Don't be an Idiot
summary
Argument: open source and the internet are historical tools to dilute power, traced here to the Eloinian mysteries and a psychedelic ritual ingredient hypothesis; evidence offered is cultural span (mystery cult ≈2,000 years) and participants (Plato, Pythagoras, Cicero). Practical work: Green Software Foundation moves standards via GitHub pull requests, a one‑vote rule and the I object override. Experiment: a failed Post‑it design workshop led to building Harmony, an AI‑assisted consensus loop that processes voices, drafts candidate statements, runs assemblies of ~20 now with plans for hundreds, while privacy and manipulation risks remain.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Welcome
- 1:54Who is Asim
- 4:26Defining power
- 11:13Psychedelics and mysteries
- 21:51Athenian versus modern democracy
- 27:09Diluting power in governance
- 31:30Harmony AI introduction
- 36:43Democracy’s future with AI
- 37:49Meaning of being an idiot
- 38:36Q&A
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