The future of government (a ramble)

I like the basic idea of wikis , but I feel it the implementation is only half-way there, and I am looking forward to when the other half is completed as I feel that democracy is somewhat flawed and wikis could be a viable future approach.

The other half would encompass the assignment of authority to users. Democracy elects politicians. A person (theoretically) chooses a politician that would best represent their interests. A perfect democracy would have everyone voting on every issue. The flaw with that is that not everyone is an expert on every issue. They don’t even care about most issues. It would be good to have people contribute to government in the areas in which they are both passionate and informed. Passion will be self-selecting, however judging a contributors relative competency is tricky. It is there that improvement is needed.

Google has something that is interesting and along these lines: Points. One way a user earns points is by describing a picture (the info will be used for their image search functionality). This is done in tandem with another user. Whenever two users describe a picture in the same way, they are both awarded points. The points system could be used to help validate authority.

I also like the idea that sub-18-year-olds could use the system just as well. I don’t see why there should be an age limit on voting if a child is mentally competent. In fact, kids are often more idealistic and moral than adults — I’d trust a group of average IQ teens to make better legislation than average IQ adults.

Google’s PageRank could also provide clues as to how to assign authority. Users could be required to vote for some number of other users. These votes would be weighted by how many people had voted for the voters. It’s a bit recursive and complicated, but basically if a lot of people vote for you and then you vote for someone else, you vote counts more than a vote from someone who has no votes. This PageRank system could be a good method for electing politicians. I personally know friends of mine that I would trust voting more than myself, so when I went to the polls I could give them proxy points so that when they voted, their votes counted more.