This came to me while suffering from a fever while watching too rich a diet of Pokémon and Robot Wars.

The Pokémon model where you train up a creature and unleash it to fight for you would be ideal for direct democracy. You could train a Votémon to respond favourably to your political preferences in virtual legislative assembly so it votes there reflects your opinions. People who are less keen about politics can buy theirs from their favourite party or political commentator already trained and you could recognise these by their conformist colour and shape.

Each Votémon would have three stages (larval, normal and advanced) and the stage would reflect your interest in politics. The more you follow events and spend time training your Votémon the more powerful it gets, especially in the area of Votémon vs. Votémon combat.

Some political matters could be settled by a grand melee or personal combat. This would allow people to settle political issues and beat up the political monsters of people who do nothing but train their Votémon to be NIMBYs or to vote for contradictory things (like less tax but more public spending).

The whole thing could be broadcast as both entertainment and current events.
-- Aristotle, Nov 28 2001

Pokémon FAQ http://www.bcpl.net...miller/pokefaq.html
For those people who missed the craze. [Aristotle, Nov 29 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

I'd vote for this but I haven't managed to train up a Croissantchu yet.
-- CoolerKing, Nov 28 2001


The danger of shirking our responsibilities to vote and make sure we're properly informed about and represented in the governance of our country by giving these responsibilities to some sort of avatar is that the avatar might come to the same conclusion as we have and end up sitting around being apathetic and drinking beer, and we won't even notice.
-- hippo, Nov 28 2001


Just like MP's then.
-- DrBob, Nov 28 2001


...except you can take your Votémon down the pub with you and let it get into political debates/pub brawls leaving you to get on with the serious business of drinking (albeit through a straw in your current state (hang in there)).
-- st3f, Nov 28 2001


As well as being able to argue politics for you in social situations, your Votémon could summarise the news for you in a form tailored to your interests. Pub regulars could kept up to date with the progression of the plan to offer tax incentives to micro-breweries and reduce tax on beer in exchange for a corresponding increase in other forms of taxation.

People who are completely uninterested in politics would have larval Votémon so they would admittedly suffer under this system. However they might be able to get a free political monster from their football club, charity or their childrens' school to argue their case.

Kids could collect them and swap rare Widdebeasts, pugnatious Prescottii and Crested Redkens.
-- Aristotle, Nov 28 2001


All those in favour say "Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigglypuff!"
-- Guy Fox, Nov 28 2001


I like this idea. Would we get to choose their physical appearance when we bought/hatched them? How big would they get? Would we need to feed them? there are so many questions I could ask of this, but I won't coz I like it so much.
-- kaz, Nov 28 2001


Will political inductees then be able to 'fast forward' to see what is about to happen after they vote? I am, oh, so woefully ignorant of Pokémon™ as to be dangerous; I do not know what Pokémon(s) actually do. I am wholeheartedly in favor, nonetheless, of wreaking cartoon havoc upon legislators for offenses of prose, so could we evoke a prosémon to eat drivel like the Langoliers?
-- reensure, Nov 28 2001


For people who missed the Pokémon craze, I've found an FAQ (see link).

I think the Votémon's appearance would be intially your choice but as you develop your representative he would change towards the appearance of an established body of political thought if you start to agree with it. This would allow you to look over a field of Votémon and assess what kind of politics their political monsters would expose. They would probably have emergent flocking and herding instincts.

You would be able to write training challenges where your Votémon faces ethical dilemas to see if you agree with the way he reacts and have it face the Votémon that famous political personalities would have to see how they would get on. You could also write trial legislation with know flaws to see it can find the devil in the detail.
-- Aristotle, Nov 29 2001


But wouldn't the trained vote'mon bully the less trained opinions just like today?
-- lbunting, Nov 29 2001


lbunting: Good point. This is a general point with most political half-baked suggestions - people can easily demonstrate that the status quo would be pretty much restored. However someone could potentially make advances in training Votémon that picks their ideas out from amongst the heap and give them a chance at promoting their worldview.
-- Aristotle, Dec 03 2001


Croissant just for the name!
-- PiledHigherandDeeper, May 26 2003


Got my croissant. I'd love to see some of these battles.
-- Qinopio, Jun 08 2003



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