Democracy 2.0: The Rise of the Algorithmic Alderman

By 2045, “citizen assemblies” – randomly selected groups deliberating on policy – will be augmented by sophisticated AI that analyzes public sentiment with unnerving accuracy, predicting the success or failure of proposed legislation before it even hits the floor. This will lead to a bizarre, yet strangely efficient, system where the human element of passionate debate is delicately balanced by the cold, hard logic of a super-intelligent algorithm nicknamed “the Algorithmic Alderman,” much to the chagrin of traditional politicians who suddenly find themselves playing second fiddle to a very well-informed machine.