A team at Case Western Reserve University led by Michelle Rasmussen and Daniel Scherson has tapped into the metabolic system of a cockroach to produce electricity. This isn't the first time anyone has tried building a cyborg bug of sorts. A University of Michigan team tried it using piezoelectric materials. What's interesting here is that Rasmussen's group used the insect's own body chemistry to produce electricity.
The article also says shiitake mushrooms contain the same sugar as cockroaches and have also been used to produce electricity. Hopefully mushrooms and roaches alike will be able to exit the Matrix at some point.
There is an inherit problem with democracy. Two wolves and a sheep voting on whats for dinner, inevitably leaves the sheep in a continual state of wanting. However the distribution means of information this characteristic of majority rule will be prevalent in any democratic society. Most obviously the cure is the American solution of representative democracy. This leads to other inherit problems. 5 wolves voting on what to eat for 100 sheep. What is the place of Democracy in the Digital/Infor
Not a clue, and I'm happy to be quiet on such a topic. Unfortunately, many people in the same situation would not, and I dread to think what would happen if we listened to all of them. The number of people who know something about an esoteric subject is usually outnumbered by the number of people willing to interfere in things they know nothing about.
If maybe there were a way to determine your level of expertise on various subjects that either qualify or disqualify you from voting on certain matters. Such that, in regards to interstate grazing rights you would forfeit your vote to the people that have been determined to know precedents, rulings, rights, and other determining factors for such policy. However, say a policy of voting ethics, you would be able to cast your vote with other eligible voters that have passed pre-screening for voting on that matter. There by leaving the decisions to the people that know the ins-n-outs of the issue at hands.
I guess the trick would be to determine qualifications for voting on particular matters. If you had to answer questions about your depth of knowledge on the particular subject it would make the time to vote for A or B much more time consuming than just click-scribble-done. Which may or may not be a bad thing.
IF I HAD A MINE SHAFT, I don't think I would just abandon it. There's got to be a better way. -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.