Votorola was an experimental technology for the public guidance of electoral systems, exec­u­tive of­fices, legis­latures, and other decision sys­tems. Unique­ly it combined the de­vices of re­combin­ant text, trans­i­tive voting, and vote pipes to build a max­imum of person­al freedom into its facil­i­ties. The main facil­i­ties were tree-form, de­cision guide­ways. Voto­rol­a deployed the leaf­ward edges of these in sup­port of the pub­lic sphere where they pro­vided a pur­pose and out­let for ration­al dis­course. The op­posite trunks it aimed at de­cision sys­tems that are sensi­tive to form­al con­sensus. It tar­geted each of the ma­jor types of de­cision sys­tem in so­ciety (white) with a special guideway design (green), enabling the hidden complexity of political decision making to be exposed to the scrutiny of rational discourse:

diagram is

interactive Electoral

decision

systems (executive

appointments

are treated

as electoral

decisions, and

thus guided) Normative

decision

systems Interface with

the lifeworld Mythopoeic

overguideway Public

sphere Interface to

electoral de-

cision system Interface

to norm

guideways Interface to

normative de-

cision system Election

guideways Norm

guideways

For each decision that is scrutin­ized, how­ever, the first demand of reason will always be the question, Why? From what cause and to what purpose would we execute this plan? Or en­force this law? When asked with insistence, the question is ultimately mythic, event­u­al­ly de­mand­ing a full-scope explan­a­tion of where we come from and where we are going. We would therefore require, above all, a myth-making, or ‘mythopoeic’ overguideway (O m ) in order to ex­press con­sensus on the answer. Meantime the technology was based on a provisional answer, a material end for humanity (M0), from which the mor­al princi­ples of col­lect­ive orientation (M1) and personal freedom (M2) were already deduced as the formal means:

Moral theory Practice form (M2) Morality promotes a maximum of personal

freedom compatible with equal freedoms for all Maximizing

personal freedom means form (M1) Morality relates personal action to a universally

collective end Mythopoeic

overguidance means matter (M0) Morality purposes the endless continuity of

rational being Forever retelling

the myth end

(P1) Let all communications be limited to light speed.