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The voting layer

In the last fifty years, the internet has changed quite a bit. Layer by layer, new functionality is added, which creates an impact on our lives and our culture.

  • It began as a simple communications layer. Email and data exchange.
  • Then there was a database layer.
  • And a presentation layer (the web).
  • A payment layer.
  • New communications layers, like chat, audio and video.
  • The social graph.
  • And here are seven more…
  • Mobile and IoT Layer
  • Cloud Computing
  • Security Layer
  • API Layer
  • Machine Learning and AI Layer
  • Blockchain and Decentralization Layer
  • Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Layer

These are just a few examples of what could be considered missing layers or functionalities from the list you provided, reflecting the continuous evolution and expansion of the internet’s capabilities. Each of these has significantly impacted various sectors and how we interact with the digital world.

It’s time for a voting layer. Just as each layer seemed unlikely and unnecessary until after it appeared, the voting layer will become essential, ubiquitous and hard to live without.

Voting for what?

Consider a tiny example, not urgent, not on anyone’s radar:

How noisy should the restaurant be?

In our current model, the one that’s thousands of years in the making, this is the responsibility of the owner, the head waiter or perhaps the last employee who touched the device.

But now we’re all connected, and we all have a voting machine in our pocket.

Maybe the volume is controlled by a vote. Not a one time and done vote, but one that goes on all night. Maybe each vote isn’t equal. Perhaps regulars or big spenders have their votes count more (or less). Perhaps there’s a way to promise you’ll leave if it doesn’t get (louder or quieter)… and it keeps track of whether your threats are real. Perhaps the volume is up for bids, and the table that’s willing to pay the most becomes the DJ.

All of it sounds odd and vaguely unfair, but not compared to what’s currently in place.

We can vote to show:

Preference (I like this over that)
Intuition (I have an idea about the future)
Commitment (If I win the vote, I promise to…)

And to take this further, we can try to understand what voting is even for. Perhaps it’s:

  • A civic or moral right to citizens and participants
  • Because we care about the wisdom of this crowd
    • A vote is a form of information exchange
  • To earn buy in
  • A vote is a form of information exchange
  • To hold leaders/managers in check (self-cleaning system)

As long as we persist in keeping voting frozen in amber from two-hundred years ago, we’re never going to give people a more effective way to learn and communicate.

The layer I’m imaging gives everyone a diary, a record of our votes and our actions, where each of us can reveal or protect what we choose. It permits all sorts of voting mechanisms (call them tallies) and opens the door for countless non-governmental uses of group participation and decision making.

Some of the innovations that are already within reach:

  • I will if you will–when enough people on the list commit, it becomes instantly binding
  • Proxy voting–votes can lent, sold or borrowed
  • Extra credit for being right in the past, or for your actual standing
  • Fully informed debates–you can’t vote if you haven’t done the reading
  • Quadratic voting–a louder voice costs more
  • Ranked choice/instant runoff
  • Approval voting–vote for as many options as you like

You can find the original document for Pluralism here.