Ha, in a few years, even your cloths will snitch on you... literally.

The intelligence research agency is crafting smart clothing technology equipped with audio, video and geolocation sensors.


https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/20...on/389654/

Quote:The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity is developing a new tool that brings wearable technology right down to the fiber of your clothing. 

Officials from the research agency said Tuesday that they had launched a program to craft performance-grade, computerized clothing that can record audio, video and geolocation data while retaining the wearability and comfort of normal fabrics.

The Smart Electrically Powered and Networked Textile Systems — SMART ePANTS — program emerged a year ago with a broad agency announcement seeking contractors to help deliver sensor systems that can be integrated into normal clothing like shirts and pants, or even socks and underwear.

Those sensors are part of a system that is woven into the textiles to make the garments more wearable and washable, but also able to “sense, store, interpret, and/or react to information from their environment,” effectively making them Active Smart Textiles, according to agency documents.

“IARPA is proud to lead this first-of-its-kind effort for both the [Intelligence Community] and broader scientific community which will bring much-needed innovation to the field of ASTs,” said Dawson Cagle, SMART ePANTS program manager, in a statement. “To date no group has committed the time and resources necessary to fashion the first integrated electronics that are stretchable, bendable, comfortable and washable like regular clothing.”

The ASTs will be able to generate these capabilities through technology advancements like weavable conductive polymer that is threaded into the textile and can serve as the wires powering the sensors, energy harvesters powered by the person wearing the garment, “ultra-low power printable computers on cloth, microphones that behave like threads and ‘scrunchable’ batteries.”

Most importantly, the garments must be able to export the data they gather to an external data storage device, like a hard drive. 

IARPA is partnering with a mix of companies — like Leidos, Areté, Nautilus Defense and SRI International, alongside the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — to develop the AST clothing through a July 2022 broad agency announcement.

Agency officials will work on three research tracks to craft ASTs that can record audio, video and location information.

That will coincide with three phases of development: an 18-month period to develop a reusable, flexible, stretchable integrated AST; a 12-month period to craft a functional prototype AST that can be woven into a garment; and a 12-month period to ensure a prototype that meets the requirements of AST performance, garment comfort, durability and washability.

IARPA officials said in a statement that the AST clothing could be ultimately beneficial for first responders or personnel “in dangerous, high-stress environments, such as crime scenes and arms control inspections without impeding their ability to swiftly and safely operate.”

Looks like they are finally trying to shut Jordan Peterson down. Funny that trans activist who were neither patients nor were even acquittances of his patients are allowed to do this. Well, maybe not, the leftist in their government want to shut everybody down that doesn't agree with them.


Jordan Peterson forced to undergo reeducation from Ontario College of Psychologists to retain his license

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-j...is-license

https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/stat...9462245379

Quote:Psychologist and former University of Toronto professor Dr. Jordan Peterson was ordered by the Ontario College of Psychologists to undergo a reeducation training program over his social media posts that uphold free speech and speak out against gender ideology and medical mistreatment of minors in service to the lie that humans can change sex.


He received a great deal of support in his quest to not have to undergo reeducation to retain his license, and hundreds rallied on his behalf. Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre also backed Peterson against the authoritarian overreach of the Ontario College of Psychologists, who took the word of people who claimed they where "harmed" by simply seeing Peterson's remarks online as proof of "harm."

Peterson spoke about the upcoming verdict a day before it was levied, saying "The decision of an Ontario court re the allegations levied against me by @CPOntario is due tomorrow. I stand by what I have said and done and wish them luck in their continued prosecution. They're going to need it. I tweeted and otherwise expressed my opposition to trans surgery butchery, @JustinTrudeau and his minions, and the lying climate apocalypse-mongers. All that's looking pretty good from my end. And if I can't express such opinions in Canada, I will let the world know."

He further said that "I will video-record all further hearings and "Mandatory re-education training courses" And broadcast them unedited on @YouTube for the world to see. I swear it by all that is holy."


Peterson applied for a judicial review, stating that the professional body had no say in his online commentary, which has made him a well-known name in conservative and free speech circles. The Ontario Divisional Court has dismissed that application. They ruled that "the college's decision falls within its mandate to regulate the profession in the public interest and does not affect his freedom of expression," CBC reports.

The College required in January that Peterson "...work with either Dr. Erika Abner, LLM, LLB, Ph.D, or Gail Siskind, RN, MA, to review, reflect on, and ameliorate [his] professionalism in public statements,"and to "complete the Coaching Program within six months of receiving the ICRC Decision in this matter." The cost would be on Peterson to pay, and these consultants charge an hourly rate of $225 per hour. The program could be extended at the discretion of the coach if Peterson's progress was not to their liking.

Peterson would like to keep his professional licensing in Ontario, stating "I deserve it. I earned it. I haven't done anything to justify suspending it, and I don't want to give the hyenas their bones." He refused to comply with the demand that he undergo this reeducation.

"To clarify," Peterson said in January, "it's been decided: I either submit to social media communication retraining or face a disciplinary hearing and possible suspension of my clinical license and the right to represent myself as a psychologist."

"I have been accused of harming people," Peterson said in January in response to the demand, "(although none of the complaints involved in the current action were clients of mine, past or present, or were even acquainted with any of my clients."


The complaints against him were not made by people who had direct, or even secondary contact with him or his clients.


Peterson said that the complainants were comprised of "about a dozen people from all over the world" who "submitted complaints" about his public statements, including those made on social media and during appearances on such podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience.

An old school sci-fi classic  that has the same visual effects and sound effects team that the original War Of The Worlds had.

This 1964 Hollywood science-fiction film was released a year before NASA's Mariner 4 spacecraft took the first closeup images of the planet Mars. While the Mars depicted in the film is inaccurate as we know it today, it is a curious artifact because represents the best depiction of the Red Plant known at the time, the fading days of astronomer Percival Lowell's idea of Martian canals. The film story is engaging and the matte art visuals are still terrific to view. American director Byron Haskin was a master at science fiction films ("War of the Worlds", "The Outer Limits", etc.). This is among his best films.

https://archive.org/details/RobinsonCrusoeOnMarsEn

He dropped another tune. Not my kind of music but a strong message nonetheless. The guy turned down 8 million recording contract which was probably not a bad decision as he is making a good buck already and isn't forced to do anything he doesn't want to do being stuck in a contract. I wonder when they are going to try to shut him up or shut him down.

I went digging through some old bookmarks I had and came across article that probably will not show up on any searches because it goes against the climate change narrative. 

Some Basic Earth Science
In the following statements, I summarize the pertinent headlines from the real (as opposed to the virtual- or computer-generated) science of climatology/paleoclimatology/earth science:

• Earth scientists have learned that earth was significantly warmer than present (by perhaps about 8 to 10 °C) for about 80% of the earth’s 4.6-billion-year history (see temperature and CO2 reconstructions for past 600 million years in figure above).
  
• From a historical as well as a geological perspective, warming trends are beneficial for humans, for agriculture, and for plants and animals.   No “tipping points’ were reached during past geologic intervals when temperatures and CO2 concentrations were much higher than present.  In fact, life flourished during these relatively warmer conditions.
  
• For the past 2 million years (Quaternary Period), the earth has been in an ice age comprised of some 20 major glacial/interglacial cycles.  Each cycle was characterized by very wide swings of temperature and precipitation.
  
• For the past 10,000 years, the earth has experienced an unusually warm and stable (interglacial) climate known as the Holocene Epoch.  The stable and favorable climate of this interglacial allowed for the development of agriculture and human civilization.
  
• 71% of the earth is covered with ocean water.  90% of the world’s ice is in Antarctica.  Our instrumental climate records only extend about 100 to 150 years back.  There are still not enough weather stations on the earth to determine the average temperature of the earth.  The best data from satellites and the Argo (ocean robot) systems suggests the planet has been cooling slightly since 1998.
  
• Exhaustive analyses of proxy paleoclimatic records (deep sea cores, ice cores, tree-rings, glacial deposits, soils, loess sequences, cave deposits, pollen studies, etc.) by scientists reveal that past climate changes are complex and of varying frequency and magnitude.  There is still much we still don’t agree on.   Many scientists, including myself, believe climate change is cyclical and these cycles are of varying periodicities.
  
• The main climate drivers include variations in solar output, ocean circulation dynamics (the ocean stores some 22 times more heat than the atmosphere and circulates that heat around the globe), and orbital variations in the earth-sun-moon system.
  
• Carbon dioxide has a negligible effect on atmospheric temperatures.  Rather, because the oceans hold about 50 times more CO2 than the atmosphere, and because the oceans and atmosphere exchange CO2, CO2 fluctuations are mainly caused by changes in ocean temperatures.  And ocean temperature changes are mainly driven by the sun.
  
• Because we have seasons, the earth is constantly warming and cooling in various locales. Weather and climate change is a constant.   But is the earth as a whole warming or cooling?   The answer to this question depends entirely upon the length of the climate record being analyzed.  On the basis of many paleoclimatic records, earth scientists agree that the general trend over the past 3 million years has been toward cooling; the trend over the past 15,000 years has been toward warming; the trend over the past 5,000 years has been toward cooling; and there has been a warming trend since Little Ice Age maxima about 1650 AD.  The earth warmed very slightly between about 1975 and 1998, and since 1998 the trend has been toward cooling.
  

They really don't like not knowing EVERYTHING about someone don't they? The March Towards One World Economic Rule.




Digital IDs are an effective tool against poverty. A global solution is making them available to millions:



https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/ar...id-systems

https://twitter.com/BillGates/status/169...7680514201?

Bill Gates: Every Person on Earth Should ‘Prove Their Identity’ with ‘Digital ID’


https://slaynews.com/news/bill-gates-eve...igital-id/

Quote:Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is calling on nations around the world to adopt his “global solution” for “digital ID” to ensure that every single person on Earth “proves their identity.”


In a post on Twitter/X, Gates lamented that there are “850 million people” still left in the world who “lack ID that proves their identity.”

According to Gates, the Modular Open-Source Identification Platform (MOSIP) is a “global solution” for rolling out digital IDs for the entire human race.

Gates describes MOSIP as an “inclusive approach” to a “global digital ID system” that serves as “a formidable solution” for “dismantling the barriers” for people millions of people around the world who don’t have suitable identification.

The billionaire’s advocacy comes as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has just pumped $10 million into MOSIP.

Gates’ organization has joined forces with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals to promote and advance the globalist technology.
The Gates Foundation’s aim seems to focus on propelling a universal digital identification framework.

Gates, the UN, and MOSIP appear to be pitching the technology for use in low to middle-income economies but planning to roll it out worldwide.


However, MOSIP has come under scrutiny by privacy advocates.

The system raises serious questions regarding the broader implications of such a global digital identification system.

But as history has shown, with such advancements often come potential pitfalls, particularly regarding personal privacy.

Many are also raising the alarm about how a global digital ID system would exclude people from society if they refuse to comply with the technology, or are blocked from using it.



Meanwhile, the WEF has just partnered with a leading biometrics company to advance its own agenda to digitize humanity.


Swedish biometrics company Fingerprint Cards has taken a big step into the WEF’s New Champions Community, an assembly of mid-sized enterprises.

The WEF is keen to promote biometric forms of digital ID and claims the technology would serve as a steward of “social inclusion.”

Progressive Totalitarians always ruin the party don't they? Now they have their "Green Religion" to justify the crazy they have always tried to implement using other ideologies. 


https://redstate.com/wardclark/2023/08/2...0-n2162855?

Quote:In a move that is just downright daffy, not to mention leaning hard into totalitarianism, 14 American cities are aiming at what is sure to be an elusive target: banning meat and dairy consumption and the use of private automobiles - in just seven years.

Quote:Fourteen major American cities are part of a globalist climate organization known as the “C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group,” which has an “ambitious target” by the year 2030 of “0 kg [of] meat consumption,” “0 kg [of] dairy consumption,” “3 new clothing items per person per year,” “0 private vehicles” owned, and “1 short-haul return flight (less than 1500 km) every 3 years per person.” 
C40’s dystopian goals can be found in its “The Future of Urban Consumption in a 1.5°C World” report, which was published in 2019 and reportedly reemphasized in 2023. The organization is headed and largely funded by Democrat billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Nearly 100 cities across the world make up the organization, and its American members include Austin, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Seattle.

There is, of course, one thing all of those cities have in common; indeed, it's the same thing most major urban areas have in common.

Just to belabor the obvious, these people are elitists of the worst sort. There is an apocryphal quote attributed to the Duke of Wellington, who supposedly opposed the development of passenger railroads. The Duke supposedly claimed that these railroads would "promote unrest by allowing the lower classes to travel too freely about." That is, as you can see, precisely the mindset we see in play here:

Quote:Climate activists are also advocating for “climate lockdowns,” in the same way there were Covid lockdowns. Ideas floated for a climate lockdown have ranged from shuttering people in their homes and restricting air travel to providing a Universal Basic Income and introducing a maximum income level.

Climate dystopianism doesn’t end there. WEF-linked “bioethicist” Dr. Matthew Liao has proposed the idea of scientists genetically modify humans to be allergic to meat. Liao has also discussed shrinking the physical size of humans via eugenics or hormone injections so they consume fewer resources.

It's unclear how a "maximum income level" (which certainly wouldn't apply to grafting politicians) would help with carbon emissions unless, of course, it's set so low as to prevent people from being able to afford to travel, or eat well, or heat their homes. It's too bad there isn't some kind of historical example these leftists could examine to see how well their model works.

It is, of course, the grossest of understatements to say that all of these proposals are anathema to the concept of personal liberty. It's also pretty obvious that were any of these cities to attempt to legislate any of this, they would be hit with mass unrest and would certainly be slapped down in the courts. There is just no justification, climate change or no climate change, to completely rewrite the very basis of our society like this. We are, or at least are supposed to be, free people, with a government that protects our rights, especially our liberty and property. Liberty, of course, includes "I'll eat what I want, I'm paying for it myself, and if anyone doesn't like it, I'll tell them where to head in." But liberty isn't the goal here; as my colleague Becky Noble recently wrote, these elites are more than willing to force compliance.

Eating meat is the very basis of humanity. People have been eating meat since there have been people. Human society had its beginnings in the act of banding together to hunt game that a single human couldn't take on alone; the beginnings of technology were when people started sharpening sticks to hunt with. The primary thing that makes us human, our brains, are huge metabolic gas-guzzlers and are made possible only by a diet that contains protein and plenty of it.

 It's possible to meet all of your body's energy needs with a plant-based diet, but it's a lot easier to do it with some animal protein, be it meat or dairy. And it's much more delicious, too. That matters, no matter what anyone thinks. Our diet is a big part of our quality of life; we should be able to enjoy eating.

I'll keep on eating meat, and nobody better try to prevent me from doing so. As long as there are grouse in the forests, moose in the marshes, and fish in the rivers, we'll continue making our diet including healthy animal protein, no matter what anyone at Davos thinks about it, no matter what the green activists think I ought to eat.

This is full of information all consolidated in one video with 1950's and 1960's articles and declassified UFO information stating the US already had the technology to perform these UFO maneuvers in the late 1940's. Military officers in the know thought the UFO's were part of another US government program as they were aware of the technology capabilities already existing.

Quote:In the 1950s, scientists publicly discussed the budding new technology of antigravity.

All the major defense contractors like the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company (later to become Lockheed Martin), Bell Aircraft and General Electric all had large-scale programs developing antigravity—and many of them claimed success! Yet starting in 1957, all talk of antigravity stopped. Why? Is it possible that the technology became classified?

To answer this question, we examine the exotic technologies being developed by the Germans during World War II, and whether or not senior Nazi leaders traded these technologies to the U.S. in exchange for their freedom. We take a look at the fabled "Die Glocke," or "Nazi Bell" and try to determine what it was used for.

We also take a look at the revolutionary work of German engineer, Viktor Schauberger. But ultimately, we ask the question: Did the United States make a deal with the Devil when it shook hands with the Nazis? And if so, what are the possible consequences?

DARPA plans to monetize the Moon...

Quote:The 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) capability study aims to rapidly develop foundational technology concepts that move away from individual scientific efforts within isolated, self-sufficient systems, toward a series of shareable, scalable systems that interoperate.

Anticipating a burgeoning cislunar and lunar economy of scientific research and commercial development in the coming decade, DARPA is soliciting innovative and revolutionary technical approaches to chart a vision and path toward an optimized and integrated lunar infrastructure for peaceful U.S. and international use.

The 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) capability study aims to rapidly develop foundational technology concepts that move away from individual scientific efforts within isolated, self-sufficient systems, toward a series of shareable, scalable systems that interoperate — minimizing lunar footprint and creating monetizable services for future lunar users. The seven-month study will include both lunar providers and users. It will seek to establish an analytical framework that defines new opportunities for rapid scientific and commercial activity on and around the Moon through collective infrastructure investments, and also identifies related technical challenges. DARPA anticipates making final analytical frameworks for lunar infrastructure available to the public.

“A large paradigm shift is coming in the next 10 years for the lunar economy,” said Dr. Michael “Orbit” Nayak, program manager in DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office. “To get to a turning point faster, LunA-10 uniquely aims to identify solutions that can enable multi-mission lunar systems – imagine a wireless power station that can also provide comms and navigation in its beam. For 65 years, DARPA has pioneered and de-risked technologies vital to civil space advancement — from the rocket technology in the Saturn V that took humans to the Moon for the first time, to the recent DARPA-NASA partnership to enable faster space travel to the Moon and beyond with a nuclear thermal rocket engine. LunA-10 continues this rich legacy by identifying and accelerating key technologies that may be used by government and the commercial space industry, and ultimately to catalyze economic vibrancy on the Moon.”

The study’s thrust areas, derived from a subset of key sectors identified in a market analysis of the future lunar economy, include the following (with more details in the solicitation): transit/mobility; energy; communications; and other revolutionary orbital or surface infrastructure concepts.

LunA-10 aims to facilitate the fusing and co-optimization of as many infrastructure sectors as possible, into key nodes that can be scaled up in the future.

“Just like DARPA’s foundational node of ARPANET grew into the sprawling web of the internet, LunA-10 is looking for those connective nodes to support a thriving commercial economy on the Moon,” Nayak said.
LunA-10 aims to select performer companies that have a clear vision and technically rigorous business plan for providing or using one or more lunar services, and then fuel them to work together in a highly collaborative environment where they will design new integrated system-level solutions that span multiple services. Lunar transmission, energy, and communications are likely cornerstones, and the program is soliciting other sectors to create monetizable commercial services on and around the Moon by 2035. This would complement NASA’s Moon to Mars Objectives focused on human exploration, science and experimentation on the Moon.

“Opportunities for technology maturation are key for development for lunar capabilities in order to meet the objectives of future lunar architectures,” said Niki Werkheiser, Director of Technology Maturation in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

The study will not fund technology construction, transportation to the lunar surface, or integration with lunar delivery vehicles. However, DARPA intends to provide economic expertise to all LunA-10 teams to help analyze and validate definitions of a critical mass to create a thriving, survivable lunar economy. LunA-10 is grounded in the Outer Space Treaty (1967). In accordance with Article IV of the treaty, all developments and involvement by civilian and/or military personnel in this effort pertain to scientific and peaceful purposes.

Three-page abstracts in response to the LunA-10 solicitation are due by Sept. 6, 2023. Respondents whose abstracts are selected will be invited to submit a 10-page white paper and technical presentation by Sept. 25, 2023. Selected white papers will receive an Other Transaction award not to exceed $1,000,000. Selected performers will not be expected to share their intellectual property, but DARPA is seeking those that are willing to collaborate engineering efforts toward models of clustered lunar activity versus individual, commercial ventures. Performers selected for LunA-10 will be announced at the fall meeting of the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) in October 2023. Performers will openly brief their work to the lunar community at the Spring LSIC meeting in April 2024, and provide a final report in June 2024.

I think they are getting worried that they will not be able to cheat enough when 75% of the country is against them. A "lottery drawing" is a much easier way to cheat and you don't have to worry about opinion polls or post voter polling data.


TDS has them so frightened that they are actually suggesting that Eliminating Elections Is Democracy!!!

Well, most of us know what "Democracy" means to them, in simple terms The Democratic Party in charge at any cost.

https://web.archive.org/web/202308210948...racy.html/

Quote:On the eve of the first debate of the 2024 presidential race, trust in government is rivaling historic lows. Officials have been working hard to safeguard elections and assure citizens of their integrity. But if we want public office to have integrity, we might be better off eliminating elections altogether.

If you think that sounds anti-democratic, think again. The ancient Greeks invented democracy, and in Athens many government officials were selected through sortition — a random lottery from a pool of candidates. In the United States, we already use a version of a lottery to select jurors. What if we did the same with mayors, governors, legislators, justices and even presidents?

People expect leaders chosen at random to be less effective than those picked systematically. But in multiple experiments led by the psychologist Alexander Haslam, the opposite held true. Groups actually made smarter decisions when leaders were chosen at random than when they were elected by a group or chosen based on leadership skill.

Why were randomly chosen leaders more effective? They led more democratically. “Systematically selected leaders can undermine group goals,” Dr. Haslam and his colleagues suggest, because they have a tendency to “assert their personal superiority.” When you’re anointed by the group, it can quickly go to your head: [i]I’m the chosen one.[/i]



When you know you’re picked at random, you don’t experience enough power to be corrupted by it. Instead, you feel a heightened sense of responsibility: [i]I did nothing to earn this, so I need to make sure I represent the group well. [/i]And in one of the Haslam experiments, when a leader was picked at random, members were more likely to stand by the group’s decisions.

Over the past year I’ve floated the idea of sortition with a number of current members of Congress. Their immediate concern is ability: How do we make sure that citizens chosen randomly are capable of governing?

In ancient Athens, people had a choice about whether to participate in the lottery. They also had to pass an examination of their capacity to exercise public rights and duties. In America, imagine that anyone who wants to enter the pool has to pass a civics test — the same standard as immigrants applying for citizenship. We might wind up with leaders who understand the Constitution.

A lottery would also improve our odds of avoiding the worst candidates in the first place. When it comes to character, our elected officials aren’t exactly crushing it. To paraphrase William F. Buckley Jr., I’d rather be governed by the first 535 people in the phone book. That’s because the people most drawn to power are usually the least fit to wield it.

The most dangerous traits in a leader are what psychologists call the dark triad of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. What these traits share is a willingness to exploit others for personal gain. People with dark triad traits tend to be more politically ambitious — they’re attracted to authority for its own sake. But we often fall under their spell. Is that you, George Santos?

In a study of elections worldwide, candidates who were rated by experts as having high psychopathy scores actually did better at the ballot box. In the United States, presidents assessed as having psychopathic and narcissistic tendencies were more persuasive with the public than their peers. A common explanation is that they’re masters of fearless dominance and superficial charm, and we mistake their confidence for competence. Sadly, it starts early: Even kids who display narcissistic personality traits get more leadership nominations and claim to be better leaders. (They aren’t.)

If the dark triad wins an election, we all lose. When psychologists rated the first 42 American presidents, the narcissists were more likely to take reckless risks, make unethical decisions and get impeached. Add a dash of Machiavellianism and a pinch of psychopathy, and you get autocrats like Putin, Erdoğan, Orbán and Duterte.

Eliminate voting, and candidates with dark triad traits would be less likely than they are now to rise to the top. Of course, there’s also a risk that a lottery would deprive us of the chance to select a leader with distinctive skills. At this point, that’s a risk I’m willing to take. As lucky as America was to have Lincoln at the helm, it’s more important to limit our exposure to bad character than to roll the dice on the hopes of finding the best.

Besides, if Lincoln were alive now, it’s hard to imagine that he’d even put his top hat in the ring. In a world filled with divisiveness and derision, evidence shows that members of Congress are increasingly rewarded for incivility. And they know it.
A lottery would give a fair shot to people who aren’t tall enough or male enough to win. It would also open the door to people who aren’t connected or wealthy enough to run. Our broken campaign finance system lets the rich and powerful buy their way into races while preventing people without money or influence from getting on the ballot. They’re probably better candidates: Research suggests that on average, people who grow up in low-income families tend to be more effective leaders and less likely to cheat — they’re less prone to narcissism and entitlement.


Switching to sortition would save a lot of money too. The 2020 elections alone cost upward of $14 billion. And if there’s no campaign, there are no special interests offering to help pay for it.

Finally, no voting also means no boundaries to gerrymander and no Electoral College to dispute. Instead of questioning whether millions of ballots were counted accurately, we could watch the lottery live, like we do with teams getting their lottery picks in the NBA draft.

Other countries have begun to see the promise of sortition. Two decades ago, Canadian provinces and the Dutch government started using sortition to create citizens’ assemblies that generated ideas for improving democracy. In the past few years, the French, British and German governments have run lotteries to select citizens to work on climate change policies. Ireland tried a hybrid model, gathering 33 politicians and 66 randomly chosen citizens for its 2012 constitutional convention. In Bolivia, the nonprofit Democracy in Practice works with schools to replace student council elections with lotteries. Instead of elevating the usual suspects, it welcomes a wider range of students to lead and solve real problems in their schools and their communities.

As we prepare for America to turn 250 years old, it may be time to rethink and renew our approach to choosing officials. The lifeblood of a democracy is the active participation of the people. There is nothing more democratic than offering each and every citizen an equal opportunity to lead.