Delegated Democracy - Part 4

I've been discussing delegated democracy with Coriolinus and Yev here and at Coriolinus's blog, and think I've got a good next iteration of the idea. The entire system as I originally proposed it was extremely overcomplicated, and now have a three-part process that I think cuts to the core of the idea.

Part one: Registration

• Citizen enters the party HQ, checked for bugs & weapons.
• Citizen registers, gets a username and provides a passphrase, then leaves.
• Passphrase -> cryptographic hash function -> key generation function -> decode key, stored at party HQ.
• Voters would also have the option of providing their own decode key directly, in the event that they want a higher entropy or don't trust the polling authority with their encode key.
  

Part two: Email

• Citizen composes vote, then runs encryption program, entering passphrase, stored briefly in memory.
• Passphrase -> cryptographic hash function -> key generation function -> encode key, stored briefly in memory.
• Vote is encrypted with encode key, saved, then passphrase and key are wiped from memory.
• The voters mentioned above who opted to provide their keys will skip straight to the encryption step.
  
• Encrypted vote is emailed to party HQ.
  

Part three: Votes counted

• Party HQ receives citizen's email.
• Email is decrypted with decode key. If successful, this verifies the citizen's identity and that (s)he was not coerced.
• Vote is added to tally for given question.
  

In essence, it is just an implementation of electronic direct democracy, but reduces the problems of

• scale,
• voter fatigue,
  
• complexity, and
• manipulation by time framing.
  

It does not address the problems of

• demagoguery, which I think exists now in any form of democracy (direct or otherwise), and
• self-interest, of which I also think everyone, including present-day politicians, is guilty.
  

People who do not have regular internet access would have the option of using several third parties to cast their votes for them, only one of which has the correct passphrase. This would allow for a great deal of automation, thus opening the doors to voting by phone, fax, snail mail, or in person at a third party location. Eventually the party could also support these alternative methods itself, and I think this idea could work for the elderly, disabled, or technologically disinclined.

Delegated Democracy - Part 3

Coriolinus got me thinking about my delegated democracy proposal after my last post, with his security through obscurity point. Even though there would be no sure-fire way to prove which feed was yours, people could narrow them down based on opinions you've expressed in public and determine your entire voting record with near certainty. Not good.

So to give people the option of complete privacy in their votes, I think the party server should give the option of encrypting all communication with the "first delegate" servers. It unfortunately means three things:

1. Participating voters would have to memorize at least one more password per entry,
   
2. Increased complexity in the computer software, and
3. It's another thing the party would have to agree on.

Not as perfect a solution as I had hoped, but I still like it, and think I'm going to explore it a little more.

Delegated Democracy - Part 2

Ok, I've come up with a few ideas that might reduce the problems I highlighted in my previous post, starting from a simple party-run computer system.

• Authentication: When you first register your identity with the party, you use a computer at the local party headquarters. While using this confidential voting station, you can input a list of URLs, with one "used" entry, and an unlimited number of "dummy" entries.
• No one will have to be a registered member of the party in order to input their list and participate in this system. The ultimate goal is to have elected officials who best represent the desires of the entire voting public, not just their own party.
• You will be able to update your list at any time should you be in some way coerced (see below) or decide to use a different first layer of delegation.
• (Update) Each URL would need the option of a password for encryption later in the process.
  
• Delegation: Those URLs point to vote "feeds", which can be run by anyone in any way. For instance, you could simply delegate your vote to a feed controlled by one of your friends.
  
• Another example for the more particular: you could delegate a private service anywhere on the internet that categorizes bills, which then accordingly delegates your favorite experts for each issue.
  
• This means there are no limits as to how you determine your vote; any crazy method of your own devising is fine.
  
• You could even publish your own opinions and convince people to delegate your feed. Keep in mind how you actually vote is still private, you just cannot hide what you openly endorse.
• (Update) The feeds with passwords would encrypt all communication with the first proxy. From there, the voter could have any sort of privacy settings up to and including completely secret votes.
  
• Resolution: When it's almost time for the party's elected official to vote, the party server queries all listed URLs, including the "dummy" entries. The final results (except of course for voter identities) are then made public.
  
• This is to prevent intimidation and bribery - even if someone forces you to list a computer they control that logs hits, they have no way of knowing if theirs was your "used" entry or not.
• Votes cast: The elected party representatives check to see what the winners were for each bill, and vote accordingly. Like in Senator On-Line, representatives will have to commit in writing that they will vote in accordance with the party view.

There's a good chance I'm missing something critical, so if there's something I haven't addressed or problems with my idea, go ahead and comment away.

Relakks

So now, THE MAN won't trace me quite so easily. I've signed up for Relakks, an encrypted broadband proxy in Sweden, a country with nice privacy laws. In addition to keeping my own government from watching me, (which it most likely doesn't) I also won't have to worry about getting sued by any big nasty artificial monopolies here in the states.

Hooray for importing additional freedoms! To the right is my new "location", next to beautiful Stora vänsjön.

For anyone else who uses Kubuntu, here are the directions I used to easily set it up.

Self-improvment is masturbation.

So lately I've been playing BioShock, which is so far the most atmospheric game I've played since Doom 3, and quite a bit of fun. In this game, your character can obtain plasmids which modify your body to give you super powers. Naturally, I wanted to get me some of that.

After a small amount of research, I discovered that real plasmids do not work that way. However, I still like to improve myself inside and out, so today after work I stopped by the local eye doctor to watch a live LASIK surgery. The whole thing took 10 minutes, and the patient seemed to be enjoying a healthy dose of Valium. The biggest thing I'm scared of is the whole cutting into my eyeball while I'm awake thing, but the guy said he didn't even feel it.

So, I've scheduled an appointment for the 15th to find out if I'm eligible, and if I am, to get preliminary scans for the operation. It will be nice to see outside while it's precipitating and look into borescopes without adjusting them.

I am stalking you.

Ok, I've started using Google Reader again. The sharing capability still kinda sucks, but it's a very convenient way to keep track of everything and never re-read anything with my home computer, work computer, and phone. That, and Google is not blocked from work while some of the sites I like to read are, so this can circumvent the problem.

Another thing I have enabled is what I like to call "Auto-Stalk". Basically, I just run a Google News search on someone, and it makes an RSS feed just for that search. Since Google Reader doesn't have a limit on how many feeds I can have and it's not my computer that's slowing down, I just searched for basically everyone I know and subscribed to their feeds. So now, if anyone I know shosw up in the news anywhere, I'll see it. Marriages, funerals, arrests, major accomplishments... you name it. Unfortunately, no one I know has actually done anything newsworthy yet. But when they do, I'll know!

Xbox 360

I got me an Xbox 360! First and foremost, let me answer the questions you, my only reader, must surely have.

• Why now?
• I haven't had a console system since my Sega Genesis, and having skipped two generations of video game systems, I figured I was due for a new one.
• Why not the Wii? The Wii is fun and cheap!
• More of my friends have Xbox 360s, and the games I want are on the Xbox 360.
  
• Why not the PS3?
• The PS3 is an overpriced box of shit.
• BUT IT'S MICROSOFT!
• I want the best system for my money, and there is no free gaming alternative (other than an expensive PC and a lot of work with WINE.)
• Aren't you bothered by the DRM, or the fact that modding an Xbox 360 may get you banned from Xbox live?
• Nope. I don't tolerate DRM on my computer because it does my thinking for me, and I demand that my computer obey me. My gaming console is just for fun. I don't have a problem with modding restrictions on Live either, because I just want to play an online FPS again without aimbots and wallhacks.
• What's your login on Live?
• Explodicle. Email me or leave a comment if you want me to add you to my friends list.
• You've got Oblivion, right.
• Obviously.
  

I hope that someday everyone has their own television station.

This is just one example of the sweet home-brewed TV stations popping up, fueled by YouTube and other video sites that encourage leeching. On a similar topic, I've been having great fun with the last.fm client; I like the idea of media where I just give it a thumbs up or thumbs down and it figures out the rest. This sort of stuff foreshadows the replacement of television and radio stations as we know them... something I wouldn't mind at all.

Squeek!

• Slashdot | Mouse Brain Simulated Via Computer

This might not sound like a big deal, but mice actually have pretty advanced brains in the grand scheme of things. Once they have the capacity to simulate an entire mouse nervous system, I'd like to see if they could somehow create a "postmouse".

Kubuntu 7.04

I've got Kubuntu 7.04 running on the laptop, so now I just need to upgrade the desktop. I still need to set up my laptop media keys (those didn't work in previous versions either) but otherwise it's all set up. I think it's a WAY better release than 6.10, but this time I just reinstalled and copied over my home directory instead of upgrading.

The big pluses I've noticed so far:

1. The Wi-Fi support doesn't suck cocks any more. There's a simple and effective internet connection thing on the bottom right, and WPA support.
2. Now, when I want to install MP3 support (or apparently other codecs) I don't need to install weird programs or jump through hoops... it just asks and installs automatically.
3. You can configure Wine with all the other stuff in System Settings, instead of having to use the painful winecfg program.
   

Google Reader

Since I frequently just post links to other blogs that I read, I've added a Google Reader sidebar to the right. I'm going to see if I can better integrate this with Firefox.

UPDATE: Ok, I'm taking it off. I can't make it not display my real name when you click the "read more", and I can't add commentary.

UPDATE AGAIN: Bah, fuck Google Reader. I'll stick with my RSS ticker.

THE FOOLS!

NO GOOD WILL COME OF THIS

Those BASTARDS

• Slashdot | Scientists Find 'Altruistic' Center of the Brain

I'm imagining "Gattaca" meets "A Clockwork Orange".