[liberationtech] Stability in truly "Democratic" decision systems

[Peter Lindener]

   Watching Egypt iteratively attempt to find something that resembles a
democratic form government feels quite uncomfortable for me. Not only that
in the senseless confusion many lives will be lost, but also, closer to
home, here at Stanford, deeper reflections of the human condition seem
still to be leaving our institution's interest in promoting forms of
democracy that are more likely to function in a state of disarray..

   I find it encouraging that Stanford has the kind of vision, value system
 and intellect that prompt it to support both a program on Liberation
Techonolgy, as well as the Center for Democracy and the rule of Law...
   Then I have to ask why it seems maintenance of the existing
Socio-Political power schema some how seems to trump moving ahead with the
stated intentions of each of these promising programs..?

  While not all seem ready for the rigor of formal methods in information
and Game theory towards building our society's better understanding of what
it truly means to achieve a more genuine sense of democracy (i.e. a
government for the people, by the people)... It would see that to just sit
by and watch, as we preach to others that democracy is good, and then fail
in any truly meaningful way to show how to achieve it, feels discouraging,
at least for me.

   In a nut shell, the truly democratic group decision process, can best be
understood as an information process that under some circumstances must
endure varying amounts of game stress.  as varying interests within a group
attempt to maximize there influence on the group's decision outcome.
    The good news here is that: Significant insights can be gained, as one
looks at the truly democratic group decision, as an information process..
These include:
   1. Profoundly improved, individually selected, issue specialized,
expertise leveraged, representation can be achieved by way of
individualized Social Network based key word triggered proxy directives..
   2. Wide open alternative Cardinal ranked group choice systems, that are
essentially free of the spoiler effect, will empower the implementation of
crowd sourced "idea percolators", that will tend to leverage the best
thinking and problem solvers within our society.

   Now I know that some (perhaps from there ivory tower) may be wanting to
dismiss what it is I'm saying here....even as we sit watching the situation
in Egypt potentially melt down....   Some might point to Arrow's
Impossibility Theorem, and then declare that there is nothing more to
discuss...
    Then a few (including a few very bright Stanford students) might be
taking note of Von Neumann–Morgenstern utility theorem, and realize that
there would seem to be more to understand...

    Working towards the  dream of government, for the people, by the
people, I will continue to make my self available as a resource for
discussion surround the concept of *Information Theoretic Democracy*.

   Sincerely your's
       -Peter Lindener
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