The Theory And Practice Of Democracy In Virtual Worlds

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+ pourquoi tu cours 3 years ago
good job
+ David Orban 3 years ago
Welcome to this seminar about 'The theory and practice of democracy in
virtual worlds'.

I want to thank CARE, CRAEDO, and the Confederation of Democratic
Simulators for inviting me to give this talk at the inauguration of
this auditorium.

After the presentation we will open the discussion, and I will be very
glad to answer all your questions during our live chat.
+ David Orban 3 years ago
All the slides have a comment by me, the author, which corresponds to the relevant section of the transcript of my talk. If you would like to grab a single contiguous text of all the talk, please go to http://www.davidorban.com/
+ David Orban 3 years ago
Through interconnected, interoperable, multiple virtual worlds, the
degrees of freedom through which we express our opportunities will
grow. Our challenges will match, but hopefully not exceed the power of
these new tools of organization, analysis, and action.
There is no guarantee, and our only choice is that of carefully but
forcefully pursue the understanding of the power we have. Where the
worlds collide, be they real or virtual, as long as the distinction
makes sense, our new formal methods will propose newer levels of
organization, and complexity. We cannot afford to forget the real
world: no virtual world today can exist without it! Our activities in
the virtual worlds, interconnected as they are, must benefit from and
provide benefit to the real world we still live in.
+ David Orban 3 years ago
We live in a software world, where not only it is taken for granted,
that better and better algorithms will serve us, but even ourselves
are represented by our avatars. How soon will we grow comfortable
delegating decisions to the software agents that incessantly follow us
around? We already do so in the case of anti-spam filters!
Our will is itself express by this cloud within which we fly exploring
the virtual landscape.
Let me give you a simple example:
If we have an election every week, I can understand the issues, and
participate. If we have one every day, or every hour, this becomes
much less plausible. But if the issue to be decided is the style of
music to be streamed in this Auditorium, and my likes are
programmatically accessible, then I can without doubt delegate my vote
to an agent representing my will, with the full knowledge that it will
correspond to what I really want.
How soon will we see groupings of clouds of will at the center of
which autonomous agents express their own free choices? The complexity
of our systems will dictate that we use as much help as possible
managing them. As soon as one system will start employing a higher
efficiency formation of such kind, as the previous reasoning shows, it
will be adopted by all. We must start now understanding its meaning!
+ David Orban 3 years ago
Here is a caveat that is worth facing right away, even more so given
that it is an opportunity to enrich all of the online experience. If
we choose issues that are relevant to the real world, it will be more
and more difficult to keep the online and offline identities separate.
For some people this is not a problem, but for others it definitely
is, at least as the online worlds work today, where the suspension of
disbelief in enacting the roles of ones avatar is so important. We
will have to achieve greater flexibility in managing multiple
identities, with a finer grained control over their interactions with
what we are and how they shape us. At the same way we will have to be
able and distinguish the various roles others assume. There is a clear
opportunity here for Linden Lab to intervene, and tweak the rules
regulating Second Life to proactively recognize this need once it
presents itself.
+ David Orban 3 years ago
Evolution is often and wrongly equated with progress, while it is
adaptation to a changing environment, without regard to its direction.
However, if in interconnected systems a new complex emerges, that
enables a given part to work at a higher level of efficiency, then the
rest of of the entire group of systems must either evolve a similar
efficiency, or succumb.
These give us a perfect recipe for making sure that online democracies
matter. First we must show that the experiments we implement have
concrete advantages above their real counterparts. Second, we must
select issues that touch upon the real world as well, and where the
greater efficiency expressed can have an impact. My favourite
example of this is the planetary environment, where the decisions we
will soon have to make are of breathtaking risk, just as the risk of
not taking them. How can either real-world science, or real-world
politics decide, with insufficient powers of visualization, and
analysis? It could very well be the case, that the tools we have in
the online worlds for policy shaping are necessary to inform better
decisions about the real world environment.
+ David Orban 3 years ago
The traditional role of the judiciary has been that of putting the law
in practice through its actions. This has been a cumbersome and
sometimes very inefficient and impractical task.
If we can reach the goal of a more formal description of the rules
that govern our online world, than a new role will emerge for the
judiciary, with a much more powerful toolset, resembling that of
programmers using modern paradigms and languages. This new role will
be fundamental in making sure that the the practical experiments
correspond to the implementation of the models, and the theories
behind them. As the law is the scaffolding of reality in the virtual
world, the judiciary will be the ones upholding it. The old excuse
'This is a bad law, but it is still my job to enforce it' will become
weaker and weaker, as quick revision cycles will improve the system.
Just as legislators are the software architects of the online
political reality, the judiciary is its quality assurance tester.
+ David Orban 3 years ago
The nature of the Legislative Power in virtual worlds is different
than in the real world.
With laws shaping reality, its responsibility is higher, even more so
since the individuals subject themselves to the laws voluntarily. On
the other hand, even more so initially when so much of unexplored
political territory must be discovered, the rules and regulations must
be part of bold experiments, without too much regard to negative
consequences.
These will be temporary, and their damage will be limited. But the
advantage of the discovery of new tools will be unmatchable. The
change in perspective from local to global issues, for example, is
something that seldom is afforded by real world legislators, even when
necessary.
+ David Orban 3 years ago
We have to take advantage, and practice within these new much larger
bounds, while still human. There are numerous advantages to be had, in
properly managing our reputation systems, which regulate so many of
our interactions in the real world without receiving the proper formal
analysis. Our actions in the real world shape our identities as
perceived by others, but they are treated with the superficiality of
the familiar. Their weight and value are not appreciated, as long as
we don’t break some rule or regulation. Online is different already,
and the touchy issues of privacy, and identity show how much our
actions need to be more carefully analysed. Our traces which we leave
online, have to become a powerful individual asset, which we must be
able and properly leverage. The management of these assets, and their
protection could become a primary goal of the online Polity. The
understanding that we will derive from this will show the exercise to
be useful and applicable. The creativity of this political landscape
will guide new bases of emancipation, mutual enhancement, and global
deep reach, as it will naturally lead to a transparent, tolerant, and
diverse online society.

Comments 1 - 10 of 17 previous next

Welcome to this seminar about “The theory and practice of democracy in virtual worlds”. I want to thank CARE, CRAEDO, and the Confederation of Democratic Simulators for inviting me to give this talk at the inauguration of this auditorium. After the presentation we will open the discussion, and I will be very glad to answer all your questions during our live chat.

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The Theory And Practice Of Democracy In Virtual Worlds - Presentation Transcript

The Theory And Practice Of Democracy In Virtual Worlds
What Are We Going To Talk About?
- Objective
- Real polity constructors
- New choices
- Law, and justice
- Practice as humans
- The cloud of will
- Evolving freedoms
- Discussion
The interconnected worlds
- The online worlds cannot exist without the real world, which they influence, and by which they are influenced.
- We have to show that the activities in online worlds benefit the real world, improving its values, processes, and heightening its goals.
Constructors Of Real-World Polities
- Access to
- Acceptance of laws of nature
Changing Definitions To Fit The New
- Traditional definitions of democracy suffice?
- Territory
- Citizens
- Deliberation/Action
- Where is the State?
- What sovereignty?
The Legal Foundation Is Reality Online
- Terms of service
- Rights
- Integration of the economy
- Consensual reality
- Human law, not natural law
Theory Of Democracy (in VWs)
- Falsifiable hypotheses
- Formal framework
- Expected results
- Extensible
- Non-trivial
- Cui prodest?
Practice Of Democracy (in VWs)
- Repeatable Experiments
- Data collection
- Numerical analysis
- Representative vs direct
- Electronic voting
- Non-unary voting
Practice As Humans
- Reputation
- Creativity
- Emancipation
- Mutual enhancement
- Reach
Legislative Power In Virtual Worlds
- Software architect
- Bolder experimenter
- Changing perspectives
The Judiciary's Role In Virtual Worlds
- Debugging bad legislation
- Virtuous circle
- Quick turnaround
- Enforcing reality's grip
Coevolution With Reality
- Evolution is adaptation, not progress
- Co-evolving systems diffuse good tricks
- vDemocracy can influence rDemocracy
- We must show value through maximized utility
The Challenge Of Multiple Identities
- The breakdown of the suspension of disbelief
- Acceptance of finer grained differences
- Managing what we are and what we become
The Cloud Of Will
- Avatars and agents
- Loosely coupled decision algorithms
- Substitute agents in the center!
- Acceleration and efficiency requires emancipation of delegated decision making
The Evolution Of Freedom
- Interoperability
- Interaction
- Contrast of creation/destruction
- Guarantee of a frontier and exploration
Contacts
- David Orban
- 'Davidorban Agnon'
- [email_address]
- www.davidorban.com/wiki
- Slides on: slideshare.net
- Video on: video.google.com
- On the wiki you can download this presentation and collaborate to explore the themes expressed.
- Shared under Creative Commons Attibution 2.5
Sources, credits, and thanks
- Gianni Degli Antoni
- Michel Manen
- Craedo
- Care
- Confederation of Democratic Simulators
- Daniel Dennett
- Joi Ito
- Linden Labs
- Wikipedia
- All images from Flickr.com: josefstuefer daquellamanera wallyg hugovk nicmcphee evanosherow extranoise alphageek mugley horizon shaymus22