h a l f b a k e r yNeural Knotwork
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Proposed: Randomly eliminate half of all existing federal laws and regulations. Print the remaining laws on a giant sheet of magnet-backed vinyl and break it up into individual words. These will be mixed up and divided equally, by weight, amongst the Senators and Representatives.
Install a
gargantuan refrigerator beneath the rotunda of the Capitol building, and on its doors begin to craft bills from scratch. Bills will be voted on, and if ratified, the words from which they are comprised will be lost to the bill (or rather, the act) until such act is rescinded. If an act is rescinded for any reason, the words are mixed up at random and again distributed evenly, by weight, to congressional members.
Implications: Congressional members would be ranked according to the importance of words they control, and the quantity. As such, there wwould be a tendency to hoard words, which would be balanced by the need to create popular legislation in order to be re-elected. Most importantly, the number of laws, and the areas they encompass, would be limited.
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Hmm... But when new words are invented, such as "internet" won't there be a gaping hole in legislative language? I would suspect that 100 years from now, almost nothing of importance in the technology field would be covered by laws... Unless Bill Gates keeps naming things as "windows," and "home." |
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