Too often I see stuff online that sucks, but has lots of recommendations or positive votes. Sometims I think people got paid to vote for it. Sometimes, I think they have different tastes than I. Other times, I think the voters are just plain stupid. I'd like a system where I could see who voted for something, and discount the votes of people I don't know or don't trust. However, I don't know that many people, so I'd like to be able to extend it back through a web of trust, sort of like Phill Zimmermans's web of trust for PGP.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
I'm a huge fan of the book "Starship Troopers" by Robert Heinlein, not the almost completely unrelated movie by the same name. The book is a coming of age story with some political overtones, set against the background of a futuristic war with an intellegent tool-using, alien, insectile race. The focus of the book is on how Juan Rico develops from a directionless kid into a adult dedicated to a cause outside himself. Perhaps half the book describes some of the soul searching he does while in basic training, and officer's candidate school. The movie also explores a number of what-if ideas about future combat. Particularly the idea of powered exoskeleton armor.
The movie, on the other hand, is an action and gore fest about a high school jock shooting monsters on another planet, using weapons and armor inferior to those used in the Vietnam war. The central character "Johnny" exhibits no growth or change whatsoever. It does occationally refer to some of the events in the book, but utterly misses their meaning.
I admit neither is very subtle, but they're miles apart.
I also admit I doubt the political ideas in the book would work in the real world. I think it would quickly break down into a police state as the older political leaders forgot the service ideals that earned them citizen status.