What does AI have to do with people? We’re seeing the impact of this technology on our lives in so many ways. Some of them are scary, but some of them, harnessed correctly, might help us with some very human problems that pre-date the emergence of the LLM.
I was watching a presentation early in July, at one of the Imagination in Action TED talk events that I help to host. There was a presentation by Jerren Chang, President and CEO of Partners in Democracy. This is a nonprofit with a mission to strengthen American democracy with better civic participation and support of democratic institutions.
Chang started out describing how his parents came to America from less stable places, benefitting from other people and systems that supported them as children, helped them to thrive individually when they were young and had nothing, and how that power has the power to shape societies.
“You can see the impact of that power across generations,” Chang said, referencing the trajectory of his own family. “In one generation, we went from poverty, to me getting these ridiculous chances to work with mayors, philanthropists, CEOs … and all that.”
But, he noted, times change.
“What I’ve learned, what I’m here to share today, is that those systems that have saved my parents are failing everyone else’s children right now,” he said.
A Thought Experiment
“Why don’t you take a second,” Chang asked the audience, “and think about when’s the last time you saw a real problem in your community solved, not tweaked, or studied for the eleventh year in a row? Housing, healthcare, climate. If you can’t think of anything, it’s okay, you’re not alone.”
He also mentioned how we respond to this lack of solutions.
“We’ve been blaming, I think, a lot of young people these days for not appreciating democracy,” he said, “but I think what we’re seeing right now is that young people aren’t wrong to be frustrated by the fact that democracy has failed to solve these issues, that the democracy they see really isn’t working that well.”
Again, Chang gave a scenario:
“Go to a town meeting. How many folks are here? Been to a town meeting? Yes. All right … what’s the experience? Oftentimes, the loudest, angry voices win, not the best. Look at your phone, the same thing, same fight amplified by algorithms. Our elected officials are under constant pressure from these loud and angry voices, they often have to either give in to them, or take the real conversations into back rooms, away from us.”
This rationale presented, Chang talked specifically about the state of Massachusetts, and I was paying attention.
Mass Democracy
“What if I told you that Massachusetts is one of the places where democracy needs the most work?” Chang asked, adding that Massachusetts now has larger white/black voter turnout gaps than Mississippi. “We have one of the least transparent state governments in the country. We’re one of only two states where the legislature and the governor don’t have to share how decisions are made. We have the least competitive elections in the entire country, over 60% of our elections are uncontested. No choice, no accountability. The voters are catching on, they’re seeing this and losing faith in the process.”
Then Chang pivoted to a very personal outlook: he mentioned his daughter, making an appeal to a very American idea: that despite differences in wealth, culture, ethnicity, etc., any American’s voice should count the same.
“Four months ago, I had my first kid, a daughter named Sydney,” he said. “I have no idea who she’s going to grow up to be like, or what she’ll believe in, or what she’ll fight for, but I know this: whether she’s loud or quiet, I want her voice to count the same as everyone else’s. Whether she reads the newspaper every day or never opens one, I want her to have the tools to know how decisions are being made in her name. Whether she’s a super-voter or a first-time voter, I want her elected representatives to have to earn her vote every single time … this isn’t a radical idea, it’s just democracy working how it’s supposed to.”
He explained further, under a presentation slide reading: “20 years from now.” I thought this part was especially good, as I imagined it with him.
“Let me show you exactly what that looks like, not as an idea, but as a memory that I hope to experience 20 years from now,” he said. “Sydney’s standing in a town hall, not because she has to be there, but because it’s what everyone does, just like everyone shows up to vote, and the room is loud, even messy, but the loudest voice doesn’t win by default. People are seeking out each other’s perspectives, facilitating space, so that even the quiet, careful argument gets heard … She looks at her phone, at an app designed by people who thought: it’s technology’s job to help communities think together, not tear them apart.”
Chang’s ode to simple democracy rang really true, at this pivotal moment, 250 years after the American Independence of 1776.
“When she votes in November,” he said, in continued musing on his daughter’s potential future, “it’s a genuinely contested election between representatives who actually reach out to all the voters, build a platform, a policy platform that reflects their voices. Whoever wins knows that the next election cycle, they’re going to have to go in front of her and everyone else to answer for their promises. The remarkable thing is nobody in this world thinks that that’s remarkable. It’s just how it works. It’s just democracy.”
I really liked all of this, and there’s more.
Chang appealed:
“That future is not a prediction, it’s a blueprint,” he said. “A blueprint only becomes a building when somebody starts laying bricks.”
Now, he also got into another line of thinking that’s more favorable to our state, which, while it may need work, has a pretty great history in many ways. Here’s what he had to say about building in Massachusetts:
“Massachusetts is pretty good at laying bricks,” he said, and I agree. “This is where the oldest constitution still in use was written, we built the first public schools, the first public libraries. We were the center of the abolitionist movement. We were the first state to recognize labor unions, the first to recognize same-sex marriage, and we passed universal health care in 2006. It did not stay in Massachusetts; four years later, became the blueprint for the Affordable Care Act, transforming the whole country. We can do that again. That’s what we do. We take something that people thought was finished, we renovate it, and we give the country a new standard.”
We have the ingredients to do that here in Massachusetts, right now. We have some of the best civic educators, knowledge, organizers, anywhere right here. That’s the opportunity in front of us. … democracy can deliver for us, starting now. Let’s make Massachusetts a beacon for healthy democracy. Let’s give the country, once again, a blueprint. Born here, built here. Let’s get to work.”
I couldn’t have said it better.
