Historical, Bioethical and Technical Aspects for the Creation of the Popular Online Forum

Abstract

The implementation of information technology systems for democratic government in several countries opens new possibilities for the interaction between the people and the public administration. The “fourth republican power” (the press and, today, other types of mass media) has been progressively replaced by privately managed social networks, in the task of forming public opinion. However, the interaction between the people and the state should not be based on private companies, because of commercial interests, vulnerability to private control, and manipulation of public opinion, while the democratic state should have different strategic goals, according to the directions of sustainable human development. We propose the creation of a digital public network, the “Popular Online Forum” (already named “FOPO” in previous publications), which can be integrated, with other useful functions for the citizens, in a smartphone application we call “All In a Nutshell” (AIN). This initiative has the purpose of inserting a participatory system to improve representative democracy, in the sense of providing a two-way communication channel between the government and the people. In Brazil, the FOPO can indeed be carried out using the capacity of the government to promote technological development, combining the people’s “collective wisdom” – collected by means of a pool survey computational software, implemented in a public network of computers – with an artificial intelligence software – used to access public databases, checking the veracity and consistency of informational contents. For the end users, this public service can be offered in the AIN application, which would unite the will and needs of the population with the mechanisms for promoting and generating wealth. We’re talking about a collective effort as big as building the Great Wall of China or the Apollo Program that took man to the moon. This type of initiative can inspire and push several generations to take advantage of all the cognitive, working, and dreaming potential to catalyze the development of a country like Brazil.