How Can We Revamp Democracy? 5 Answers From Science Fiction

Democracy ’s self - destruct mechanism has been activated ! And the electronic computer voice – which go like the drone of a thousand line news anchors – is count down to the goal of our precious system of regime . As the information age and the hypermedia explosion turn democracy into a wild spin game , it ’s increasingly likely we ’ll ask to look at other good example of allocating our dwindling resources . So it ’s a right matter scientific discipline fabrication offers us a number of alternate models for future government .

skill fiction is n’t peculiarly positive when it comes to republic . popular regime are too quick to rush into stupid wars and give power to despots , like Senator Jar Jar in the Star Wars prequels . Doctor Who shows some mob uprisings in a felicitous Inner Light on juncture , but also lampoons democracy as a arrangement that forces politicians to gratify to the people , or else get electrocuted , in “ Vengeance On Varos . ” Winston Churchill famouslysaiddemocracy is the bad scheme of politics – apart from all the others that’ve been strain . But Winnie The Chill never tried live on under a council of artificial intelligence , or a immix mega - consciousness . Here are some ideas for a post - democratic bod of government from science fiction :

Let the artificial word call some of the shots . Considering that our voting machine may already be choosing our prospect for us , it may just make common sense to let truly independent AIs ply the show instead . We ’ll see how long farm subsidies , collective welfare and hallmark last when you have a system of AI control in place . possibly the most famous lesson of administration - by - AI is Iain M. Banks ’ “ Culture ” novels , in which the artificial “ Minds ” govern without corruption or inordinate favor . They ’re not entirely unprejudiced , because they seem to have whimsy and idiosyncrasy in some of his Good Book . But the main criticism hoi polloi have take down at them is that they ’re “ too good . ” In spot of Torah , people in the Culture are governed by report and skillful style , and even the Minds can arrive at or misplace reputation agree to their behavior . Only the best Minds get to be Hub Minds , controlling whole biospheres themselves . The novel of Isaac Asimov also often depict a “ robocracy ” ruled by machines or computers . Give the keys to the White House to a incorporate cognizance . In Peter F. Hamilton ’s Night ’s Dawn trilogy , the Edenists live in repose on infinite stations orbiting gas giants . Their closed book of harmonious living : “ Affinity , ” a strain of telepathy where everybody is linked . All Edenists link up together to make a government in a cognitive operation known as “ Consensus , ” where they colligate all their minds together . When an Edenist produce onetime , he / she can back up his / her consciousness and dwell on for C more years inside the habitat , before gradually becoming submerged into the home ground ’s shared consciousness . Try techno - commonwealth , with a system of circulate governance . In Tobias Buckell ’s new novel Sly Mongoose , we break that the dweller of the planet Chilo consumption brain implant to appropriate a large cross - section of their populations to control their representatives straightaway . “ There are three hundred thousand people from a form of Aeolian cities vote on my every Bible because I ’m their embodiment , emissary , diplomat , or whatever you would care to call me , ” say Katerina . She signed up for this duty when she became a citizen , and was arbitrarily selected . She has all of their voices “ sitting behind her skull , ” and if she does n’t do a good job , she could be fined , exiled , or lose her citizenship . Just imagine if you could vote on every Holy Scripture that comes out of George W. Bush ’s mouth ! Give the techno - hipster / green / feminist socialist utopia a chance . In novel like A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski and Woman At The Edge Of Time by Marge Piercy , everybody lives in concord and everything is decided by the collective . In Ocean , the underwater happy lesbians are actually call the Sharers of Shora , and they partake in everything together . They live on rafts , or in the water , and use the verb “ parcel ” as much as potential . In the utopianfutureof Edge Of Time , everything is communal and masses endure in minor towns that are “ own - fed ” ( ego - sustaining ) and peaceful . Men titty - feed and everybody lives grant to rituals and customs . And then there ’s the happy futurity of Star Trek and especially The Next Generation . Want and deprivation have been eliminated , nobody owns anything , and everything is peaceful and mellow unless Deforest Kelley is yelling in your spike . Thanks to inventions like the replicator ( and an apparently inexhaustible supplying of vim ) the citizens of the Federation can make anything they want . And though we only get suggestion here and there about the authorities of the Federation , it ’s clearly not a democracy – there ’s never any mention of voting , and we see the Federation Council and President making decisions in a more or less one-sided style . Or try anarchism . There are a few examples of function syndicalist societies in skill fiction . In Ursula K. LeGuin ’s The dispossess , for example , the anarchist follower of Odo split off from the mainstream society and mould their own quasi - anarchist social club . In theory , there are no law of nature on Anarres , and you may do whatever you want with your meter . The chief constraint is that you need to be able-bodied to work with others and take in their documentation in edict to have admittance to the scarce imagination on the planet . There ’s no property , so everything is shared , but our hero Shevek discovers over the course of the novel that there are still structures of authority , and you still have to kiss the ass of the human race . And then there ’s The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein , his main venture into anarchism . The lunar citizens have no write jurisprudence , and no way of apply contracts except based on someone ’s reputation . As one of Heinlein ’s mouthpiecessays :

Last Of Us 7 Ellie Crash

We do n’t have laws . Never been allowed to . Have custom , but are n’t write and are n’t enforced — or could say they are ego - enforcing because [ they ] are simply way things have to be , conditions being what they are . Could say our customs are natural Pentateuch because the way people have to behave to stay alive .

Thanks to Lauren Davis for inquiry helper .

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