There is no consensus on awareness in this world. No one knows how to verify consensus when not everyone can possibly communicate with one another. Not everyone can find information that others can. Vested interests can deny information and complicate the legitimacy of consensus. Access to the Internet and a wide array of resources is not happening today. Access to communicate with the entire world is not here. But it can happen, and it can be here. We can make it happen.
No matter how hard anyone tries, no one can defy the laws of physics. Falsifiable by the nature of scientific theory, the laws of physics incorporate scientific-method qualified adjustments that enhance legitimacy in terms of consensus. When a number of scientists have successfully tested a theory, a pattern develops that cannot be denied the more the experiment is retested, therefore that pattern has relative legitimacy. Legitimacy is what keeps societal structures in place, and it is commonly understood that structural legitimacy stabilizes society. What society to the best of its awareness considers to be legitimate is what remains.
If our societal structures were considered not to be legitimate, and if the supposed beneficiaries of those structures could verify that fact without any party being able to deny it, then those structures would no longer have as much influence. Influence exists necessarily because of some perceived or actual legitimacy. Without legitimacy, influence transfers elsewhere.
There is a concept called digital consensus that currently is not well-known, certainly not in the sense written about in this writing. Online mass petitions and mass movements in general have today attained some form of mass consensus, but the legitimacy of these actions and movements is affected by the influence of all societal structures. If we get everyone online, digital consensus will happen, it will dramatically change the way we communicate with each other, it will sustain legitimacy, and it will therefore sustain democracy. Democracy is only as effective as it is legitimate. If there is total legitimacy via digital consensus, then democracy will become the most influential of all societal structures, backed with undeniable integrity.
The Internet gives every single individual a voice in this world. Get everyone online, and they can participate. The ability to participate in digital consensus is not a human right, but it will be. The day digital consensus becomes possible, we wouldn't possibly allow society to go backwards to a day without digital consensus. No one would reasonably choose to have their participation denied. It is the one right, if everyone had it, that would permanently support the protection of human rights worldwide.
Digital consensus will give peer review a whole new meaning across all possible discourse, including but not limited to political discourse, economic discourse, and scientific discourse. If everyone in the world can witness an event or a communication occur simultaneously, and if feedback on the same event or communication can both be given and be seen worldwide, then that is digital consensus. It means the fact of that event's occurrence cannot be denied, and that fact's influence cannot be defied. Vested interests would be hard pressed to deny something as legitimate as digital consensus. Investing against it, especially once it starts occurring, would be a losing battle.
Digital consensus is legitimacy for society at its very core, especially if society intends to go beyond the frontiers we have set for ourselves. With digital consensus, the new frontier will be far beyond what our species can currently imagine. Unquestionably, poverty and suffering will not be part of that frontier in a world where the entire worldwide community can share their knowledge and expand access to the other necessities of life.
Most importantly, where there is digital consensus, there is no denying the personal power of every single individual in society. No one's consideration can be considered marginal in a society where finally everyone's consideration can make an impact in a way that benefits all people. Get everyone online, and everyone can enable themselves and others to the fullest.
It's simply imperative that we do what we can to make this happen whether it means working with telecommunications companies or investing in expanding access in general to unconnected communities and then teaching them remotely to enable their communities, which is what Get Everyone Online as an NGO / non-profit aims to do. If one person can be taught to raise their own village with the power of the Internet, and that village can connect with other villages, towns, cities, and societies around the world, then digital consensus will be possible. No one has to conform with digital consensus, but the economic benefits cannot be denied. Enhanced communications will allow business to accelerate and for commodities and individuals to move more fluidly as a result. While it seems inevitable, every action towards getting there counts, so it is time to aspire and inspire.
Get in touch to see how you can start enabling society. The reality is you can help to get everyone online!
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