I recently sent this open letter to George Monbiot in response to his Identity Politics in Climate Change Hell article

………………

Hi George

I

I have read a great deal of stories over the last few years, especially from the USA about electronic voting and its pitfalls; about how easily such systems can be corrupted. I agree with their conclusions. (see … http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ and http://blackboxvoting.com )

However at the same time I am not anti technology and when I consider the democratic process that we have it does not seem very democratic to me.

The idea behind democracy is to allow the ‘people’ to decide how the country is run, therefore democracy needs to:-
a) Allow the people to decide what policies are implemented.
b) Do so effectively and efficiently.

At present this is achieved by allowing the ‘people’ to vote for who they want to represent them in making decisions on how the country is run. The successful candidates are a small enough group to meet together and vote on actual policies. (Often there is a second vote, as in the USA, to decide an ultimate figurehead as well, however I am from the UK so will write for the system I am used to.)

I think that this was a revolutionary solution a few hundred years ago, when democracy was for the first time becoming a method of governance for a whole country. Messages got across the country by courier on horseback and organising anything more than this would have been unworkable.

Now however, we live in an age where communication travels at light speed. Anyone can be up to date with the decisions that government is making and technology could easily let everyone have their say.

Over the centuries, the means to sway the masses to vote in a particular way has become very sophisticated. Often the party that spends the most, wins the most. If we could start to take parties out of the equation, if we could make participation in the democratic process less of a black and white choice and more of a participatory experience then I think it would be very likely to encourage people to think far more deeply on the issues at hand and create a far more active and true democratic system.

Corruption has crept into the system and government often listens more closely to vested and corporate interests than the needs of the general public. If we remove this decision making power from the few individuals who have it today and instead let everyone have a say then corruption will have a far harder time taking hold.

Technology has come on a long way since democracy was invented, this is presenting us with new challenges in order to maintain a genuinely democratic process yet it is also providing us with an opportunity to reinvent how we govern our countries. For the first time in history, we can, if we choose it, make our democracies truly democratic.

There are many inherent flaws in the current process (I am talking generally here, although there is plenty of variation around the world, they all have the same basic flaws that I will outline here.)

1. There are never enough candidates to represent everyone’s point of view – not even close.

2. In order to be elected, politicians need to appeal to as many people as possible in order to be successful. Rather than this resulting in a good representation of peoples views it often leads to spin doctoring. Often politicians say one thing to get elected and then vote differently.

3. The current system creates a power hierarchy where many are attracted to politics for the power it brings rather than more altruistic people who genuinely want to represent the ‘people’. This makes it easy for corruption to creep in and for biased interests to have leverage in government policy. This is particularly apparent with the amount of sway the corporate world has over government.

4. It is very hard to pass new laws that involve taking power away from government, as government itself has to vote on these laws.

5. It distances the ‘people’ from the democratic process as they only have a say in it once every so many years, and only a limited say at best.

6. The reliance on a party system causes problems to be presented in overly simplified ways where there are only two views, which are often polar opposites. The truth of most situations is much more colourful.

How we could improve the situation
What follows is a systems design for a solution to the above issues. Rather than hide behind a rock when faced with the electronic voting system, I would rather grab it by the thorns and remake it in a way that is both secure and improves the democratic system. The system that I define below allows people to take a far more active role in government, but it does not alienate those who are quite happy to continue voting once every few years. I have designed the system with two central principles. It must be both secure and confidential; this is a challenge, but not one that I think is insurmountable.

The new system starts by continuing to encourage people to vote in a general election as they do now, voting for someone in their constituency. However at the same time it allows individuals to sign up with a website where they can choose to override their representatives vote on issues that they choose to. This allows the general population to continue to influence government as they have been but it also allows for a new more active participatory democracy.

Instead of giving each MP a fixed vote, which counts for one out of however many are sitting in parliament. They are instead given a number of votes equal to the number of people who voted for them (or the total number of votes in their constituency). When a vote is taken in parliament, the power of their vote will have more or less power depending on how many people actually voted. In addition, after the general election, anyone who voted has the opportunity to register on a government website and be enabled to vote on motions in parliament. In doing so, anyone who is interested can have their single vote removed from the person that they elected and can instead choose to vote anyway they choose on motions presented to parliament. This would be achieved through the website and would allow people to ensure that their vote was used to vote for the things they felt were particularly important. When someone votes on an issue, the MP they elected has one less vote. Most people would not want to, nor have the time to vote on every issue and so they would be able to elect any of the sitting MPs to represent them the rest of the time.

To achieve this, a few small changes would need to be made to government process. The first is simply in the counting of the votes. The second is that the time for voting would need to be extended, to perhaps a 24 hour period. This solution allows government to continue as it does now, yet it also allows for a more active democracy. It would allow for a steady, quiet revolution rather than the messy varieties of old. As more people become used to being more actively involved in government, the system could continue to be updated in ways that make the process fairer and more efficient, resulting in a democracy that is far less susceptible to corruption.

There would be several important issues to consider, for example, what motions get put before parliament in the first place; perhaps to start with, this would happen as it does now, slowly introducing a mix of issues presented by MPs and early day motions made popular by people signed up on the website.

There would be issues of media persuading people to vote a particular way for ulterior motives. This is a serious problem, but it is one we already have. I will be writing about an open media in another post so will leave this for now.

Another issue would involve security. This would be easy to do if the system was completely transparent, but I am not sure that society is ready for this. By completely transparent, I mean that:-
a) The software is all open source and anyone can investigate it.
b) Everyone on this system is open about their identity. This would mean that anyone’s voting record is public knowledge and everyone on the system is identified by their real name.

The reason we have confidential voting is to prevent people from being bullied into voting for issues that they do not want to; by family, community and society. This does leave our current system open to fraud in numerous ways and this would also apply to any electronic voting platform that needs to be both transparent and confidential.

Perhaps society is ready to move beyond the need for the confidentiality. Have we reached a critical mass of individuals that are capable of thinking through the issues for themselves and are prepared to vote against their peers and authority figures? I wish society was so enlightened, but I have my doubts that it is.

In working out a solution to this conflict of interests it is important to remember what the purpose of the confidentiality is. It is to protect the integrity of the voting system. If a way could be found that could allow people to check that the votes are genuine without allowing open access to everyone’s voting history then the system would be secure. At first this seems like a contradiction in terms, but I don’t think that it is. One way of implementing this is outlined below.

There are several important issues that need to be considered to ensure that the system is both secure and confidential.
a) How to ensure that peoples votes are actually counted accurately.
b) How to guarantee that the people voting are real, eligible people and that they are genuinely voting.
c) How to ensure all this whilst not leaving a voting history that can be tracked to the actual voter.
d) In the process of creating the system, not creating a database of confidential information that could be used for malicious ends.

What follows is one possible solution to these questions.

Part 1 – Signing up to the system
The most important parts of this process are
a) Ensure that the person is who they say that they are. This could be achieved by insisting that people register in an official location, where there identity is confirmed using a process similar to that used for passports etc.
b) Ensuring that their user identity is set up in a way that does not tie their voting history to their real name.
c) Ensuring that no database of biometric data is created that can connect to the persons real identity. This does not mean that biometric data is not used, just that it is only used in a way that maintains privacy.

When someone attends a place of registration, they are identified and it is checked that they are not already registered. This public register is the same as the one that can currently be accessed from a library. Ideally it should not contain addresses, but since at present it does I have decided that in designing this voting system I have purposefully attempted to avoid adding to privacy issues, but I am not addressing the wider questions around national ID cards etc. This is an important topic that I will discuss another time.

The persons public registration details are entered into a computer (see section below about the software and hardware used in this process) and these are uploaded to the main voting server (more about this later). They are uploaded with a status of ‘awaiting confirmation’.

The person is then asked to enter a privacy cubical. Inside the private cubical there is a computer with a simple registration process.
a) The voter is asked to enter a screen name that they would like to be identified as. This must be unique. They are informed that they must keep this name secret, as it is a public name and anyone can look up their voting history if they know their screen name.
b) The computer then performs an iris scan. Everyone’s iris is unique, but even if the technology is not perfect, it does not have to be, as will be clarified later. This iris scan will not be connected with either the real identity of the person or their voting history so a biometric ID database is not being created. The iris scan could be replaced with a fingerprint, any biometric data could be used, I am choosing iris scans simply because they are more accurate, but the cost and simplicity may make fingerprints the method of choice.
c) The person is given or creates a random password. The password would not need to be very long because it would be used in conjunction with the iris scan (explained below), the system could allow the person to enter their own password and then ensure that it is complex enough. The person will be informed that they must keep this password secret as it can be used in conjunction with their iris scan to identify them.

On entering this information, various processes take place, which I will describe below, but first I will finish the registration from the person’s perspective.

The person is then given a print out of the username and password, and are strongly warned to keep this information private. If they can do so, then they should memorise them and destroy the paper. If they are unable to memorise them then they should store the username and password in different locations (the printout could be perforated to aid this.) The username and password could be presented in a randomised grid of data, so that all the person has to remember is the starting coordinates to read off the information, the coordinates could be in the form of a memorable date; this would prevent the casual thief from accessing the data, but may present a false sense of security as it would not be secure against a professional attack. Even if this information is made public, the voting system itself is not compromised as it depends on the iris scan; only the persons personal voting history is easily compromised and to someone with access to the full iris database, which everything is done to prevent, could the persons iris scan be connected with these details and even this does not connect to their real name.

At this point the person is told that they have successfully registered and that they are to inform the clerk outside the cubicle that they registered with.

The clerk then looks their real name identification up on the public list and marks them as an active voter on the list. The registered voter can now return home.

Computer processes in the sign up process – Hardware
It is important to ensure that no malicious hardware is installed in the system that compromises privacy or the security of the vote.

The computer used by the clerk and the computer used in cubicle would both be standardised systems built specificity for the task they are doing. Because they are standardised, any qualified member of the public can request to swap out the hardware with a replacement for investigation. This prevents any corruption from inside the registration organisation. This investigation would take place on the premises and be monitored both by someone in the registration office and through a publicly available CCTV feed to the internet.

By ‘qualified member of the public’ I mean anyone who can demonstrate that they know what they are doing, I won’t go into details of how to ascertain this, but the process should be simple enough to encourage participation yet complex enough to deter time wasters. A certain amount of public funds could be made available for ‘qualified members of the public’ to drive this process.

All hardware is inspected under publicly accessible CCTV before begin installed. Once installed, this hardware is never out of range of the CCTV inspection that is archived on the internet for anyone to investigate. Surprise inspections would not be necessary because the hardware is under constant surveillance.

The only connection these computers have to the outside world would be through a secure encrypted connection to the main voting servers, so the CCTV only needs to monitor the hardware to the point of its internet connection. It should be arranged in such a way that no view of the public is visible – this is important to maintain privacy.

The hardware for the cubicle should not be accessible from within the cubicle, other than through the input mechanisms (keyboard/mouse), however it should also be under CCTV surveillance and be swappable. It should be located in a way that makes the connection to the cubicle clear (leaving no blind spots in the CCTV) yet also retain the privacy of those using the cubicle.

In order to maintain privacy with a swappable system, they should be physically built to ensure that if a process is interrupted – for example the hardware is swapped out whilst someone is in the cubicle, then all trace of the active process is irreversibly erased; this could be done by having a battery powered, hard-wired system that takes over if the power supply is disconnected and immediately erases any sensitive data, combined with disconnecting the power supply being physically built into swapping out the hardware.

Computer processes in the sign up process – Software
All the software would be built using open source principles specificity for purpose from BIOS level up. Making the software open source allows for the general public to verify its security and for a rapid identification of weaknesses that can be corrected.

The operating system would ideally operate entirely from ROM that must be physically swapped out for an upgrade, this would be a strong defence against any form of spyware being installed. The nature of the software being installed in ROM would allow for easy checks that the installed system is exactly the same as the version it was installed from (by using checksum methods).

As with the hardware, qualified members of the public can swap out systems to check all is as it should be.

The password entered by the potential voter is used to algorithmically collect data from the iris scan and this resulting data is used to create a unique cryptographic hash. This hash key can in no way be reverse engineered to identify the password that it is identified with. However whenever the iris scan and the password are passed through the same algorithm, the same hash is presented. This means we now have a way for a user to have their iris scanned, type in their password and thus be positively identified as a registered voter without the persons name needing to be associated with them.

The password is also used to create another cryptographic hash with the username.

The iris is then uploaded to the main voting server, connected to its hash. The username and username hash are then uploaded in a separate process, leaving the server with no method of connecting the two processes (software is built in such a manner that no identifying information, such as IP address is recorded against the uploaded information.)

The day of registration is also uploaded against each registration, but no time stamp. This means that each username can be identified as having come from one of all the irises uploaded on that day – this reduces the anonymity to one in tens to hundreds of thousands.

The software now erases the local copies of the iris scan, username, password and the two hashes, leaving no method of recovering the information (this is not a normal delete, it would require multiple overwrites of the memory using random data.)

Registration Clerks
Each clerk would obviously be vetted and trained, however in order to prevent corruption creeping in from their end, when registering a persons name they would also have to enter a password, whose cryptographic hash is stored on the main voting server. The registering clerk is then associated with the real name of the person on the electoral register. Each privacy booth could also be associated with a particular clerk, so that when the private information is uploaded it is also associated with the clerk. This presents some advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that in investigating fraud, the number of suspects is severely reduced. The disadvantage is that the voters anonymity is now reduced to one in all those registered by that clerk, in that one day. This could only work if the clerk is guaranteed to process several hundred a day. It may be necessary to register a person against the registration centre, rather than the clerk. Anonymity of one in several hundred should be fine for our purposes here; no one would be able devise a persons voting history, or work out whose iris belongs to which name and that is what is important. It does mean that peoples usernames can be geographically identified.

Registration conclusion
Should the registration system be compromised – and the only likely way I can think of this happening would be due to corrupt registering agents, voters would need to re-register once a year, and should an agent be identified as corrupt then everyone registering with them would need to reregister. To reregister, a person first enters their old details in the privacy cubicle and the account would be automatically renewed.

Should a person forget their password or username, there would be no way of identifying the person to retrieve the details; the system would not be secure if there was. If the iris scan was 100% accurate in identifying the person then it would be possible to cancel the iris scan and this would automatically prevent the login process from working for the username, in this situation the person could reregister. If the iris scan is not 100% accurate then they would have to wait for a year before they would be able to reactivate their account; their elected representative would continue to represent them for this time. This is not ideal, but I can see no way around this without 100% accurate biometric data or a lack anonymity.

To stress an important point of this process: The only way that a person’s iris scan can be connected with the person is if the password and username are made public. This password is not recorded anywhere on the system, only the voter has it. Even if the country descended into a dictatorship, the database could not be used to identify people or their voting history.

Part 2 – Voting on an issue.
Ideally people would vote using an isolated client provided when they registered; this clients sole purpose would be to connect to the voting website. This would make it far easier to ensure that the client is free of spyware. The client would be able to connect to the internet using any means available. I.E narrowband, broadband, wireless connection etc. On boot up, the unit would run through a security check with the website to check it had not been compromised. Such a system need not be very expensive, the computer hardware needed does not need to be state of the art. Technology from ten years ago would be quite capable of doing what we need. Once again the software would be open source from the BIOS up and would ideally have the entire operating system stored in ROM, this would however mean that security upgrades would have to be done by taking the system back to the registration office. The qualified public would be encouraged to investigate their unit to ensure that it has not been compromised.

Alternatively the website could be accessed using a normal PC, but this would not be as secure as it would be vulnerable to spyware attacks that could compromise accounts; however there is a secondary check detailed below to keep this to a minimum. If an account is compromised then it may however allow a hostile interest to connect an account username with the real person and gain access to their voting history. It would also make it possible for compromised accounts to be used to place votes. If access is to be done over a standard PC then a team would need to constantly check for spyware and the public encouraged to do so as well, whenever a system is identified as containing compromising spyware then the voters using this system have to reregister with a new username/password.

The login process
The computer uses a specialised webcam to take an iris image of the voter and the voter also enters their username and password. The image is passed to the website server along with the password and username over a secure connection. The server then checks the password against all the iris images that match the one uploaded. Unless the process is 100% accurate, there may be more than one match, this will not matter, as the hash will be complex enough to make it mathematically highly improbable for a false positive (The rare event of a false positives could be dealt with in the registration process by changing the password.) If the password hash is found then the system checks the username hash, if both match then the system logs them on. (See the server section to see how privacy is maintained in this process). Using this process, the iris scan, password and username all have to entered correctly. This means that should the printed information be stolen, it is impossible to log in with just the username and password.

The user would now also be able to select issues that they wish to vote on. When they choose to vote, the username is recorded against the motion being voted on.

Once the person logs out or times out, the server erases any information that connected the iris to the password or username.

This login process may fail for a variety of reasons.
i) The iris scan is not recognised. Take a second iris scan and try again. If it fails repeatedly and the username and password match, then the users account is put on hold and the person is asked to re-register, and to take their iris scanner for an exchange.
ii) The password or username is incorrect. Allow another try, but give a pause of several seconds between attempts to prevent brute force attacks.

Various fraudulent checking algorithms could be used in the login process to check for patterns of failure.

When the iris image and the username is sent to the server for validation, the two are only stored together for the process of verification and at no point is the iris image or the registered name connected with the username in a way that is visible to anyone, meaning that no one can access voting history. The details of this are in the server section below.

After a user has logged in to the website they are presented with a list of their previous votes. This allows the voter to check that their account has not been compromised and votes placed in their name by someone else. A further check allows the voter to download spreadsheets of the tallies of the votes, listing every username and the way in which they voted. This allows the general public to see that their vote has been recorded exactly as they requested. Voters are encouraged to check this information when they log in. This is also a secondary check against spyware, as compromised accounts would show votes that they have not made.

Part 3 – The web servers
Once again, all software used is open source from the bios up, using operating systems stored in ROM, with the live web servers being open to inspection by qualified members of the public. A system could be set up, where individual load balanced servers could be swapped out for inspection by the public inspector; meaning the actual live servers could be inspected moments after being taken down. Any in-process iris/username information is immediately erased on removal of the server from the farm using the system explained earlier.

IP addresses and other computer identifying information would be used in certain login and verification processes but never logged in a way that could be connected to the username or iris scan. Any such information in process when a server is swapped out would also be erased.

All communication between the voters computer and the end server is over a secure encrypted connection. This is actually the weakest part that I can identify in this system. Whilst the connection can be secured with a unhackable level of cryptography, all encrypted internet connections depend on the server holding a cryptographic key. Anyone with the private part of this key can compromise the system. The system has been designed in such a way that all information except for the personal passwords are public, (with the exception for open access to the iris database, although this is more of a precaution than a necessity.) In some way the cryptographic key would have to be installed and propagated to the servers in a way that no human eyes lay eyes upon it, nor have access to it, yet it the public part of the key is published in a trustworthy way. Any server removed from the system would have to erase teh private key. One way of doing this would be to create a new key with each login attempt to the system, the key being deleted along with the other data in the event of the server being swapped out. This would ensure that the connection would be secure, however security certificates serve a second purpose and that is of ensuring that the server you are connecting to is the one you think it is and without a signed key you would not know this. Cryptographic keys are signed by verification companies who are trusted to be secure. If that company is compromised then theoretically the secure keys they have encrypted can also be compromised. Personally, I do not think that this is a secure enough a solution for our needs. Here is the best alternative I can think of. A special console attached to the server system that is under CCTV surveillance has a unique job of creating a new key pair. When this console is asked to create a new key, it automatically does so and copies the private part of the key to the servers in the system, also updating any that are swapped into the system, the private key is stored in the part of memory that is automatically erased on being swapped out, including in the console itself, which would also need to be able to be swapped out. Nobody ever sees or has access to the private key. The main role of this console is to present the public part of the key on the consoles screen that is being watched by CCTV. This would allow people to verify that the public key presented by the web server is genuinely the key presented. There is a further flaw here, in that the CCTV system it self could be compromised, the best way I can think of to prevent this is to have the public key on the console visible from a publicly accessible area. The CCTV that is monitoring the system can in this case also see the public who are visiting, thereby allowing the public to verify the genuine nature of the CCTV image.

This whole process is highly dependant on public participation in the security of the system. I don’t think this is a problem, I think it is a bonus, the active responsibility on the public of keeping the system secure will I think engender a sense of pride and interest in the democratic process. Schools in particular could be encouraged to visit the voting servers, teaching children about the hard won gift of democracy that they are born with and their responsibility in maintaining it, whilst at the same time allowing for constant verification and witnessing of the security (and lack of tampering with) the servers.

Nighttime might still be an issue, but a security check of servers could be made every morning and a new key pair generated.

The introduction of new servers into the server farm and the updating of existing servers would go through a similarly fully monitored process, both in person and remotely. Every step from the compilation of the latest code base to the insertion of the server would be recorded broadcast and archived.

Things I’ve missed.
I may well have missed an important point somewhere along the line, please point it out if I have. Regardless, I think any problems will have solutions; what often appears an intractable problem due to what seems to be conflicting interests are often not when the case is examined more closely. What I have presented here is just one way in which I think this could be achieved, there will almost certainly be improvements to be made.

Finally,
This system covers a method for identifying individuals in a secure manner and allowing that individual to cast a vote that is confidential.

At the moment I can see several possible issues with this system.

1. The expense of providing the home equipment needed to make votes. As a back of the envelope estimation I would say that at the levels of production required this would come in at around

(This is one of a series of posts exploring EC Theory / Spiral Dynamics. If you read this post alone you will get a very distorted view as to what spiral dynamics is as the post is written from one particular viewpoint. To read them in sequence, please start in the Spiral Dynamics introduction.)

It has come to me recently that in the past I did not consider the consequences of my actions. I would just see something that I wanted and take it. I am glad I have found the Party. I have been given my rightful station and a task to complete. I am to study the truth of the Spiral Dynamic

There are religious heathens on our border who believe in God being the ultimate source of wisdom and knowledge. Infidels. Do they not know that wise party member Claregreve knew the truth. Using the ancient way of consulting the Spiral Dynamic at midnight. Claregreve has the esteemed honour of being prime amongst us mere mortals before the absolute truth of all.

A few years have passed. Party be blessed. I still hold the esteemed position in the order of all things. The party has successfully eradicated the godly heathens to the west. We have conquered their land and brought it under the true rule of the Party. We tortured the animals who would not repent. They clearly have not evolved enough to see the one truth.

No sooner than we put down the godly heathens that a faction has broken away to the south claiming that there is a new way divined though the way of the Spiral Dynamic. They claim that our way is inferior. We will win, as defined by the true Spiral Dynamic. The faction is not far from our location. I have been commanded to write down the truth so that it can be saved should our position be temporarily overrun.

The Spiral Dynamic commands thus:-

There are two kinds of human. Those that follow the true way of the Spiral Dynamic and those who do not. Of the heathens there are four subtypes.

1. The savage. These are designated the colour beige. They wander the wilderness looking for food and shelter. They are rare even beyond the borders of the empire of Spiral Dynamic.

2. The tribespeople. These are designated the colour purple. They live in the far reaches of the known lands. On an expedition last year we encountered one such tribe, their heathen ways were very strange. I suggested that we put them to the stake, but my leader said that we should study and catalogue them and see if they could be saved by the Spiral Dynamic. He was a wise leader, his words were true, praise him. These people speak backwards. They see the past in front of them when clearly the future is what lies before us, as the great spiral ticks forwards each unit of time moves one more step into the future. Purple people are always found in small tribes together. The heathens believe that their dead ancestors talk to them in their dreams, but we that they are heathens and they will have no place in the glorious Spiral Dynamic.

3. The barbarian. These people are designated the colour red. They do as they please. They know no law and just take as they wish. Sometimes when the purples go hungry they head to our cities and are red when they arrive. This transformation is beyond my humble mind but the Spiral Dynamic will reveal its truth when I am worthy. Often they band together into small gangs, raiding the villages. They have no care for the future and no care for each other beyond what is useful to them at the time. The Spiral Dynamic states that one of them will take great risks to save one of his own gang, only to turn around and beat the saved man to a pulp for making himself vulnerable.

4. The lost peoples. These people are designated the colour blue. They claim to know the one true way, they claim that God or some other ideal provides the ultimate law of truth. They are wrong. The one and only true way is described by the law of Spiral Dynamic. People who live this way have laws and order, they form towns and cites and the people within them know their places, yet they are heathens and for all their similarities to the one true way they are idiots. Blue peoples, like the godly peoples to the west that we recently vanquished, form civilisations, they understand that the future must be considered in all the actions that we make, yet they do not consider that future in the true way.

I have been trying to place this new faction into the four heathen groups. I am having trouble doing so. The cities they have taken over are reportedly not burning to the ground as they would if red elements had taken over, yet they do not easily fit into blue because the reports say that they do not follow a fixed law. Instead they have people they call ‘lawyers’ who fight with words to decide who describes the truth the most accurately. I cannot envision how this could be so, surely they would just break down into anarchy and start killing each other, yet reportedly this is not what happens. My superior has told me not to worry about it, the Spiral Dynamic will show the true way, but I can not help but feel concerned. I am not trusting my superiors wisdom. This is not good, I will loose my way from the Spiral Dynamic if I keep questioning in this way.

The true way of the Spiral Dynamic is lost. The faction has over ridden us. My supervisor jumped from his window this morning. He said he would rather die in truth than have to live under false rulers. I am hesitating from taking such action myself. It seems that when I think about it, there may be some truth in what the faction has to say. The claim that they are working under a new paradigm, one that they call orange, they also claim that what I saw as the true way is in reality just another expression of blue.

This makes some sense to me now. I need to think about it for myself some more before I come to a conclusion.

(This is one of a series of posts exploring EC Theory / Spiral Dynamics. If you read this post alone you will get a very distorted view as to what spiral dynamics is as the post is written from one particular viewpoint. To read them in sequence, please start in the Spiral Dynamics introduction.)

The way of spirits is failing me. The tribe has grown, many strangers have moved amongst us, one of them took me without the blessing of the ancestors and I am lost now.

The gods have given me the desire to take what I wish from the ancient lore of Spiral Dynamics. My brother told me that I was walking the path of the snake, fool. He is stupid and does not do as I tell him. The others are attacking the tribe this morning. I pick up the boiling pot and kill a man as he is aiming a spear at my brother. My brother is grateful and thanks the spirits. I told him he was a fool and that it was me he should be grateful too, he told me not to disrespect the ancestors and I clobbered him too. I did not mean to kill him, he was useful to me, but never mind.

The elder said that the snake had possessed me and I was dead to them. I am leaving the tribe. I am travelling to city to take what is mine.

As I travel I seduce a man and take his food and, then slit his throat, I will not let a foul beast such as that posses me.

There are many people here in the city. Many men to seduce, the good ones I let take me – for a good price, the bad – I just take their money. I have some women under me who do as I say and I am to be sure they are fed. There are many riches to be had in the city, I just have to take them. A man came today and became violent with one of my woman, I had my pimp take him and dump him in the river, no one does that to me. My woman was grateful to me.

My pimp let me seduce him, the fool. I am boss now and he knows his place. One of my woman tried to drown me when I was having a bath. How could my own do that to me? Never mind she is dead now. I have looked up the lore of Spiral Dynamics and created a few rules. No killing the boss is rule number one.

I must pay taxes to the church for God. It is a good racket that they have there. Everyone obeying the master, even when he is not looking. I do not like paying, but I am told I must or they will bring the law down on me. I am not afraid.

They came to get me this morning. They have locked me in a cell and told me that I am charged with article 127. I do not know what I did.

I have been in the cell for a long time now. I felt confused for a long time, but feel better now. There are three others in my cell. We fought at first but the warden would punish us whenever we did and we could not get back at him so we are getting on now. It is nice in a way, not to have to be the boss any more. I do not like being in here, always having to follow the rules, but I am given food every day that I do not have to kill for.

I have found God. The priest has shown me the holy way of Spiral Dynamics and I obey its every law now, we will all be better for it. I am no longer in prison, God be praised, I can serve my true master now with my devoted brothers and sisters.

(This is one of a series of posts exploring EC Theory / Spiral Dynamics. If you read this post alone you will get a very distorted view as to what spiral dynamics is as the post is written from one particular viewpoint. To read them in sequence, please start in the Spiral Dynamics introduction.)

Spiral Dynamics is a gift from the ancestors through which the clouds of the future become a little clearer behind us. The ancestors have given us this knowledge that we might best know how to live.

The ancestors bring love to our hearts that we may share with one another the spirits of desire as they sing though us whilst the hollow tree beats out its heartbeat upon our hands.

The ancestors show us that when the goddess of the loins wishes to bring more among us than the deities of the forest are willing to share with us, then the spirit of the monkey may come amongst us and we will fight with our blood and entrails and feast upon those who walk the path of spirit.

When the snake speaks through a young man who is possessed to walk alone, then he is no longer of our family and he dies even though his ghost still walks and breathes in the forest.

The man snakes attack us, they do not fight in the way the ancestors proscribe. They kill all, and only to eat the fish that the spirits had deigned to us, then move on, leaving the spirits unrecognised.

I am alone now. The man snakes confuse me. But I feel I am becoming one of them.

Rather than just regurgitating material that is already published, I have decided to have some fun and am to try and explain what E-C theory is from each of the different values systems within the theory. When approaching clients I have to be able to explain the theory and I have to do it in a way that they will comprehend. A large part of this is finding the language of their values and then explaining it as best I can.

I am going to start with a B-O explanation. Which I have never had to do, as B-O as a dominant system simply does not really exist in the modern world. It is going to be a challenge and I will have to use a little creative licence.

Don’t worry if you don’t know what ‘value systems’ or the different letter pairs mean yet, that will come clear in time. It might be interesting for you to note down your response to each description, e.g. a) how much do you like/dislike the sound of it. b) did you have trouble wrapping your head around it. c) after reading it, how well could you explain it to someone else. I’ll be very surprised if you relate strongly to B-O, and I won’t be surprised if you wonder what I’m on about, stick with it and come back to this system later if it makes no sense to you now.

Important note: All of these different descriptions are biased and stereotyped towards one particular expression of the value system being expressed. They are not necessarily representative, I have to some extent purposefully veered away from the more common stereotypes – but all the expressions are still stereotypes. This will become clearer in the later value systems. These systems do not really exist, they are simply artefacts of the theory and the manner in which our minds latch onto information to make sense of it. There are many contradictions from one description to another. This is on purpose to highlight some of the contradictions within the theory; take all factoids with a pinch of salt and try to let the overall picture of the theory settle in.

(edited 22/05/08 – added important note)

(part of a series of posts introducing E-C Theory and Spiral Dynamics)

E-C theory was developed by a man called Clare Graves. In the early 1950s he was a psychology professor who had an itch to scratch, but he could not quite find the spot. His students kept asking him which of the psychological models that were prevalent at the time actually worked. The problem was, as far as he could tell, none of them did. This inspired him to develop an experiment that he hoped would shed some insight on the matter. It went something like this.

He set an assignment for for one of his new freshman classes. In this assignment he asked his students to write a description of what they considered to be ideal human behaviour. He then passed these papers to another group of freshman students who did not know the first group and asked them to group the papers into categories. The only condition on them being grouped was that the students thought that the papers were similar.

He then repeated, washed and rinsed the same experiment for the next nine years and then spent the next twenty years adding new variables, cross correlating with other psychological research and performing longitudinal studies.

The end result of all this was a pile of data and a theory with a schizophrenic name. At the time he stopped writing he referred to it as the ‘Emergent, Cyclical, Double-Helix Model of Adult Human Biopsychosocial Systems’, which is a bit shorter than some of his earlier names. Unfortunately, while Graves was writing his magnum opus he had a stroke after which he never managed to finish his book.

Fortunately his work did not completely die with him, several of his students including Christopher Cowan and Don Beck set up in business as consultants using Graves work to help people and in particular businesses. They needed a business name that would help them sell their wares and they came up with the name Spiral Dynamics.

The Spiral Dynamics team carried on where Graves left off, their studies expanding with a more cross cultural perspective and looking at the specific problems that their clients were faced with. Eventually, they wrote a book, published in 1996 called, ‘Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change‘.

A few years later Cowan and Beck parted ways. Both carried on in the same vein of business consultancy, however both also developed in new directions as well. Cowan, along with his new partner Natasha Todorovic managed to unearth a lot of Graves original manuscript and published ‘The Never Ending Quest‘, they also continued their consultancy, training and empirical studies. Meanwhile Don Beck had teamed up with Ken Wilber, a philosipher/psychologist who had used Spiral Dynamics as part of his AQAL theory. Beck and Wilber together renamed the theory ‘Spiral Dymanics Integral’ and this is also used in consultancy and training.

There are differences between Graves original E-C theory, the early Cowan and Beck Spiral Dynamics, the Cowan and Todorovic Spiral Dynamics and the Beck and Wilber Spiral Dynamics Integral. I originally encountered this body of work while reading Wilbers ‘Theory of Everything’ and his other books. However, on reading some criticisms of Wilbers work, which I agreed with, I no longer ascribe to the Spiral Dynamics Integral model (I will go into detail about this in a later post). I later read the original Spiral Dynamics Book and The Never ending Quest, which I then followed up by attending the SD1 and SD2 training with Cowan and Todorovic. I now lean quite strongly towards the Cowan and Todorovic camp, but I do have my criticisms of their work as well. I will explore my criticisms and my own stance in more depth once I have finished fleshing out the main theory as it will make more sense then. I prefer to use the term E-C theory rather than Spiral Dynamics, which is the term used throughout The Never Ending Quest. Another name that is sometimes used is ECLET. Most articles on the web use the term Spiral Dynamics and few people would know what I am talking about if I never mentioned it so I sprinkle the term around here and there and always use it when specifically talking about work done after Graves.

(The source for this information is from the Never Ending Quest, the original Spiral Dynamics book, the SD1 and SD2 courses and the the three main websites to do with Spiral Dynamics: www.spiraldynamics.org, www.spiraldynamics.net and www.clarewgraves.com. This wikipedia article is also pretty good. )

I came across an interesting article from the Guardian today. Reporting on how food miles are not always an accurate representation of carbon emissions. (I orgionaly found the link to the article at Meta Filter.)

The Guardian article explores how it can be more efficient to buy food that has a lot of food miles if the production methods are less energy intensive than if the food was produced with only a few food miles but used a lot of energy to be produced.

The article also points out that beans cooked at home can produce more carbon emissions than beans cooked in a factory because the energy used at home is far less efficient than that used in the factory. These are both valid arguments and ones that I was thinking of exploring.

The article even looks at a possible solution. Presenting the full carbon costs of the product on the packaging. It continues to explain how even this information would be skewed due to the method used to cook the produce. However this does not seem so complicated to me. Simply provide a base carbon cost and a carbon cost with an average that includes cooking.

What really bugs me about the article though, is that, the suggested solution is being run by a supermarket rather than an independent body. The idea that a supermarket can create a fair system that represents carbon emissions is ridiculous. It is simply not in their interest to do so. It is in their interest to be seen to be doing something about environmental issues, and so representing carbon costs on their packaging. But how accurate are these figures. It has to be an independent body that creates them if they are to be accurate.

Also – does the carbon cost on the tin include the supermarkets carbon costs as opposed to buying the food from a local supplier?

This is a 3AM idea. (what is a 3AM idea? )

I actually woke up at around 2 last night. Worst night I have had in ages, but the ideas didn’t really start until 3 or so, which inspired the name for the 3AM category.

It started on the usual theme. Civilisation has come to an end. My immediate family is the only one left (me, wife and two kids). Started wondering what life would be like from a Spiral Dynamics, values perspective.

Essentially I decided that the life conditions would be an-BO. (Will try and remember to link all these terms up when I have the Spiral Dynamics intro written). This would mean that the mind conditions of our kids and subsequent generations would be severely limited. (assuming meet enough other survivors to tribe up and genetic variability is wide enough to survive.

In my semi lucid state I started planning ways that information could be encoded for them that would enable a swift transition up the values systems and enabling civilisation to restore itself.

By about 5AM I had moved on to DQ and ER.

By 6, I was thinking up to GT and how the same technique could work between ER and GT even though society is essentially centred somewhere between dq-ER and ER-fs at the moment.

By 7, I was planning a foundation in my head that would be setting up an international values treasure hunt for survivors should civilization collapse. The foundation would also be working in the present to promote civilisation to express all the systems in healthy expressions and also to help move the centre of gravity above ER (ER is crap at seeing the waste stream of society – need to write a post on that!).

And all this whilst half asleep.

For each stage of values development new knowledge would be hidden in the world in ways that it would not be obtainable with out some of the technology just before it. The treasure would be in the form of technological knowledge and information, but also warnings about the problems society faces when it has the values that develop with that particular technology ability. It would not be a precise process – but perhaps it could be close enough. Each ‘treasure’ would be in a form that would be hard for that values system to destroy completely. Each survival system would not concentrate on just one survival system but a cross section. E.G. BO to DQ.

BO - DQ : A series of tablets, mass produced out of very hard material that does not erode under the elements and is hard to destroy with any pre DQ technology and is not materially valuable. Some of these would be embedded in mountain sides, outcrops etc. Especially in places that are geologically stable. The plates starts with a single paragraph intro in modern language, explaining their purpose. The first thing on the tablets would be an oral story in BO language, in simplified phonetic language where all the letters are easily discernible from each other. The story includes guidance from the ancestors to remaster the written language on the tablets should it be forgotten, that this is the task the ancestors have set them. It also tells the story of the fall of the ancestors from godhood and a stark warning about the cause of failure, e.g. ‘The gods did not understand the importance of their shit. They did not care what they did with it or where they put it and in punishment they fell from godhood.’

Second would be a set of instructions for maintaining knowledge of the written knowledge which would be in two sections. The first instruction is to tell the story, that this is the job of the elder, but the skill is taught to all. The story would also include some clever help to aid that – not sure what at the moment. The second set of instructions would include instructions for teaching the written language, written with a DQ overview, but using BO and CP nouns and language structure. Essentially something along the lines of setting up a tradition, that every child has to master the letters and be able to duplicate the tablets. That everyone’s reproduction of the tablets should be kept and buried with them (extra backups). To write the reproductions on material that lasts a long time. EG. etch on bone. The ancestors have charged everyone with this task. The third section on the tablets would essentially be a language guide to help understand the meaning of words. A minimum number of words are used to communicate the learning. A very simplified language, but understandable to someone today. Only elders have to reproduce this section, incentivising it to a privileged position.

The fourth section of the tablets would be written to talk to CP. Not sure how to do this. It is probably the hardest part. It would start off with another oral story, saying how the reader will know that their tribe has reached CP (population density + rebellion from BO. It will warn of the benefits of this and warn of the dangers in a constructive way. CP does not exactly take instruction, so this is a challenge. Further instructions and extra language definitions. Skills to encourage development to DQ, e.g. agriculture – communicated simply.

The sixth section would be in basic DQ language. And warn of DQ dangers and benefits, plus provide safe DQ technological information. It would use absolutist language such as commandments with promises to the promised land if the instructions are followed. It would include a global map with spots marked on it that contain another set of tablets. These tablets are only obtainable with advanced DQ technology. E.g. buried at least 50 meters deep through difficult to excavate material. With large markers on top, such as pyramids. These new tablets are also stored in places that are not quite so hard to access, but also not marked on the map, such as deep in caves, high up mountains etc.

The advanced DQ tablets contain basic ER information (safe technology) and stark warnings in DQ-ER language about the failings of the past and an understanding of the values needed to progress. They also include further instructions for accessing an even more advanced set of tablets of which only a few would be made. These would be buried very deep and be hard to reach. Eg 500 meters deep and would contain advanced technical knowledge and interpretation of all values as we now understand them. And it would wish the new civilisation better luck in moving forwards than we had.

The idea of this plan is that if society does collapse, it has a hand up from the point it collapsed to.

All the above would only be one branch of the Foundations purpose. It would also be promoting the healthy use of value systems and development to sustainable values in our current civilisation. I am not presuming that we will collapse, just putting in a multi level interlinked safety net in case we do. We need to shore advanced values up in ways that that are based in life conditions and mind conditions.

Relatively, I do not think this would cost all that much… a few hundred million at a guess. Convincing people we need it would be another issue. If civilisation does start going down the spout, there would probably be some wealthy financiers steeping forward. The challenge would be to design the templates before that.

It is now 09:40. I have been writing since 07:30.
Reminder: this is a middle of the night idea. There are bound to be some crazy elements, but I wanted to get it down in case there is a gem at the core. It is important to stress I am not a doomer, I just like covering all the possibilities. I hope we make through the peak resources/Ignored waste stream issues that is facing civilisation at the moment, but you never know. Best take a raincoat if there is a chance of rain, especially on a cold day.

Time to let it rest a bit and see if it breeds in my mind.

I often wake in the middle of the night. I usually get back to sleep pretty quick. But sometimes, especially when stressed, I don’t.

I often start thinking about the craziest ideas. Often they are just crazy. But sometimes there is a gem in there that if it is polished off with the light of day provides me with some great ideas and insights.

This category is all about them.

Don’t take them too seriously!