Rodriguez, M.A., “Collective Decision Making Systems: From the Ideal State to Human Eudaimonia”, Center for Nonlinear Studies External Advisory Committee Presentation, Los Alamos, New Mexico, February 2009.

Physicists work to produce fuel cells and more efficient engines to solve the energy crisis. Chemists give us everything from anti-cavity, anti-gingivitis, whitening toothpaste to keep our smiles bright to the anti-depressants that give us reason to smile. Biologists cultivate personal vendettas against disease and they go to work everyday to make our lives longer and healthier. And we all know that plastics make it possible thanks to material scientists.

But what benefit to society do computer scientists stand for? If you are Marko A. Rodriguez of CDMS, the answer is life, liberty, and the guarantee of happiness. In this presentation, Marko describes his aspirations to achieve eudaimonia, or human flourishing, through computer science. His approach is to design social algorithms, such as vote systems, that allow societies to better reflect their own values and that lead to happy and fulfilled individuals.

Sound appealing but too futuristic? Marko explains that social algorithms are already producing the beginnings of a eudaimonic society in web-based systems.  Want to find a novel that will keep you reading until late in the night? Amazon.com can recommend a book for you. How about a movie instead? Netflix.com has you covered. Want to find that special someone to spend the rest of your life with? Match.com can do that.

These sites offer the chance to spend our time happier with better entertainment and better company. Fine-grained representations of individuals can result in even better and more wide-ranging recommendations to help us live more fulfilling lives. If the eudaimonic research plan is pursued, the potential is to produce communities, governments, and economies that allow all individuals, and therefore the collective, to flourish.

[Note: David L. Norton is a eudaemonic philosopher whose life work provided much of the inspiration for Marko’s presentation. His picture is above.]