2023/7/7 Plurality Tokyo Salon
On July 7, 2023, I attended the Plurality Tokyo Salon at Kiryu-sha in Shimokitazawa. I had come across it on Discord and had the time to go, so I decided to attend. It took me about 25 minutes to bike there. I arrived early and had coffee with Mr. Nishio. We discussed the overwhelming division on social media and how it can be distressing. I expressed my gratitude that Mr. Nishio became interested in concepts like 'Digital Democracy' and 'Deliberation' through Plurality Tokyo.
During the event, a person named Taka from Kiryu-sha (Yoshitaka Fujii) asked, "What kind of gathering are you all? What is Plurality?" I explained that there has been a need to consider a form of democracy based on the Earth for the past 10 years, and Plurality aims to develop governance technology for that purpose. We discussed various topics related to governance technology, including the Japanese translation of Plurality, the necessity of Plurality, and whether a statement interpreting the general will as a Pareto Frontier can be written. We also talked about the meaningless concept of governance in a scenario where cooperative games do not exist. I mentioned that I had participated in the Plurality Conference held at UC Berkeley and shared the challenge book of the conference.
I introduced the idea that "Longevity (Longevity Research) is a Western Concept" and how it relates to AI alignment. We discussed the need to achieve 51% consensus and assert legitimacy even if there are dissatisfaction and limitations in Japan. We agreed that Mobile Voting is necessary to bring about change, and it should be advocated by those who want to change, regardless of what they want to change. We defined this as the desired state of governance and aimed to enlighten others about it. We also had a humorous discussion about the possibility of forking even in a shrine if 51% consensus is achieved. We discussed the importance of "Changing Incentives" in existing systems, the need for a well-being state to define governance, and the path to Pareto optimality. We questioned whether existing voting systems can handle the desired changes and whether those who cannot move should be left behind. We also discussed the possibility of moving local cultures and forking shrines to preserve them. We acknowledged that not everything needs to be moved if people believe it should stay, but we also considered the cost of preserving what is important.
We had a conversation with Hal Selki from Code for Japan, where we discussed the need to create our own tax collection mechanism to avoid budget-taking politics. We observed that "Govtech" is often just politely selling existing SaaS to local governments and does not truly reconsider governance using software. We touched on topics such as taxation ability, forced taxation, forced taxation thanks to smart contracts, and the fact that Govtech products are often just outsourcing or rebranding to B2B without a startup-like entity.
I also mentioned my desire to communicate more with Seki-san and sent them a message. We agreed to meet on August 1.