they don’t understand the difference between centralized and decentralized systems (like we wrote about here). One of our favorite graphics explains this pretty well:

Resisting change is human nature. People from the left often fear decentralization as some kind of lawless Anarchy, and people from the right want to call it a form of communism. But it is neither. The system of checks and balances still exists. There is still the Constitution, the courts, and executive branches of government in place. This is just a decentralized layer in between the people and the government. A buffer. One that the government doesn’t control like it would in a centralized communist system (which would lead to tyranny), and one that isn’t without iron clad checks and balances like what might be found in a lawless anarchist society (which would lead to chaos). Rather this system would simply be a conduit used to root out corruption and make the government more accountable and responsive to the people.

It would also protect against voter fraud as it would establish a second parallel system to account for.

Keep in mind that today, the centralized monoliths are all using technology against the people - collecting data and using it to transfer wealth and power to themselves. The concept we outlined here is just one possibility of how we could level the playing field again. It would still have fail-safes to protect rights, protect the free market, and protect against problems like the “tyranny of the masses” problem. In fact that would be one of the main duties of the new era of politicians.

The people who really fear a technology like this are those cronies entrenched in power and locked into the revolving door of the current opaque and corrupted systems. Something like this would ruin their stranglehold on power.

As Naval Ravikant likes to say, “To me, the test of any good system is you build a system, hand it over to your enemies to run.” A good system should still run perfectly and be unbreakable.  It shouldn’t matter who is running it. “That’s how you know it’s a good system.”

Our current system has failed at this. It is corrupted. The solution isn’t finding better people to run it.  It’s creating a better system so the person who is elected matters less. 

A new way of thinking about government is possible.  But first we need people to help us build many versions of this, and we need people to help spread the word.   We need programmers, coders, marketing people, people willing to run for office, people willing to share this idea, and more.

We don’t have the numbers of tech savvy people yet in our ranks to make this a reality. If you are reading this and you do, please join us.

You could start by simply commenting below or sharing this idea.

If you read another link of ours at all we recommend this one the most as it ties into this: The Top 3 Technologies We Should be Using to Take Control Of Our Governments Again LINK HERE

Thanks for reading!

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Note: this was a redraft (with updates) of “The Case for Building a New, Open, Digital Democratic System Online” we released Jan 1, 2022.

As always the entire purpose of The Rationalist is to connect with other solutions-minded people like yourself! We strive to be a Society of Problem Solvers, and if you align with that we are happy that you’ve joined us. 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 like you and me. Right now we are like those single-celled organisms. Our next evolution is finding how to work together, better like we wrote about here.

#DecentralizeEverything #Transparency #transparentsystems

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