Global sentiment analysis - public sentiment as the invisible hand behind democracy and how it relates to DPOS
“In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.” Abraham Lincoln
Public sentiment is the invisible hand behind democracy
Democratic networks run on public sentiment. Any network which has voters, which has a crowd, which has either proposals to be voted on or representatives to vote for, is in essence guided by public sentiment. Steemit and DPOS based consensus networks all require democracy in order to work. This requirement for democracy by DPOS based consensus networks may in fact be the main flaw behind DPOS because there is the risk that the entire network could become under the influence of popularity cults.
What is a popularity cult? It usually forms around a cult personality type which the zeitgeist of the time prefers. This cult personality type may be then put in the position of "thought leader" whose opinions hold extraordinary weight. In the crypto space there already are such thought leaders which means under any democratic style network these thought leaders may become the key players. This is a problem because most people instead of thinking for themselves on every decision will prefer to go with the flow and follow the opinions of their leader(s).
Why follow the leader can become problematic
Thought leaders ultimately centralize the decision making. While it may seem that under DPOS or similar protocols that the crowd is wise and well informed, instead what we actually see in practice is very low participation rates. We also see a heavy reliance on the opinions of thought leaders who may be justifiably experts in narrow areas, but who then go to speak on every area as many people look up to them. This in my opinion represents a potential bottleneck because a thought leader may be a genius at developing blockchains or at artificial intelligence but may not know very much about the law (compliance) or team building. In essence, follow the leader can result in tribal disputes between personality cults which can ultimately disintegrate cooperation in an industry.
In my opinion the main flaw behind DPOS and similar democratic style consensus is politics. Politics in most countries divide the people. Additionally the political disputes are easily manipulated by propaganda from both mainstream and alternative media. The crowd by itself is not wise and does not research deeply into matters and for this reason the media has extreme influence.
We can for instance see how investors react to news of a South Korean ban on crypto exchanges and we can see many investors make emotional decisions based on this new information. The speculation which takes place under the democratic style political systems is a bit different where instead of people betting on which stocks will go up and down, essentially the bets are on where public sentiment will move. If you can in essence see where public sentiment is and project where it is going to go then you can do well in politics just as if you can see where the market is and where it is going to go you can do well at investing.
The problem is most of us have no clue where public sentiment is going to go and very few have any clue where public sentiment is at any point in time. The means of determining where public sentiment either in markets or in politics is by capturing public sentiment via opinion polls and then analyzing it.
Global sentiment analysis as a new input for decision making
In the past the technology did not exist to capture the opinions of people around the globe. The world was smaller, less connected, and language barriers prevented human beings from being able to know what other human beings think. These language barriers are now removed by AI, people are now more connected than ever by social media, and the blockchain allows for a record of the consensus at any point in time. The problem today isn't that we cannot capture the data which represents global sentiment but it is a problem of being unable to analyze and process the big data which represents global sentiment.
Steemit as a product is like a machine which produces an output of global sentiment. All who post their true opinions and thoughts on Steemit have submitted that data to be analyzed by AI going into the future. The ability to process the data on Steemit will only improve over time until eventually we will be able to track in a precise manner the current sentiment of Steemit. This may not substitute for the sentiment of the globe, or even of the cryptospace, but it does give us a source of data.
Global sentiment can teach us the current "right and wrong" views of humanity
How do we determine what is right and what is wrong from the eyes of humanity itself? The only way to capture this data is by continuously analyzing the expressed opinions of humanity. Humanity is a global organism and while this organism is decentralized down to the level of individuals, with individual opinions, we require a means of combining and synthesizing these various opinions in a way which is useful to what we are trying to do. Some examples of changes in global sentiment are below for discussion:
- The global economy is improving in the minds of the global person but pessimism remains about the future.
- The views of NATO have improved in certain places. In order words NATO is more popular now.
- The views of Russia in the mind of the European person has diminished (this may be connected to NATO improving)
- Angela Merkel is viewed as more competent when it comes to global affairs than some other politicians at this time.
If the crypto space is going to catch up and do these political chains in the right way then there will have to be global sentiment analysis. The result of this analysis should be used so that decisions with regard to design or upgrading can be data driven rather than by way of a top down command and control. This requires a way to collect data in such a way that the data is kept private yet allow machines to analyze it.
The problem with transparency is that when you have too much of the wrong kind of it then people cannot express their true opinions if it deviates too much from public sentiment. People for example cannot vote what they really believe if they think their votes will be analyzed on the blockchain for all time by machine intelligence to later be used against them by those who disagree. For these reasons the votes must be private and the opinions whether expressed in public or kept in private must be analyzed so as to better inform developers and key decision makers on what actions to take.
@dana-edwards - What an interesting view of public sentiment and how it can actually provide inputs for decision making for businesses which are based on consensus. The weakness of consensus based businesses is the manipulation that is possible through politics. We see it affecting futures of various countries and have an impact on the well being of a nation. You draw an interesting parallel for businesses like Steemit, DPOS that also get affected.
An enlightening article. Thanks. Upvoted full.
Regards,
@vm2904
It must provide input into the blockchain itself. We have to figure this out if we are going to truly adapt the tech to be for everyone and not merely for those who agree with our sentiments.
@dana-edwards Unfortunately public sentiment is easily shaped and manipulated through television. Most people would blindly trust and believe the news anchorman without doing any research for themselves. ''If it's on the news, then it must be true''.
Public sentiment can be manipulated with a variety of techniques and used to promote political agendas and ideology. Following a leader blindly can become problematic because as soon as people feel they can trust their leader, they stop doubting them and fully surrender to their will.
Significant point raised.
And also through blogs, which should show you exactly the risk I mean with DPOS.
@dana-edwards I was not familiar with the DPOS system prior to reading your work and I'm thankful for you taking the time to raise awareness. I absorb information all day like a sponge, however one can always miss valuable info on the web; it's huge.
The risk with DPOS or similar protocols is that it resembles politics as you rightly pointed out. "The crowd by itself is not wise and does not research deeply into matters and for this reason the media has extreme influence.'' Absolutely agreed. Politics. And that's an easy way to control the masses. Divide them, teach them to hate people with different views. You need them divided in different groups thinking each other is the real enemy.
But again, all this mess stems from the fact that the masses are ignorant and refuse to educate themselves. They refuse to ''waste'' time researching. They're too busy watching tv shows and games.
In other words, consent is manufactured, like Noam Chomsky says, which makes the whole 'democracy' thing rather null.
I think we live in an era where we are constantly being brainwashed to be zombies. Television and social media is a big part of screwing everyone's psychology. For example, by having a lot of money, you can deliver your opinion to a hundred thousand people on social medias and make them believe you are right. So if your intention is to manipulate them in some way, you can easily do that with money. It happens, because the masses are not aware of any of this happening at all. Blind trust in the leaders is not good, because that gives them all the power to do whatever they want...
Ding DIng DIng!!!!! Nailed it with this comment. There are a only a handful of individuals with enormous amounts of fiat money who do exactly what you said... I.e... Georgie S.. and Bill G.. these guys use their money to spread lies which become the public sentiment moving forward, because they (or the institutions before them) have already invested years and $$ to cracking the human psyche.
Just look to all the secret societies our "leaders" are involved in and how they regularly meet BEHIND CLOSED DOORS to discuss their satanic errr I mean "globalist" agendas.. And Angela Merkel attends those meetings.
I thought the German people wanted her out because of her insane immigration policies which lead to... i dont know... lots of rapes, sexual assualts and what not... perhaps I am wrong.
Thank you for great posts @dana-edwards, I get a lot of information from them and get knowledge which I can use in future.
Well thought-out exploration of the weaknesses of DPOS type networks. The phenomenon you mentioned, "thought leaders," is a quite interesting one. At one point, we were all on the same level as human beings, yet then suddenly, when someone has spent enough hours researching/practicing something, they are now an "expert," with all the concordant expectations, honor, and admiration. However, anyone can (and ought to) become knowledgeable about the most fundamental aspects of reality, from their unique vector of consciousness. The laziness, fear, and mental programming that plague most which encourage them to seek escapism instead of addressing the harder questions of existence may be a formidable foe, but it can be overcome.
Upvoted 100% through Steemfollower. Thanks for the food for contemplation @dana-edwards!
Thank you for getting so much knowledge @dana-edwards, I have just discovered you and your posts, and I really got a lot of new for me from them, thank you for them once more.
Pretty sure it's because American propagandistic mainstream media are incessantly trying to stoke up a war against them.
I think people also get themselves into a groupthink mentality where just because the wider group sees something then the rest feel that they should also feel the same way due to social proof. Groupthink has major implications for individualised critical thinking. Do we therefore live in a true democracy? Or are we just living in a media influenced culture that was always someone else's idea?