Their data, he argued, proved that the key to a successful transition from democracy was, curiously, not to hold an election—at least, not right away.
“One of the most important predictors of a successful transition,” Fish said, “is how strong the legislature is when the dust settles.”
Greece, with one of the study’s highest scores, has the model of a strong legislature, but entered 2011 near financial collapse.
The World’s Ten Least Powerful Deliberative Bodies
1. People’s Assembly of Myanmar (.00)
2. Consultative Council of Saudi Arabia (.09)
3. People’s Council of Turkmenistan (.06)
4. General People’s Congress of Libya (.13)
4. Supreme People’s Assembly of North Korea (.13)
6. Council of Oman (.16)
7. National Assembly of Bahrain (.19)
8. National Assembly of Bhutan (.22)
8. National Assembly of Chad (.22)
8. National Assembly of Jordan (.22)
Re the article below: This is terrible. It is bad enough on its face, but to realize that MIT's Malone is at the heart of this breaks my heart, devastates my soul and outrages my professional sensibilities. Now I am sorry that we didn't do a paper on pubic wisdom for his conference next year! Talk about the applications of collective intelligence unmonitored by collective wisdom!! This is NOT the power and capacity we sought to free by trying to pull together the field with our Collective Intelligence Convergence conference.
I see much more clearly now the distinction between my sense of “intelligence” and the use of that term by “intelligence” agencies. My sense of intelligence is that it means we are able to assess reality in a learning feedback loop where we've taken an action based on certain assumptions/mental models and seen how it works in real life. The results inform our reinforcement or revision of our assumptions and mental models. Collective intelligence is our ability to do that collectively, as whole communities and societies and humanity. The mere accumulation of data to inform official decision-makers – particularly in hierarchical power systems like ours – is a dangerous bastardization of the generic concept of CI. Notice that they aren't talking about using this system to find out how successful a particular government policy or program is – whether it actually served the public good or not – so that we could have a more evidence-based government. It is being used primarily to predict social unrest so it can be stifled or discharged so that the existing toxic power structures can remain as they are.
I notice it says the system will use “publicly accessible data”. I'm so dubious. They talk about traffic webcams and digital location trails from cell phones. Are these publicly accessible? And that begs the question of the fact that no one except giant institutions (governments, corporations) has the computing power to do those analyses. It's like freedom of the press when you can't afford a press.
They want to predict when the people will revolt. Ok. But where's the people's capacity to predict what the government and specific corporations are going to do? This is so one-sided. It empowers only half of Robert's vision of open source intelligence, and it feels like the same old crap is being given new capacities. This is collective intelligence?!!!? This is panopticism – the ability of the power center at the top to see everything going on the whole system. It has been brilliantly contrasted by Jean-Francois Noubel with holopticism – the ability of the whole and all its parts to view the whole. We don't need more panopticism. We need more holopticism, to help us navigate our collective destiny.
I am disgusted and horrified.
What can be done to reclaim the good name of collective intelligence? I do not feel drawn to or capable of organizing the kind of professional outrage that headed off Operation Camelot and Total Information Awareness (see the article). But I'll be damned if I will lend my good name to this so-called collective intelligence initiative. At the very least, I can blog my protest – and have it picked up at least by IARPA….
JOIN BLACK FARMERS AS THEY OCCUPY DC'S FRANKLIN PARK ON 10/24/11: BLACK FARMERS STILL AWAIT JUSTICE
Contrary to popular belief, Black farmers in the United States still have not received justice. Despite media reports to the contrary, not a single Pigford I farmer has received justice. Pigford I farmers are the original Black farmers who filed discrimination cases against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) resulting in the USDA acknowledgement of systemic and persistent intentional discrimination against Black farmers that had the result of the loss of approximately 13 million acres of Black-owned land. At stake today is approximately 1.5 million of the last remaining 3 million acres of Black-owned land. Continue reading “Event: 24 Oct 0900-1200 Franklin Park Washington DC Black Farmers”
Core of Corruption is a documentary film series which details a comprehensive investigation into clandestine intelligence operations and conspiracies. The project is surfacing exclusive whistle blowers, insiders and critical evidence for the very first time. Over 2,000 hours of credible network news clips have been surfaced for this ground breaking event, most of which have never been seen since they aired and have never been available on the internet. Some of the video news segments for this project, when requested from the networks, were denied access to and corporate representatives would say that the information sought does not exist or has been misplaced. Someone doesn’t want the public to see these stories, that when put together, establish a conspiracy of the magnitude that could change the way one views the world. Countless millions of people are being manipulated and lied to by a network of individuals within government that work on behalf of private interests. The individuals were involved in the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Many of those same figures are are connected to historical events that have shaped our understanding of government crime. For instance, the Iran Contra affair involved many figures that showed up in the 9/11 attacks
Phi Beta Iota: If there is one video that could catalyze a General Strike and a demand for the impeachment of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton, along with the recall of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, this is the one. The US Government–and the New York Police Department–are OUT OF CONTROL, committing crimes against humanity, and long overdue for abolishment and a clean-sheet fresh start. The Electoral Reform Act of 2012 may be the last opportunity for a non-violent revolution in what was once America the Beautiful.
Phi Beta Iota: This is the single best reality rant we have seen, kudos to Brother John for pointing it out. No one is qualified to run for office without reading this first. No on is qualified to vote without reading this first. This is the “reset” button on reality & integrity in the USA and elsewhere.
The fledgling Occupy Wall Street protests tap into a deep vein of public animosity toward the country’s major financial institutions, one that is on par with the deep negativity aimed at Washington, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Public distrust of the federal government is growing, and well documented. In the new poll, more than two-thirds of Americans say they view Washington unfavorably, including nearly half who hold “strongly” unfavorable impressions. These sentiments spike higher among Republicans, and continue to fuel the tea party political movement.
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But there’s just as much negativity directed at Wall Street financial institutions. Fully 70 percent of those polled view such firms unfavorably, with strongly unfavorable mentions outnumbering strongly favorable ones by 8 to 1.
For political independents, there’s little love for either one: similar proportions — around seven in 10 — view government and Wall Street unfavorably. Most, 55 percent view both negatively.
Post-Gadhafi: What’s Next for Libya’s Government?
