The Future of Democracy
I always dreamt of having telekinetic communication abilities like the aliens that I see in sci-fi videogames. They communicate through an energy powered device attached to their minds: each could feel every thought and emotion of the other, which unified them in the hours of their deepest struggle.
What if I were to tell you that this technology is now the future of humanity?
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) allow individuals to interact with each other and their surroundings through the electrical signals in one’s brain. Our brain is powered by billions of neurons that communicate with each other through axon terminals, synapses, and dendrites. Whenever you have a thought or receive a visual stimulus, electrical signals flow through these neurons and get passed onto the next neuron via. neurotransmitters. BCIs interpret the electrical signals as data to send to a computer for registering responses. Scientists were even able to use visual stimuli and BCIs to play Tetris!
No longer would we have to struggle to tell each other how we feel; no longer would we stay lonely during the quarantine.
Most importantly, no longer would we live by an old definition of American democracy.
Voting in the Future
In the year 2075, when BCIs are readily available, everyone will be able to vote telekinetically; perhaps with even more information than current-day ballots would record. With BCIs, we can see how the public feels about a certain candidate and even why they feel a certain way — a nuance of public opinion that is not captured nowadays on paper ballots.
Additionally, everyone would have immediate access to the candidates’ information. Assuming that internet query integrations get developed one day, one would merely need to wonder about the candidate’s policies to have the BCI pull up information for you.
Moreover, with BCI public voting, no longer would we need any paper ballots to vote! No paper means no more recounts and thousands of trees saved.
We can certainly work toward that future, but for now, it is practically unattainable. BCI equipment and setups are very expensive, elaborate, and data from visual stimuli must be measured very precisely. The best thing about paper voting is that it is cheap — having whole BCI stations around the country will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Additionally, the dangers of BCI must be reckoned with: the fact that people can interlink and interact with brain waves brings about the terrifying prospects of mind control and memory alteration. Not only can your thoughts not be changed, but you can be manipulated into thinking a certain way about a candidate by others uploading data into your brain, or even worse, potentially having your whole identity compromised.
A Better Way to Vote in the Present
Imagine if you could exercise your democratic rights completely autonomously — no need to trust the government or any of their reported voting data — with all of the voting data being nearly unhackable, and available to you at all times. Blockchain systems take in pieces of data and sort them into a block, with codes — called hashes — as chains connecting each of the blocks. Each block has two chains: a chain linking to the previous block, and one linking to the next. If anyone were to try to tamper with the hashes, the hash would change, rendering all the following blocks on the chain invalid. In addition, all of these blocks are coded using cryptography and verified once it has been decoded by a “miner”. This means that every single vote can be audited for validity.
Suppose we have a public platform where people can register with their biomarkers to vote, thereby preserving the individual’s unique account status. That voting platform would process the vote into a block, where government-sponsored computers (or perhaps even quantum computers) carry out the necessary verification process needed for votes to get counted and secured into a blockchain. This way, the process is completely decentralized. The site would then publish live the count of votes coming in, to let the public see the most accurate and most decentralized representation of popular vote to have ever.
Remember when I said “nearly” unhackable? Well, one of the big nuances to using blockchain as a voting technology is that malicious hackers may attempt the 51% attack — by taking control of over 50% of the computers participating in the blockchain system, they would be able to mess with the voting system. However, government restricted-access computers and a strengthened cybersecurity program can prevent things like that from happening.
This method of voting has actually been proven to work in Arizona, where Arizona republicans used the blockchain voting technology “Voatz” for their state convention in May. “Voatz” was used again in June for the South Dakota convention, and yet again in August for the convention in Michigan. Their only challenge was getting people credentialed and registered to vote.
This sounds awfully complicated. Why don't things work now?
For starters, paper ballots allow for a ton of human error. Miscounting and having to recount is perhaps the most common, followed by damaged ballots or even losing some of them.
Not only is paper ballot voting much more expensive than BCI or blockchain voting, but it’s significantly impactful on the environment and is not accessible who are physically disabled and must rely on others to cast their ballot in their stead.
Since the early 19th century, Americans have been voting with paper ballots. Imagine the number of trees we’ve killed, recall the recounts we’ve had to for tight elections and be aware of the hundreds of years we have endured the risks of having any of the things I listed above happen to any ballot. One ballot is the voice of one American, and we cannot treat someone’s democratic rights with minimal security.
Additionally, using your phone to cast a ballot isn’t that simple either. By using a certain app, even if it is government approved, you are inadvertently agreeing to trust that these apps and the way they gather, count, and even defend your data. If hackers wanted to really mess with the system, all they have to do is attack the centralized system where everyone’s votes are at. With blockchains, people no longer have to trust big data corporations or even the government to exercise the rights that are theirs; because of its decentralized nature, it is much harder to hack than regular apps.
Key Takeaways
- The super far-future of voting is a mix between BCI and blockchain technologies, but the blockchain is something that we can apply to voting right now!
- Blockchain’s decentralized nature allows for greater security, and for individuals to not have to trust anyone else to process their vote.
- Paper voting is a huge waste of trees and money, in addition to being vulnerable to destruction or miscounting. With digital technology like blockchain, not only are we saving those resources, but they are much easier and safe to process.
