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"Science Fiction is speculative fiction in which the author takes as his first postulate the real world as we know it, including all established facts and natural laws."
- Robert Heinlein
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| Electronic Voting | ||
| Using computer terminals to register votes from citizens. |
In the novel, every last bit of commerce, government business and private communication goes over a nation-wide data network. Some individuals obtain special access through the use of government power or great wealth, and use their access to conceal their criminal activities in a way that can never be uncovered.
Nick Haflinger, hacker extraordinaire, writes a super-tapeworm that ends this system, and devises an electronic plebiscite (e-voting) scheme to give every person in North America the opportunity to vote on two guiding principles that the tapeworm will enforce on the datanet.
Although Brunner did not invent the concept, this was a great mass-popularization of the idea. Buckminster Fuller wrote about "electrified voting" in 1971; there was at least on limited implementation for distributed choice-making done on early networked computers in 1970.
| From 0700 local until 1900 every veephone on the continent would display, over and over, two propositions, accompanied by a spoken version for the benefit of the illiterate. Most would be in English, but some would be in Spanish, some in Amerind languages, some in Chinese ... the proportions being based on the latest continental census. After each repetition would follow a pause, during which any adult could punch into the phone his or her code, followed by a "yes" or "no." |
| From The Shockwave Rider,
by John Brunner. Published by Harper and Row in 1975 Additional resources -
|
The propositions voted upon related to the laws governing the computer network that ran every aspect of people's lives. The electronic plebiscite ran as part of a super-tapeworm that would carry out the results of the voting immediately.
The first proposition:
#1: That this is a rich planet. Therefore poverty and hunger are unworthy of it, and since we can abolish them, we must.
And the second:
#2: That we are a civilized species. Therefore none shall henceforth gain illicit advantage by reason of the fact that we together know more than one of us can know.
So, how did you vote?
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Shockwave Rider
More Ideas
and Technology by John Brunner
Tech news articles related to The Shockwave Rider
Tech news articles related to works by John Brunner
Electronic Voting-related
news articles:
- No Online Voting Yet (How long Did You Wait In Line?)
- Electric Voting From Home Via Internet
- Electronic Voting Banned In Netherlands
- Vote Flipping Video Shows Poor Electronic Plebiscite
- E-Voting Simple And Verifiable
- Blockchain Used To Verify Election Results
- US Census Will Be Online In 2020
| Tongue-Controlled Tong Wearable Mouth Computer |
| Interpol Launches Metaverse For Law Enforcement |
| AVATECT Prevents Spoofing Of Avatars |
| I Really Want A Folding Computer |
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With each successive print, our model needed to incorporate more structural ingredients to minimize print failures.
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'A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.'
'... it was as if the upper part had been removed, like a cut deck of cards.'
Sumomo will get those office workers into good shape!
'... who let their handbag computers carry all the conversation.'
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'He led me down the Hall of Portraits to the ego-likeness of the Duke Leto Atreides.'
