[Music]
[Applause]
I’m here today to talk with you about
power but before I begin let me tell you
how I came to be standing here in the
1940s
my grandfather was part of the Indian
independence movement where Indians
organized themselves to become powerful
enough to end British rule in India in
the 1950s my grandparents that came to
England to work in factories and
foundries and so in the 1990s when I was
growing up I had the luxury of being
able to read and to study and since the
age of 13 I’ve been reading hundreds of
books about how power flows in the world
and how society is organized I went on
to study this at Cambridge and after
graduating from there I explored it
further and then organizing a summit in
Silicon Valley where we assembled some
of the world’s brightest minds to share
their insights on the future of
government so what have I learned on
this journey well there’s one thing that
I’ve noticed about power that I’d like
to share with you all today it seems to
me that the way power flows in the world
right now is very similar to how water
flows in one of the canals in Birmingham
not very much and when power does not
flow like water attends to become
stagnant and dirty and this is where we
start to see corruption in our public
life and our politics remember Donald
Trump promised to drain the swamp and
whatever you feel about Donald Trump
there is something about that image that
people recognize now when power does not
flow when it resides in too few hands
and become centralized in one place it
becomes corrupted but what if there was
a better solution to this problem then
dark Trump
well I believe there is there is a new
kind of democracy that many people are
calling liquid democracy but before I
explain to you what liquid democracy is
and how it works and what’s going on
practically in the world to help make it
a reality
let’s just get clear for a moment on how
our insistant works so right now
professional politicians are voting on
our behalf on all sorts of issues and
they decide what gets voted upon we have
citizens meanwhile again the opportunity
once every four or five years when there
is an election to invest all of our
votes on all issues into a particular
individual politician usually a member
of the red team or the blue team and if
we don’t like how they use our vote on a
certain issue then we have to wait until
the next election before we can change
our preference so a liquid democracy
works quite differently first of all any
citizen can put forward an idea and if
there is enough interest in support for
that idea
then we have a period of public debate
followed by a vote and when it comes to
that vote in a liquid democracy
you can vote on every single issue if
you want to if you don’t want to because
you don’t have the time or the interest
or the expertise you don’t have to no
one’s making you you can abstain or you
can delegate your vote to someone who
you trust on that particular issue so
let me paint a picture for you with an
example we have a citizen let’s call him
Jeremy and Jeremy has an idea to create
a national education service whereby
every citizen will have access to
education free at the point of use
throughout their entire life not just
when they’re young so Jeremy is not too
familiar with the internet or
smartphones he doesn’t have apps and so
he chooses to walk into his local
democracy centre fill in a paper form to
propose his eye
this idea is then distributed via the
post by newspapers through TV and also
the internet and it turns out that there
actually is enough interest and support
for this idea that we decide to have a
period of public debate followed by a
vote so this is quite a tricky idea so
we decide the period of public debate in
the last six months and then we have the
vote so again this public debate happens
in various forums it happens on the
Internet it happens on TV it happens in
the newspapers but crucially it also
happens in person live at these local
democracy centers where any individual
citizen can come and listen discuss
debate connect and become informed
before casting their vote so when it
comes to casting the vote remember a
link democracy everyone can vote and you
can vote yes to a national education
service you could vote know you can
abstain or you can delegate your work to
someone you trust on this issue so let’s
imagine that your daughter during this
period of public debate has become
extremely passionate about this subject
she’s been reading everything in the
newspapers and online she’s been
watching all the debates on TV she’s
been going to all the in-person debates
at the local democracy Center so when
the vote comes around you think you know
what she seems to really know and care
about this issue so I’m gonna give her
my vote on this one you may have a
friend who is a teacher you respect his
opinion on education so you give your
vote to him you might even have a
situation where a larger number of
people and society let’s say 1,000
people like we have in the room today
all decide to give your votes to a
single person like myself and so
hopefully you can start to see how in a
liquid democracy so-called ordinary
individuals can become powerful you can
become powerful without having to join a
political party without having to stand
for election yourself but simply by
being known and trusted by people around
you in your community so I didn’t just
come here to talk to you about a nice
and community organizer and UK
ambassador for the democracy Earth
Foundation and we are building the
infrastructure that would allow all
citizens of Earth to try liquid
democracy we have got an app called
sovereign this is what it looks like
where you can test out liquid democracy
and it’s worth saying that the
technology behind this app has been
built using the blockchain which means
that the system cannot be hijacked or
corrupted or controlled by any central
authority whether an individual or an
organization not even democracy of
ourselves of course not everything can
happen online we’re also very much
focused on the real world and this
project actually has its origins as a
real offline political party so we know
all about that so I’d like to extend an
invitation to all of you here today on
behalf of democracy Earth we are
inviting citizens and politicians around
the world to visit our website democracy
Earth download our app called sovereign
and try out liquid democracy everything
we do is free and open-source so if
you’re a developer you’d actually
and you’d like to contribute to building
our software you can and if you’re more
into the ideas you can contribute to our
white paper which is a living roadmap
towards a global liquid democracy and if
you’re in the United Kingdom and in
Birmingham in particular we are building
a prototype local democracy center right
here where you can come and try liquid
democracy in person so if you’d like to
be part of a local experiment of global
significance come speak to me and
together we might just move towards a
world where power floors not like the
water in a canal but rather like a
mighty river
ever flowing toward the ocean thank you
[Applause]
[Applause]
I’m here today to talk with you about
power but before I begin let me tell you
how I came to be standing here in the
1940s
my grandfather was part of the Indian
independence movement where Indians
organized themselves to become powerful
enough to end British rule in India in
the 1950s my grandparents that came to
England to work in factories and
foundries and so in the 1990s when I was
growing up I had the luxury of being
able to read and to study and since the
age of 13 I’ve been reading hundreds of
books about how power flows in the world
and how society is organized I went on
to study this at Cambridge and after
graduating from there I explored it
further and then organizing a summit in
Silicon Valley where we assembled some
of the world’s brightest minds to share
their insights on the future of
government so what have I learned on
this journey well there’s one thing that
I’ve noticed about power that I’d like
to share with you all today it seems to
me that the way power flows in the world
right now is very similar to how water
flows in one of the canals in Birmingham
not very much and when power does not
flow like water attends to become
stagnant and dirty and this is where we
start to see corruption in our public
life and our politics remember Donald
Trump promised to drain the swamp and
whatever you feel about Donald Trump
there is something about that image that
people recognize now when power does not
flow when it resides in too few hands
and become centralized in one place it
becomes corrupted but what if there was
a better solution to this problem then
dark Trump
well I believe there is there is a new
kind of democracy that many people are
calling liquid democracy but before I
explain to you what liquid democracy is
and how it works and what’s going on
practically in the world to help make it
a reality
let’s just get clear for a moment on how
our insistant works so right now
professional politicians are voting on
our behalf on all sorts of issues and
they decide what gets voted upon we have
citizens meanwhile again the opportunity
once every four or five years when there
is an election to invest all of our
votes on all issues into a particular
individual politician usually a member
of the red team or the blue team and if
we don’t like how they use our vote on a
certain issue then we have to wait until
the next election before we can change
our preference so a liquid democracy
works quite differently first of all any
citizen can put forward an idea and if
there is enough interest in support for
that idea
then we have a period of public debate
followed by a vote and when it comes to
that vote in a liquid democracy
you can vote on every single issue if
you want to if you don’t want to because
you don’t have the time or the interest
or the expertise you don’t have to no
one’s making you you can abstain or you
can delegate your vote to someone who
you trust on that particular issue so
let me paint a picture for you with an
example we have a citizen let’s call him
Jeremy and Jeremy has an idea to create
a national education service whereby
every citizen will have access to
education free at the point of use
throughout their entire life not just
when they’re young so Jeremy is not too
familiar with the internet or
smartphones he doesn’t have apps and so
he chooses to walk into his local
democracy centre fill in a paper form to
propose his eye
this idea is then distributed via the
post by newspapers through TV and also
the internet and it turns out that there
actually is enough interest and support
for this idea that we decide to have a
period of public debate followed by a
vote so this is quite a tricky idea so
we decide the period of public debate in
the last six months and then we have the
vote so again this public debate happens
in various forums it happens on the
Internet it happens on TV it happens in
the newspapers but crucially it also
happens in person live at these local
democracy centers where any individual
citizen can come and listen discuss
debate connect and become informed
before casting their vote so when it
comes to casting the vote remember a
link democracy everyone can vote and you
can vote yes to a national education
service you could vote know you can
abstain or you can delegate your work to
someone you trust on this issue so let’s
imagine that your daughter during this
period of public debate has become
extremely passionate about this subject
she’s been reading everything in the
newspapers and online she’s been
watching all the debates on TV she’s
been going to all the in-person debates
at the local democracy Center so when
the vote comes around you think you know
what she seems to really know and care
about this issue so I’m gonna give her
my vote on this one you may have a
friend who is a teacher you respect his
opinion on education so you give your
vote to him you might even have a
situation where a larger number of
people and society let’s say 1,000
people like we have in the room today
all decide to give your votes to a
single person like myself and so
hopefully you can start to see how in a
liquid democracy so-called ordinary
individuals can become powerful you can
become powerful without having to join a
political party without having to stand
for election yourself but simply by
being known and trusted by people around
you in your community so I didn’t just
come here to talk to you about a nice
and community organizer and UK
ambassador for the democracy Earth
Foundation and we are building the
infrastructure that would allow all
citizens of Earth to try liquid
democracy we have got an app called
sovereign this is what it looks like
where you can test out liquid democracy
and it’s worth saying that the
technology behind this app has been
built using the blockchain which means
that the system cannot be hijacked or
corrupted or controlled by any central
authority whether an individual or an
organization not even democracy of
ourselves of course not everything can
happen online we’re also very much
focused on the real world and this
project actually has its origins as a
real offline political party so we know
all about that so I’d like to extend an
invitation to all of you here today on
behalf of democracy Earth we are
inviting citizens and politicians around
the world to visit our website democracy
Earth download our app called sovereign
and try out liquid democracy everything
we do is free and open-source so if
you’re a developer you’d actually
and you’d like to contribute to building
our software you can and if you’re more
into the ideas you can contribute to our
white paper which is a living roadmap
towards a global liquid democracy and if
you’re in the United Kingdom and in
Birmingham in particular we are building
a prototype local democracy center right
here where you can come and try liquid
democracy in person so if you’d like to
be part of a local experiment of global
significance come speak to me and
together we might just move towards a
world where power floors not like the
water in a canal but rather like a
mighty river
ever flowing toward the ocean thank you
[Applause]
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