Revisiting the Age of Enlightenment
On January 25, 2009, CDMS completed a new article. The article is entitled “Revisiting the Age of Enlightenment from a Collective Decision Making Systems Perspective” and is written by both Marko A. Rodriguez and Jennifer H. Watkins. The abstract of the article is:
“The ideals of the eighteenth century's Age of Enlightenment are the foundation
of modern democracies. The era was characterized by thinkers who promoted progressive social reforms that opposed the long-established aristocracies and monarchies of the time. Prominent examples of such reforms include the establishment of inalienable human rights, self-governing republics, and market capitalism. Twenty-first century democratic nations can benefit from revisiting the systems developed during the Enlightenment and reframing them within the techno-social context of the Information Age. This article explores the application of social algorithms that make use of Thomas Paine's (English: 1737--1809) representatives, Adam Smith's (Scottish: 1723--1790) self-interested actors, and Marquis de Condorcet's (French: 1743--1794) optimal decision making groups. It is posited that technology-enabled social algorithms can better realize the ideals articulated during the Enlightenment.”
So far, the article has received some great responses. Here is one from Francis Heylighen (Center for Evolution, Complexity and Cognition at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel):
“I particularly appreciate the synthesis of humanistic social philosophy with the latest mathematical and technological approaches. [...] I also very much like the emphasis on the values of Enl
ightenment (life, liberty, equality, the pursuit of happiness, and I might add: fraternity or solidarity, knowledge, and free inquiry). It is important to remind people of these fundamental values, especially as they are recently being questioned by various culture-relativist, fundamentalist and authoritarian ideologies. In my work with Jan Bernheim, I have tried to underpin these values with empirical data, which show that people are effectively more happy in societies based on these values: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/ProgressI&II.pdf.”
The other interesting comment is from Alberto Pepe (Center for Embedded Networked Sensing at the University of California at Los Angeles). His full blog entry can be read here:
"If it is our intent to achieve more optimal decisions through a decision making system involving universal suffrage, the fact is that the technologies currently relied 
upon by our governments to achieve this goal are unnecessarily burdened by the limitations of the past, both perceptual, and technological. For this reason, Rodriguez's and Watkins' paper is important and necessary, both to advance research in e-governance and to increase awareness in the general public. The embrace and implementation of the technology offered by web-based social networks, recommendation algorithms, and collective decision making systems, should be a crucial priority for the development of future governance systems, and as technological advances continue apace, these issues will only become more important."
Monday, February 2, 2009
