Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Edward Wesolowski <ids AT idisplay.com>]

X-MindSpring-Loop: ids AT idisplay.com From: mdthomas AT mindspring.com Date: 
Thu, 09 Nov 2000 11:19:08 -0500 To: "InterNetWorkers" 
<internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu> Subject: [internetworkers] Re: 
Florida elections? Sender: mdthomas AT mindspring.com X-Originating-IP: 
165.247.131.201 List-Unsubscribe: 
<mailto:$subst('Email.Unsub')> Reply-To: 
"InterNetWorkers" <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu> > When the 
constitution was
> being written, the last major innovation in
> communications technology was the printing press...

Michael:
I believe the printing press was pretty hi-tech communications hardware for 
the time. There was also the educational & economic "infrastructure" in 
place at the time that enabled access for this small elite to the resources 
needed to write a constitution.
> ...How would the constitution have been
> written if the founding fathers could have
> forseen the Internet -- or just the telegraph
> for that matter...

You raise an interesting puzzle, ...boggles my mind. It made me think of 
debugging open source. Once there's an Internet in place, many, many minds 
can be brought to bear on a problem. Creating a system that enables that 
for government, now that would be, well, even more than a challenge.
Let's see, maybe one person invented the printing press, or the light bulb 
or the telephone, maybe.... But by the time the airplane and radio and 
certainly television were being invented, there were many minds involved. 
If a patent can be awarded, then rewards can be corralled by a single 
person/entity. But writing a constitution that embraces a communications 
medium like the Internet, now there's a challenge.
...uh, gotta get back to work, maybe think about this. Later
Ed W.
==================================================
X-MindSpring-Loop: ids AT idisplay.com From: mdthomas AT mindspring.com Date: 
Thu, 09 Nov 2000 11:19:08 -0500 To: "InterNetWorkers" 
<internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu> Subject: [internetworkers] Re: 
Florida elections? Sender: mdthomas AT mindspring.com X-Originating-IP: 
165.247.131.201 List-Unsubscribe: 
<mailto:$subst('Email.Unsub')> Reply-To: 
"InterNetWorkers" <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Nice graphs! The overall problem with the count is if the margin is very, 
> very small it means people are going to be looking for things that 
> normally would have been overlooked in a normal election.


My question: how would the constitution have been
written if the founding fathers could have
forseen the Internet -- or just the telegraph
for that matter... These advances in communications
technology have each revolutionized how the financial markets worked. When 
the constitution was
being written, the last major innovation in
communications technology was the printing press...
(History buffs, am I wrong here?? I can't think
of anything else in the centuries leading up to
the founding of the nation.)


I've noticed that it's very hard for people to think
in purely strategic terms -- tactics invariably
play in to even the most high level planning. I see
the meeting of the electoral college as being purely
tactical. It's just a mechanism that was needed in
the horse-and-buggy days. Most people know who their
congressmen are, but who knows who their representatives
in the electoral colleges are? I don't think I've ever
even seen a picture of any of them! I don't think the
press even covers their meetings!


Aren't these people just middlemen/women? Isn't that
one of the great benefits of the Internet -- that middlemen can be 
eliminated? ("Connecting buyers and
sellers in a fragmented marketplace" and all that jazz?)


And on that note, why are we only voting for referendums
once a year? We have the technology to do national referendum voting once 
an hour if we want to... international,
for that matter...


Michael Thomas, CEO, www.fixtheelections.com





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