[6510]

What we lack is ambitious law makers or sensible elite.

Beyond that it is quite easy to force car makers to create modular cars with parts that fit on any car. We create standards all of the time.

Each large nation could provide a team of experts and together they could draft a plan for a digital platform to run a government on. It might be able to run on mac, windows and linux, it might require some dedicated hardware.

If the standards are open and we can all develop add-ons for it I cant see any way for it to turn sour.

[082349872349872]

Here we actually do have modular parts for cars (at least common consumables, like headlamp bulbs, are normed into a range of a handful of types which are then stocked in all service stations) Schrader valves also mean that stations only have one type of air filler (which here is also always the same: a small bottle with a tyre pressure gauge which can be carried between the refill station on the wall and your car wherever it may be)

As for ways to turn sour, I'm afraid you're underestimating humans. We can't have nice things. (Ok, we can, we at least get some nice things with something like the square root of time... but we can't have all the nice things we could have had if we weren't so prone to defection)

[cageface]

Can you think of any examples of the kind of effort you describe that didn't turn into a bureaucratic and extravagantly expensive mess?

[6510]

e-estonia pops to mind?

Not to long ago in NL we had a paper form for everything. You would get a 100x photocopied document to fill out. They started with your name, then your address, your income, etc etc and then you had to provide evidence for each item. I managed to fail to produce the required information countless times. Usually the issue was that one had to fill out a similar form to obtain the proof ending in circular requirements or some misplaced document or form. Then it all had to be checked which replicated the same process behind the screen. I use to joke to them that asking me (the citizen) to gather information they already have is asking for me to make a mess from it. How do you tell I was the party who did it wrong with so much hand work? What if you get it wrong? Howmany new forms do I have to fill out with my name and my address and proof of address etc?

Today I get an email telling me to look at my inbox. I see what I'm entitled to, what bills I have to pay or it asks me to confirm something.

It works wonderfully compared to the way it use to work but the digital ID they provide cant be used by companies or other governments and a message in the inbox about a message in the other inbox is kinda wonky. Just give me an email address firmly tied to my real name. Legally binding emails. A place to socialize. A place to sell my private items and my professional products and services. Tie it into the tax system so that I do not every have to look at it. A place to list my resume and find employees. Hook my security cameras into the police system when I press the button. Alert me when me car starts moving without me in it. Give me encryption that only law enforcement can read. Make full product details available from my bank transaction history. Standardize the visum and immigration process. If I'm entitled to social support of some kind: put it in my bank account without asking me to do anything. If the social support obligates me to search for a job organize the job interviews. Make sure I can actually get there. Give me an agenda. Put API's on everything, let me code my own components if theirs doesn't do what I desire. Require the extensions to be modular or up to spec so that others can use it too or so that it can become part of the standard interface.

All the while making sure nothing or no one has access to data they don't need nor do things they shouldn't be doing with the data. (Delivering post or email requires only a key, no knowledge of the address)

Just be ambitious about it, make it work. I'm sure half the suggestions above raise serious questions that we can try to answer.

[EricE]

"Beyond that it is quite easy to force car makers to create modular cars with parts that fit on any car."

This is by far one of the most naive things I have read in a long, long time.

As for standards: https://xkcd.com/927/