Direct Democracy through Self-Expansion

from /villagepump/Direct_Democracy_through_Self-Expansion

20241020

• The discussion below is quite rough, but I feel there is a significant potential.
• It seems to skillfully combine the Rousseauian ideal in General Will 2.0 with the ideals of Arendt and Habermas.
  • By smoothing out the concept of “self,” there is a sense of being able to smooth out higher-level concepts as well.
• Image

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from /villagepump/2024/10/12 (blu3mo) Left: Representative Democracy

• Pros:
  • Representatives act as buffers/cushions.
    • Instead of directly reflecting citizens’ temporary emotions or shortsighted thoughts, having a human buffer in between can lead to long-term happiness for everyone.
    • Representative democracy acts as a low-pass filter for public opinion
  • Citizens do not have the time or resources to constantly think about politics, so representatives do it on their behalf.
• Cons:
  • If a voted representative resigns, rendering one’s vote useless, or if there is no representative whose views align with one’s own, it can lead to a feeling of not being represented in the parliament.

Middle: Direct Democracy

• The explanation is omitted as it is the flip side of the pros and cons of representative democracy (blu3mo).

Right: Direct Democracy through Self-Expansion (proposal)

• “Self-Expansion” is the theme I am currently researching in Okinawa.
  • Public information: https://www.jst.go.jp/kisoken/aip/colab/image/researchers/pdf/1112112_10062_jp.pdf
  • (Considering various contexts in my research, explaining this idea without that background might not convey the concept effectively.)
• Write a vision about the “expanded self” within oneself:
  • An informal example:
    • Everyone having something like “AI friends.”
  • More precisely:
    • Similar to a robotic arm, envisioning AI agents that humans feel as part of themselves.
      • Sense of self-attribution? (bsahd)
      • Humans can have a sense of agency and ownership over the body of an AI agent.
    • Imagining AI agents that individuals can partly identify as themselves while also possessing a degree of autonomy.
      • Humans provide broad control, but specific behaviors are autonomous.
    • Rather than distinctly separating “self” from “non-self,” viewing it as a continuous concept.
• In this system, AI agents play a role similar to representatives in representative democracy.
  • Playing a role akin to a low-pass filter.
    • Representative democracy acts as a low-pass filter for public opinion
  • Thinking about the complicated political matters on behalf of individuals.
  • Predicting a trend of prompt injection to output short-term thoughts directly (bsahd).
  • Might not necessarily be a Digital Twin? (mtane0412)
  • Was unsure how this could fulfill a role similar to representatives (基素).
• However, since each person has their own AI agent and receives feedback from them, there is no feeling of not being represented in the parliament.
• Difference from polis and LLM-mediated deliberation:
  • The interesting aspect here is the sense of delegating authority by trusting autonomous AI to represent oneself.
  • Polis aims to facilitate collective decision-making by enhancing individual abilities through tools.- In terms of positions, I believe there lies between digital deliberative democracy like Pol.is and a subconscious democracy akin to Narita’s.
  • Digital deliberative democracy involves 100% self making political decisions.
  • Subconscious democracy involves 100% non-self making political decisions.

Another perspective (blu3mo):

• When considering what represents the will of the people in various existing systems:
  • Direct democracy: everyone
  • Representative democracy: representatives
  • Dictatorship: (self-proclaimed representative of the people) [dictator]
• I think each of these represents the will of the people as “completely self-oriented,” “about 50% self-oriented,” and “completely other-oriented.”

When thinking about the digital versions of each:

• Direct democracy → Enhanced deliberation by AI and technology (e.g., Pol.is) + direct democracy
  • (Is this true?)
• Representative democracy → The main idea
• Dictatorship → AI automatically collecting and making decisions based on the will of the people [subconscious democracy] (Yusuke Narita)

(blu3mo) 2024/10/15 I brought up the discussion of the overall system, so it became quite abstract, but it seems possible to explain it as an individual human experience.

• An experience like this: https://chatgpt.com/share/670e1a01-a2d4-8002-bbaa-53c7f9da9a93
  • Even without actively thinking, a “seemingly self” entity engages in discussions with others on your behalf.
• I recommend trying the experience of “observing discussions generated by ChatGPT between yourself and others.”
  • If you can convey your position effectively, the discussion progresses with an agent articulating what seems right for you.
  • This sensation is intriguing.
• Currently, I am roughly experimenting with ChatGPT.
  • However, if using this for a digital democracy system, one should engage in dialogue with virtual personalities based on real others, not just “LLM-based virtual personalities.”