Technology And Democracy

The People Of The Wind.

(I chose this image because the name of the political party is off-screen but the color of the rosette gives it away.)

To address the Great Khruath, High Wyvan Liaw and his colleagues stand:

"...on the olden site, First Island in the Hesperian Sea. At their backs rose the house of David Falkayn; before them greensward slanted toward beach and surf." (XI, p. 561)

We remember the colonization of the Hesperian archipelago in "Wingless" and, before that, the exploration of Avalon in "The Problem of Pain." Have I said before that this is a substantial future history? In our future, our descendants will build what become to them "olden" traditions. (If the race survives - of course, Anderson elsewhere considers the possibility that it will not.)

A routine Great Khruath would involve booths, tents, anchored ships and swarming delegates flying down to form ranks beneath trees. In the present emergency, delegates elected at regional meetings and other individuals will speak electronically, their contributions filtered by staff with computers inside Falkayn's house. Two million choth members must listen and decide.

The household of Lythran and Blawsa perches on tiers before a large screen in a "...broad, dark, weapon-hung chamber..." (ibid.) Feathers rustle, claws scrape, banners on high rafters stir, through an open window comes the smell of damp earth, inside is the woodsmoke Ythrian odor. Arinnian must report as the chief of the West Coronan guard. He also relays a message from his father who, since the death of Ferune, is now First Marchwarden of the Lauran System although not a choth member. The Parliament of Man will also meet and vote.

Every morning during a General Election here, Party leaders give their most optimistic responses to the latest opinion poll so that the issue in the election seems to become predictions about who will win the election. Information and computer technology could instead be used to involve us all not in speculation but in discussion and decision-making.