Project Spectra - Interoception for Democracy

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Every governmental approval rating is nose-diving. This is caused by and contributes to the centrifuging of our political landscape. If we can neutralize key drivers of polarization, we might put enough slack into the knot to start to untie it. Two key drivers are internet-mediated polarization and politically-mediated polarization, and the thesis of Spectra is that both can be addressed by surfacing the truth of who wants what across the country.

Internet-mediated polarization hardly needs an introduction. We live in bubbles of manufactured outrage and algorithmically rewarded scissor statements. Our podcasts, feeds, and op-eds are full of claims about the hypocrisy of our out groups. They can be amusing or enraging, and either way, the algorithm decides we need more. One goal of Spectra is to contextualize and neutralize the worst of these.

Politically-mediated polarization is a process in which unpopular candidates narrowly win elections, anger most voters, and in so doing create conditions for the process to repeat. Another goal of Spectra is to tilt the information landscape in favor of more widely supported candidates running and winning.

The solutions I can visualize are all nonprofits wielding technology as public goods. And while it is hubris to think you can plan a startup of any kind in advance, it’s still useful to contemplate possible futures, and as such I’ve still sketched out several on this site. The org outlined in mirages is the least ambitious, and if completed, acts as a perfect foundation for primary-prediction.

I’ve adopted the name Spectra to refer to broad ranges of people and beliefs which must be cataloged and surfaced. It has a codename vibe which seems appropriate for something so early. I also appreciate that it takes suffixes easily. Perhaps one day we’ll have Spectra Surveys, Spectra Primaries, and/or Spectra Simulations.

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I’ve adopted a retro computer aesthetic, which I hope references the optimistic stance towards information technology of the 80s and 90s, a dream I’m not ready to give up on.