People are made up of loving, kind, charitable, selfesh, lazy, greedy, all about me people. This what you got to work with. There would be some crazy stuff going on if we didn't have a government to control the radical thinkers. If someone broke into my house I would shoot them. It would be for my protection of my family. I can and will protect myself. Crazies don't realize theres people like me out there. With no government control they would think other people to be weak. Before long there would be no more crazies. But then there's always that someone that wants to be in charge, because people would start screaming that so in so killed my son or daddy. They would forget that the son or daddy tried to rob that person....lol. So... I just know how happy I would be with knowing that my protection is located all around my house.

We would come close to what you want if we would outlaw all PACs, all campaign contributions from lobbyists and corporations, and limit private citizen campaign contributions to no more than $100 per person. It would get rid of most of the corruption in government.

There is much of the population that isn't connected with technology and I feel there always will be that part of society that will do without it.

I know some people won't be able to do it. Is a lot of responsibility.

It is pretty unfair that we don't have net neutrality. It is the best communication, exchanging device invented created on and so on. It doesn't even need power necessarily but in the current form well we're relying on lines and towers so it is. Can still use Bluetooth without internet though. You can do most things with the internet. A lot of auditions are done via Skype and similar cross country/ies for political things too. I don't think either has to die, though some could be changed.

I guess we are going to find out.

Excellent question. I have been pondering this for quite some time, there is no reason citizens cannot vote on issues every day. I hate professional politicians, they should not be allowed. Here in Australia we have career politicians, seriously, guy who spend 30 years in Parliament and more, they are over paid with so many perks and do not represent the views of those that vote them in. I know this sounds crazy, but to be honest, the average Australian is not very bright and easily led. In the early days of the internet, before email and web pages, we had bulletin boards, a discussion could be run for a few weeks and we would all have our say. If we ran a forum on an issue, let people have their say, then on a set day, we log in and vote. Problem solved, decision made.

I think you need to be more specific. What do you mean by "govern themselves directly". Politicians are citizens, too, so how is this idea distinct from what we have now?

If I set up an AWS account and start adding people to a database cluster and calling them "citizens", isn't that just a futile attempt at seceding, without changing anything in the way of government or philosophy?

I'm all for tearing down the status quo, but it's not clear what is being proposed here. How can technology alone enforce and inform structure in times of disorder and violence?

Does the word "govern" even make sense when in reference to the self? Are you just proposing we get rid of government as we know it? Not necessarily disagreeing. Just asking.

I think it deserves experimentation.