Comments on: Overcoming Democracy: Hanson’s Futarchy

By: Brian Gee

Brian Gee — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:35:23 +0000

Dear Mike et al

For those of you not familiar with Mr. Kofmel I invite you to visit our website http://kofmel.blogspot.com/?ref=OVDE and read a selection of the press articles or watch the recent BBC television documentary about him (also on that website). Mr. Kofmel is an internationally wanted fraudster on the run from the police in several countries.

Need any further info… drop me a line

Regs
Brian

By: Mike Gibson

Mike Gibson — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:08:49 +0000

Thanks, I’ll definitely keep up with you.

By: Erich Kofmel

Erich Kofmel — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:44:36 +0000

Check out my new blog, the “Anti-Democracy Agenda”:

http://www.anti-democracy.com

Cheers

By: Glen Raphael

Glen Raphael — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:47:49 +0000

I want to bet against Will. I suspect the average seastead will be more like a privately-owned apartment building than like a democracy. When you go on a cruise, does it bother you that you don’t get to vote on how the ship is run? When you buy a hamburger, does it bother you that you didn’t get to vote on how the restaurant is run? Good governance ought to fade into the background. You could sign up for it in advance, like internet service, or have it provided as part of your rent, like electricity, or pay-as-you-go for specific services such as dispute resolution.

Government is a bundle of services; I’d like to pick a service provider who has demonstrated an ability to provide the service well and provides me (a) a few quality guarantees and (b) the right of exit. It’s silly to think that I could improve on that outcome by getting together with a thousand other people and convincing them to vote the way I want them to. That’s like thinking I could improve the meal at a fancy restaurant by having the customers collectively vote on how many seconds to cook the steak.

By: There’s a persuasive theory underlying Robin Hanson’s proposal… | Midas Oracle .ORG

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:48:37 +0000

[...] There’s a persuasive theory underlying Robin Hanson’s proposal… Written by Chris F. Masse on August 13, 2009 — Leave a Comment … “but we’ll never know how well it works until someone puts it to the test.“ [...]

By: Will Wilkinson

Will Wilkinson — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:28:10 +0000

Yeah. I want to bet that seasteads with futarchic democracies will be the best ones!

By: patrissimo

patrissimo — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:48:31 +0000

Even without the conditional, he might be right. Well, for the next decade or two, at least. Futarchy could win via a slow growth and acceptance of prediction markets which eventually influence politics (in decades). But in the next 15 years, I think the chance of a traditional nation-state implementing any significant amount of futarchy is less than 5%.

By: Mike Gibson

Mike Gibson — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:42:36 +0000

True. I saw your offer for a bet on charter cities over at Marginal Revolution. Did anyone take you up?

I have searched but I cannot find any prediction markets offering contracts on either seasteads or charter cities. Can we establish one?

By: Robin Hanson

Robin Hanson — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:05:02 +0000

Well conditional on those domains existing, you are probably right.