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10 changes: 5 additions & 5 deletions contents/english/5-0-collaborative-technology-and-democracy.md
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# Collaborative Technology and Democracy

This book was created to demonstrate ⿻ in action and as well as describe it: to show as well as tell. As such, it was created using many of the tools we describe in this section. The text was [stored on and updated](https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality) using the [Git protocol](https://git-scm.com/) that open source coders use to control versions of their software. The text is shared freely under a [Creative Commons 0](https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/) license, implying that no rights to any content herein are reserved to the community creating it and it may be freely reused. At the time of this writing, dozens of diverse experts and citizens from every continent contributed to the writing as highlighted in our [credits](https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/0-1/eng/?mode=dark) above and we hope many more will the continued evolution of the text after physical publication, embodying the practices we describe in our [Creative Collaboration](https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/5-3/eng/?mode=dark) chapter.
This book was created to demonstrate ⿻ in action and as well as describe it: to show as well as tell. As such, it was created using many of the tools we describe in this section. The text was [stored on and updated](https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality) using the [Git protocol](https://git-scm.com/) that open-source coders use to control versions of their software. The text is shared freely under a [Creative Commons 0](https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/) license, implying that no rights to any content herein are reserved to the community creating it and it may be freely reused. At the time of this writing, dozens of diverse experts and citizens from every continent contributed to the writing as highlighted in our [credits](https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/0-1/eng/?mode=dark) above and we hope many more will the continued evolution of the text after physical publication, embodying the practices we describe in our [Creative Collaboration](https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/5-3/eng/?mode=dark) chapter.

Work was collectively prioritized and rewards determined using a "crowd-funding" approach we describe in our [Social Markets](https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/5-7/eng/?mode=dark) chapter below. Changes to the text in future evolution will be approved collectively by the community using a mixture of the advanced voting procedures described in our [⿻ Voting](https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/5-6/eng/?mode=dark) chapter below and prediction markets. Contributors were recognized using a community currency and group identity tokens as we described in our [Identity and Personhood](https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/4-1/eng/?mode=dark) and [Commerce and Trust](https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/4-3/eng/?mode=dark) chapters above, which in turn was used in voting and prioritization of outstanding issues for the book. These priorities in turn determined the quantitative recognition received by those whose contributions addressed these challenges, an approach we have described with others as a "[⿻ Management Protocol](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4688040)".[^PMP] All this was recorded on a distributed ledger through an open-source protocol, [GitRules](https://gitrules.ai/), grounded on open-source participation rather than financial incentives. Contentious issues were resolved through tools we discuss in the [Augmented Deliberation](https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/5-4/eng/?mode=dark) chapter below. The book has been translated and copy-edited by the community augmented by many of the cross-linguistic and subcultural translation tools we discuss in our [Adaptive Administration](https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/5-5/eng/?mode=dark) chapter.



To support the financial needs of the book during the publication process, we harnessed several of the tools we describe in the [Social Markets](https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/5-7/eng/?mode=dark) chapter. We hope to harness technologies from the Immersive Shared Reality chapter to communicate and explore the ideas from the book with audiences around the world.

For all these reasons, as you read this book you are both learning about the ideas and evaluating them on their merits and at the same time experiencing what they put into practice, can create. If you are inspired by that content, especially critically, we encourage you to contribute to the living and community managed continuations of this document and all its translations by submitting changes through a git pull request or by reaching out to one of the many contributors to become part of the community. We hope as many criticisms of this work as possible will be inspired by the open-source mantra "so fix it!"
For all these reasons, as you read this book you are both learning about the ideas and evaluating them on their merits and at the same time experiencing what they put into practice can create. If you are inspired by that content, especially critically, we encourage you to contribute to the living and community managed continuations of this document and all its translations by submitting changes through a git pull request or by reaching out to one of the many contributors to become part of the community. We hope as many criticisms of this work as possible will be inspired by the open-source mantra "so fix it!"

---

Expand All @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ Mathematically, this idea is known as "[supermodularity](https://cip.org/supermo

[^supermodular]: Divya Siddarth, Matt Prewitt and Glen Weyl, "Beyond Public and Private: Collective Provision Under Conditions of Supermodularity" (2024) at https://cip.org/supermodular.

This chapter, which lays out the framework for the rest of this part of the book, will highlight why collaboration across diversity is such a fundamental and ambitious goal. We then define a spectrum of domains where it can be pursued based on the trade-off between depth and breadth of collaboration. Next, we highlight a framework for design in the space that navigates between the dangers of premature optimization and chaotic experimentation. Yet harnessing the potential of collaboration across diversity also holds the risk of reducing the diversity available for future collaboration. To guard against this we discuss the necessity of *regenerating* diversity. We round out this chapter by describing the structure followed in each subsequent chapter in this part.
This chapter, which lays out the framework for the rest of this part of the book, will highlight why collaboration across diversity is such a fundamental and ambitious goal. We then define a spectrum of domains where it can be pursued based on the trade-off between depth and breadth of collaboration. Next, we highlight a framework for design in the space that navigates between the dangers of premature optimization and chaotic experimentation. Yet harnessing the potential of collaboration across diversity also holds the risk of reducing the diversity available for future collaboration. To guard against this we discuss the necessity of *regenerating* diversity. We round out this chapter by describing the structure followed in each subsequent chapter in this part.

### Collaboration across diversity: promise and challenges

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ But the hardest differences to bridge are typically those related to systems of
Solidarity and culture are so challenging because they stand in the way not of specific agreements about information or goals but of communication, mutual comprehension, and the ability to regard someone else as a partner capable and worthy of such exchange. While they are in an abstract sense related to beliefs and values, solidarities and culture in practice precede these in human development: we are aware of our family and those who will protect us and learn to communicate long before we consciously hold any views or aim for any goals. Being so foundational, they are the hardest to safely adjust or change, usually requiring shared life-shaping experiences or powerful intimacy to reform.


Beyond the difficulty of overcoming difference, it also holds an important peril. Bridging differences for collaboration often erodes them, harnessing their potential but also reducing that potential in the future. While this may be desirable for protection against conflict, it is an important cost to the productive capacity of diversity in the future. The classic illustration is the way that globalization has both brought gains from trade, such as diversifying cuisine, while at the same time arguably homogenizing culture and thus possibly reducing the opportunity for such gains in the future. A critical concern in ⿻ is not just harnessing collaboration across diversity but also *regenerating* diversity, ensuring that in the process of harnessing diversity it is also replenished by the creation of new forms of social difference. Again, this is analogous to energy systems which must ensure that they not only harvest but also regenerate the sources of their energy to achieve sustainable growth.
Beyond the difficulty of overcoming difference, it also holds an important peril. Bridging differences for collaboration often erodes them, harnessing their potential but also reducing that potential in the future. While this may be desirable for protection against conflict, it is an important cost to the productive capacity of diversity in the future. The classic illustration is the way that globalization has both brought gains from trade, such as diversifying cuisine, while at the same time arguably homogenizing culture and thus possibly reducing the opportunity for such gains in the future. A critical concern in ⿻ is not just harnessing collaboration across diversity but also *regenerating* diversity, ensuring that in the process of harnessing diversity it is also replenished by the creation of new forms of social difference. Again, this is analogous to energy systems which must ensure that they not only harvest but also regenerate the sources of their energy to achieve sustainable growth.

### The depth-breadth spectrum

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ But for all the debate between the proponents of "deliberative" and "electoral"
Yet aiming at "improving" this trade-off requires us to specify at least something about what would count as an improvement. What makes a collaboration good or meaningful? What precisely constitutes social difference and diversity? How can we measure both?


One standard perspective, especially in economics and quantitatively inclined fields is to insist that we should specify a global "objective" or "social welfare" function against which progress should be judged. The difficulty, of course, is that, in the face of the limitless possibilities of social life, any attempt to specify such a criterion is destined to crash land on the shores of the unknown and possibly unknowable. The more ambitiously we apply such a criterion in pursuing ⿻, the less robust it will prove, because the more deeply we connect to others across greater difference, the more likely we are to realize the failings of our initial vision of the good. Insisting on specifying such a criterion in advance of learning about the shape of the world leads to premature optimization, which prominent British computer scientist Tony Hoare once labeled "[the root of all evil](https://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1513451)".[^Hoare]
One standard perspective, especially in economics and quantitatively inclined fields, is to insist that we should specify a global "objective" or "social welfare" function against which progress should be judged. The difficulty, of course, is that, in the face of the limitless possibilities of social life, any attempt to specify such a criterion is destined to crash land on the shores of the unknown and possibly unknowable. The more ambitiously we apply such a criterion in pursuing ⿻, the less robust it will prove, because the more deeply we connect to others across greater difference, the more likely we are to realize the failings of our initial vision of the good. Insisting on specifying such a criterion in advance of learning about the shape of the world leads to premature optimization, which prominent British computer scientist Tony Hoare once labeled "[the root of all evil](https://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1513451)".[^Hoare]

[^Hoare]: Randall Hyde, "The Fallacy of Premature Optimization" *Ubiquity* February, 2009 available at https://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1513451.

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