The Prospect of Democracy 2.0
David Wood
@dw2
Principal, Delta WisdomChair, London Futurists
londonfuturists.com deltawisdom.com
Why everyone interested in the
future of business should be paying
attention to the future of politics

@dw2 Page 2
Exponential
Technologies
 Business disruption
Development
& Deployment
Incentives
Regulations
Subsidies
Markets
Expectations
Politics
N B I C R G …

@dw2 Page 3http://uber-troubles.silk.co/
Over 65 conflicts or controversies for Uber to date worldwide
In Dec 2014, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office issued a legal indictment against
Uber (and against CEO Travis Kalanick) for violating a Korean law prohibiting individuals or
firms without appropriate licenses from providing or facilitating transportation services.

@dw2 Page 4http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2013/ucm376296.htm
“Most of the intended uses for PGS listed on your website, a list
that has grown over time, are medical device uses under section
201(h) of the FD&C Act. Most of these uses have not been
classified and thus require premarket approval or de novo
classification, as FDA has explained to you on numerous occasions.”

@dw2 Page 5http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-32919063
Deaths from ‘legal highs’
have more than doubled in
the UK in the past four years
‘Legal highs’ ban plan criticised by drugs charities
Seven-year jail terms under ‘blanket ban’…
applies to “any substance intended for human consumption
that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32919712

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/energy/windpower
/11685082/Wind-farm-subsidies-axed-to-stop-turbines-
covering-beautiful-countryside.html
Wind farm subsidies axed 'to stop turbines
covering beautiful countryside'
Fossil fuels subsidies of $5.3 trillion in 2015
(IMF) – greater than the total health
spending of all the world’s governments
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/
may/18/fossil-fuel-companies-getting-10m-a-
minute-in-subsidies-says-imf

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/07/drone-near-miss-passenger-plane-heathrow
Drone ‘near miss’ with
passenger plane close to
Heathrow airport investigated
Incident risk rating of A – the highest
of five categories – defined as a
“serious risk of collision”

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@dw2 Page 9http://fbheron.org/2014/03/15/in-case-you-missed-it-investing-giving-for-good/
I liked it
better when
our bank was
just a bank

@dw2 Page 10https://www.laprogressive.com/obamas-regulatory-brain/

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Exponential
Technologies
 Business disruption
Development
& Deployment
Incentives
Regulations
Subsidies
Markets
Expectations
Politics
Necessary part of society
Regulations often out-dated
Regulators often “captured”
Politicians out of their depth

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Exponential
Technologies
 Political disruption
Development
& Deployment
Incentives
Regulations
Subsidies
Markets
Expectations
Politics
Necessary part of society
Regulations often out-dated
Regulators often “captured”
Politicians out of their depth
Politics 2.0

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Web 1.0 Web 2.0
1996 2006
“the mostly read-only Web” “the wildly read-write Web”
80,000,000 sites250,000 sites
45 million global users 1 billion+ global users
centrally
published
content
user
generated
content
centrally
published
content
user
generated
content
collective
intelligence
Source: http://web2.wsj2.com/ (Dion Hinchcliffe)

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Web 1.0 focus (Politics 1.0)
• Information distributed
through the network to the
edges
• Readable web: Library
• A few, fixed wise oracles
• Publishing & retrieval
• User consumption
• Company-driven innovation
• HTML, HTTP…
Web 2.0 focus (Politics 2.0?)
• Harnessing of intelligence
residing in the network,
including at its edges (P2P)
• Writable web: Conversation
• User reputation systems
• Collaboration & interaction
• User-generated content
• User-driven innovation
• AJAX…
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
Enabled by smart technology

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Politics
1.0
Regulations often out-dated
Regulators often “captured”
Politicians out of their depth
Real wisdom of crowds
Real-time fact-checking
AI supplementing HI
Mass surveillance
Mass distraction (soma)
Gov’t by 1% for 1%
Politics
2.0
?Politics
0.0
?

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