Our politics is drowning in spin, culture wars and career politicians. Politicians tell us they’ll help us take back control, but how do we actually do that in the system we have?

In this video I explore why direct democracy is now possible because of the internet. And it sounds superficially appealing. But voting on every issue online would lead to chaos and endless disinformation campaigns - the very same we see during elections. While we currently rely on elected representatives to deliberate on our behalf, they often no longer reflect the everyday people they are supposed to serve.

There is another way. In ancient Athens the Council of 500 ran the city. Instead of electing leaders to fight their way to the top, it was chosen by lottery as we choose jurors in a court. We need to do something similar, but not just in our courts. We need an institution like a jury to participate in government alongside our politicians.

This is the first step toward saving our politics.

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Social media currently rewards outrage over reason, functioning as a profit-driven "shoutocracy" that fuels online division. What if we could fix our digital public square using the same principles of governance that make Wikipedia generally reliable?

In this video, I explore the stark contrast between Wikipedia's structured meritocracy and the chaotic nature of modern platforms. While Wikipedia’s genius was focusing on the NPOV - the Neutral Point of View as the way its many participants converge on a common standard. It’s inherently harder on social media. That’s because so much discussion on social media isn’t just about what is the case but how society ought to be. It’s harder to get people to converge on better rather than worse responses to that question. But Wikipedia gives us some clues. I think the answer lies in bridging algorithms, tools designed to amplify voices that earn respect even from their ideological opponents.

Because bridging societal divides doesn’t generally maximise profit, I argue that cultural institutions, public broadcasters, and universities must take the lead. By pioneering pro-social networks, we can rebuild the vital "middleware" of our democracy. This video examines how prioritising collective sense-making over rage could fundamentally transform our algorithms and our future.

▶ Enjoy the next episode on ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ or Spotify next week

📽️ Find this video on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

🎙️ Listen to the “Talking it Through” episode where I talk more about these ideas on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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By every rule of logic, giving a global army of volunteers the power to write an encyclopaedia should have resulted in total chaos. Yet, the miracle of the early internet was that it didn't. In this video, I argue that while we are mesmerised by the radical openness of platforms like Wikipedia, we are missing the invisible architecture that actually makes them work. I call this the 'middleware' of peer production.

We explore how successful open-source projects are not the democratic free-for-alls we imagine, but exacting meritocracies often ruled by 'benevolent dictators'. By ignoring this hidden structure, we fail to understand why modern social media has become a toxic mix of confusion and rage. We look at how the right kind of gatekeepers are essential to align individual actions with shared purposes, offering us the only real clue on how to fix our broken digital conversations. And it’s all leading up to an even bigger question we ask in the next video. What is the middleware of democracy and how can we build it?

▶ Enjoy the next episode on ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ or Spotify next week

📽️ Find this video on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

🎙️ Listen to the “Talking it Through” episode where I talk more about these ideas on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

👉 Join the conversation on my ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord server