[liberationtech] Fwd: Liberation Tech would like a word.

Mon Apr 22 21:39:07 CEST 2024

hi, seeing if this thread goes through this time!

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Lorelei Kelly <loreleikelly at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 3:00 PM
Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Liberation Tech would like a word.
To: Kate Krauss <katiephr at gmail.com>
Cc: liberationtech <liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu>

deliberative technology could take many different forms pol.is  remesh,
Zoom, Cortico Fora...online Town Hall Models, Citizen Assemblies, mini
publics...
what's interesting to me is how the Right to petition function of Congress
(First Amendment duty) was basically offshored in the 1940s to the
Executive Branch, thereby depriving Congress of its internal barometer of
the American people-- it gave the President power at the expense of the
legislature, and allowed the public grievance processing space to languish
or be privatized (Facebook).   Now much access is purchased via
lobbying...and advocacy... the rest of us are left to vote occasionally or
protest or spiral into frustration and even apathy (very dangerous)...
Grievance processing on top of an advertising platform is one of the major
drivers of dysfunction IMHO. And that's not even mentioning the Putin ad
buys.   It has been a disaster for democracy, but specifically for
institutions like Congress whose communications standards were literally
stuck in the Pony Express until 2020.  Here's an article that explains
<https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/3985778-to-protect-democracy-from-machines-congress-must-modernize-our-constitutional-right-to-petition/>this
big picture framing.

We have to actually change alot of laborious and byzantine rules, even laws
to allow Congress to function in the modern world.  It has many pockets of
Civil War era technology like an 1860s document format.  Fixing this is an
institutional long game--the Right Wing has been much more successful at
eliminating public infrastructure and then occupying/capturing it, selling
it off to friends and cronies or corporations (or flooding the zone with
shit aka Bannon's plan)   The Left, as far as I can tell has no competitive
institutional plan.  Centrists tend to not be supported by outside or
adjacent orgs.

our dysfunction re: tech and institutions is partly because the first
generation of technologies on social media fit into campaigning needs, not
governing, which requires slow moving, slow thinking and deliberation.
Its one reason why governing looks like campaigning now. The whole
incentive system is streamlined for it.  Citizens United in 2010 allowed
unlimited dark money into the blood stream of democracy.  We have to change
this incentive.  Americans need to fall in love with their governing
institutions again. They are so beleaguered and brittle.   And this needs
to be paid for by taxpayer dollars,facilitated by philanthropy,  not
privatized.   Democracy is not a pro bono project or a side gig  that you
think about while building a Mars rocket-- Scorn for institutions is one of
the reasons I left Silicon Valley (where I was born!)  and have never
looked back.

On Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 1:10 PM Kate Krauss <katiephr at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is so interesting. Thanks for sharing your fascinating insights into
> the dynamics right now in US Congress. I can't believe we've found an
> optimist! :)
>
> What sorts of things are you working on in this regard: "how to integrate
> new forms of deliberative technology into the workflow of members so there
> is a flow of authentic, productive, constituent driven feedback."  What
> sorts of deliberative technology?
>
> In modernizing, what kinds of unmodern things go wrong, and what direction
> are you going in fixing them? Also very interested to hear about AI and
> LLMs in the House (seems like a Saturday Night Live skit, but also, the
> future!).
>
> Thanks again,
>
> -Kate
>
> On Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 12:33 PM Lorelei Kelly <loreleikelly at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> hi, thanks for the note.
>> I'm glad to see this list momentum effort!  We need it!
>> I lead the modernizing Congress portfolio at Georgetown and I'm still
>> working adjacent to the US Congress with the members and committees who are
>> behind this effort-- The House has passed 202 reform and modernization
>> recommendations. It is truly an unprecedented and historic push forward.
>> I'm now helping implement the more difficult ones that include a social
>> cohesion aspect. (i.e. how to we integrate new forms of deliberative
>> technology into the workflow of members so there is a flow of authentic,
>> productive, constituent driven feedback)  Also we have gotten ahead of the
>> curve on AI and LLMs in the House at least. I'm proud of this old
>> institution, even though its looking like a three ring circus in the news.
>> I think the Mike Johnson success on Ukraine funding is a very interesting
>> turning point for looking at democracy as transcendent critical
>> infrastructure (backed up by pandemic measures to go remote and then J6
>> reactions to look at the information systems on Capitol Hill as national
>> security priorities)  We have begun to marginalize deviant behavior through
>> the process and this is a good, emergent, systems way to make sense of it.
>> Very interesting time for all of this.
>> LK
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 12:19 PM Kate Krauss <katiephr at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi!
>>>
>>> We didn't move the list, or change its name (Liberation Tech) but we did
>>> supply a link which works (after fixing a technical glitch) that you can
>>> share with new people who might want to join.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Kate
>>>
>>> On Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 12:12 PM Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim
>>> & Survivor of Many <gmkarl at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> > > Hi, I’m confused, what about the list this email was sent to (
>>>> lt at lists.liberationtech.org) ?
>>>> > >
>>>> > > What does the “subscribe” link in this email have to do with that
>>>> list?
>>>> > >
>>>> > > Is it a different list? The same list? Is
>>>> lt at lists.liberationtech.org still alive or being moved?
>>>> > >
>>>> > > Very confused,
>>>> > > Greg
>>>> >
>>>> > I'd like to relate that some communities have been both disrupted and
>>>> > defended by influences skilled in social manipulation, and that one
>>>> > attribute of that is changing the environment.
>>>> >
>>>> > Changing an environment can help change, whether overt or covert, be
>>>> > adopted more readily. It can separate both from harm and fear as well
>>>> > as familiarity and community.
>>>> >
>>>> > It's pleasant that changing the list name could help people feel safer
>>>> > from any trauma associated with the old list, and help anything
>>>> > targeting the old list have a little trouble finding the new people.
>>>> >
>>>> > I hope that everybody who was affiliated with the old list succeeds in
>>>> > finding the new one, but I know there will be people who don't.
>>>> >
>>>> > Some communities often have to move in order to survive well. This
>>>> > does sadly often mean leaving people behind.
>>>> >
>>>> > Crazy Karl (I think I have OSDD from technologically-facilitated
>>>> abuse!)
>>>>
>>>> Apologies, I did not realize it was the _same_ list the subscribe link
>>>> was sent to.
>>>>
>>>> I had assumed by context that this was a new list.
>>>>
>>> --
>>> Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major
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>>> change to digest mode, or change password by emailing
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>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> *Lorelei KellyResearch Lead, Congressional Modernization
>> <https://beeckcenter.georgetown.edu/project/modernizing-congress/>*
>>
>>
>>
>> *Founder, Georgetown Democracy, Education + Service (GeoDES)*
>>
>>

-- 

*Lorelei KellyResearch Lead, Congressional Modernization
<https://beeckcenter.georgetown.edu/project/modernizing-congress/>*

*Founder, Georgetown Democracy, Education + Service (GeoDES)*

-- 

*Lorelei KellyResearch Lead, Congressional Modernization
<https://beeckcenter.georgetown.edu/project/modernizing-congress/>*

*Founder, Georgetown Democracy, Education + Service (GeoDES)*
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