Obviously the AI did not read Simone Weil's essay "Against political parties" and has not heard about sortition, or random selection of representatives among the roster of eligible citizens as the most democratic process ever considered (and only used in Athens 2500 years ago.
Also, the Athenians had a very sophisticated organizational structure to oversee the executive officials, because they knew all about corruption and how it leads to the control of the dreaded oligarchy.
Perhaps you’re right that it hasn’t read that essay. I’m not actually across what data it was fed (except that it was a lot, but at least a couple of years old from some reports). True, it didn’t mention sortition as a term but it did mention “deliberative democracy” when asked ‘Are there alternatives to electoral representation that can be just as democratic and ensure citizens voice in government?’, see as follows (alongside direct democracy, participatory budgeting and deeper community engagement):
“Deliberative democracy, in which citizens are brought together in structured, inclusive, and deliberative processes to discuss and make decisions on important issues.”
Admittedly my question to elicit that answer was a bit leading. I was particularly interested in if it would mention sortition specifically (which it did in a manner of speaking).
In any case, whether it is actually right is not so much the point (I’ll admit “And it nailed it” as a subtitle was more a prompt to get people interested in reading, than an firm view). It is an information sorting and communication tool, limited by the data it is provided.
I think perhaps that it didn’t go to sortition first is a reflection of the wider knowledge of this model in our communities and discourse (presumably reflected in what it was fed). I personally think sortition is quite powerful as a tool and should be a larger feature of our democracies. And yet not it as widely understood as it should be (albeit use is picking up).
I haven’t read Simone Weil’s essay either, so thanks for the prompt I’ll check it out (feel free to send a link or DM on Twitter). Though I did recently read ‘Against Elections’ by David Van Reybrouk (see other post on this feed). Which is an excellent introduction to the topic (and history of democracy more generally).
Obviously the AI did not read Simone Weil's essay "Against political parties" and has not heard about sortition, or random selection of representatives among the roster of eligible citizens as the most democratic process ever considered (and only used in Athens 2500 years ago.
Also, the Athenians had a very sophisticated organizational structure to oversee the executive officials, because they knew all about corruption and how it leads to the control of the dreaded oligarchy.
Perhaps you’re right that it hasn’t read that essay. I’m not actually across what data it was fed (except that it was a lot, but at least a couple of years old from some reports). True, it didn’t mention sortition as a term but it did mention “deliberative democracy” when asked ‘Are there alternatives to electoral representation that can be just as democratic and ensure citizens voice in government?’, see as follows (alongside direct democracy, participatory budgeting and deeper community engagement):
“Deliberative democracy, in which citizens are brought together in structured, inclusive, and deliberative processes to discuss and make decisions on important issues.”
(You can read the full transcript here: https://democracy4dinner.org/2022/12/16/full-conversation-democracy-for-dinner-and-chat-gpt3/)
Admittedly my question to elicit that answer was a bit leading. I was particularly interested in if it would mention sortition specifically (which it did in a manner of speaking).
In any case, whether it is actually right is not so much the point (I’ll admit “And it nailed it” as a subtitle was more a prompt to get people interested in reading, than an firm view). It is an information sorting and communication tool, limited by the data it is provided.
I think perhaps that it didn’t go to sortition first is a reflection of the wider knowledge of this model in our communities and discourse (presumably reflected in what it was fed). I personally think sortition is quite powerful as a tool and should be a larger feature of our democracies. And yet not it as widely understood as it should be (albeit use is picking up).
I haven’t read Simone Weil’s essay either, so thanks for the prompt I’ll check it out (feel free to send a link or DM on Twitter). Though I did recently read ‘Against Elections’ by David Van Reybrouk (see other post on this feed). Which is an excellent introduction to the topic (and history of democracy more generally).
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/simone-weil-on-the-abolition-of-all-political-parties