This is interesting, but I really do want to see what ideas you have for mechanism.
The problem with law—that doesn’t apply to, say, Wikipedia pages—is that if you create a bad one you can do a lot of damage to a lot of people. So our mechanisms for making law are deliberately inefficient. They are the opposite of permissionless innovation.
If we want to enable anyone to make law, and have it be really fast and efficient and low-friction, it can’t be the kind of law that constrains the freedom of an entire population. It has to be something else.
You have a good point that, historically, speed has had some correlation with legislation quality. But that’s just a failure of the mechanisms.
It’s like saying that communism works better than capitalism because if you create a bad economy you can damage a lot of people, so our mechanisms for organizing the economy should be deliberately inefficient. Capitalism achieved an economy that is really fast and efficient and low-friction.
But I agree this is a moot debate until the mechanisms are discussed. I’ll do that in the future.
I’m not even sure that I would say that speed has a correlation with quality in legislation. It’s more that adding process, and especially requiring review and broad agreement, helps avoid some of the worst outcomes.
The analogy to an economy doesn’t hold: if someone creates a bad business, you can choose not to patronize it; if someone creates a bad law, you can’t choose not to follow it.
… Unless you are in a choice-of-law regime, e.g., the way a new business can choose what state to incorporate in, and is governed by the corporate law of that state; or the way a merchant ship can choose what flag to fly under.
Maybe you are going to propose that kind of system? Looking forward to future posts that get into the mechanisms!
This is interesting, but I really do want to see what ideas you have for mechanism.
The problem with law—that doesn’t apply to, say, Wikipedia pages—is that if you create a bad one you can do a lot of damage to a lot of people. So our mechanisms for making law are deliberately inefficient. They are the opposite of permissionless innovation.
If we want to enable anyone to make law, and have it be really fast and efficient and low-friction, it can’t be the kind of law that constrains the freedom of an entire population. It has to be something else.
You have a good point that, historically, speed has had some correlation with legislation quality. But that’s just a failure of the mechanisms.
It’s like saying that communism works better than capitalism because if you create a bad economy you can damage a lot of people, so our mechanisms for organizing the economy should be deliberately inefficient. Capitalism achieved an economy that is really fast and efficient and low-friction.
But I agree this is a moot debate until the mechanisms are discussed. I’ll do that in the future.
I’m not even sure that I would say that speed has a correlation with quality in legislation. It’s more that adding process, and especially requiring review and broad agreement, helps avoid some of the worst outcomes.
The analogy to an economy doesn’t hold: if someone creates a bad business, you can choose not to patronize it; if someone creates a bad law, you can’t choose not to follow it.
… Unless you are in a choice-of-law regime, e.g., the way a new business can choose what state to incorporate in, and is governed by the corporate law of that state; or the way a merchant ship can choose what flag to fly under.
Maybe you are going to propose that kind of system? Looking forward to future posts that get into the mechanisms!