Infomocracy: A Futuristic Look at Global Politics

Infomacracy: A Futuristic Look at Worldwide Democracy

By: Malka Older

Infomocracy is a narrative that takes place in the not so distance future. This futuristic novel highlights a partnership between countries and corporations to eliminate country wide elections and now the world votes together in one gigantic election.

Most of the geopolitical elements that make up our world today (2017) are now gone, such as Countries, States, Economic Systems, Laws and Regulations. All regions of the world now are made up of “Micro Democracies,” except Saudi Arabia and Switzerland the only countries that do not participate. These small Micro-Democracies can now be operated by elected Political Parties. These political parties such as Policy1st, which one of the main characters Ken works for, have their own set of agendas and platforms from which they campaign. Depending on their platform, people in “Centinals” choose which party they want to rule their district. Each Centinal is made up of 100,000 people. Also, the Political Parties are also competing to win the “Super-Majority” which is the overall winner of the world wide election.

The novel drops the reader right into the complexity of the world wide democratic system. For the first several chapters it might seem like you are putting together clues to figure out what is going on. Malka Older does not traditionally introduce us to her main characters like Ken and Mishima. But, she allows the reader to put together context clues to form their own image of the characters and eventually this new worldwide geopolitical construction. In the beginning of the text it might seem like a confusing read until Chapter 4. Through the eyes of the Character Ken, author Malka Older uses his experiences in what is the modern day urban center of Jakarta, Indonesia. Here, Ken describes his travels within this densely populated city to describe to the reading audience the complexity of the now global micro democracy.

With our complex geographical world today, even without global elections, it is tough to imagine traveling through the city of Jakarta, Indonesia easily. For Ken, he hays to worry about how the laws and regulations change on a moment to moment basis. He can do this with a little help from his “Information retina display” giving him real time data about the current centinal he is in. Now, Infomacracy details some of the complex rules and regulations in place in each centinal. Jakarta is a major urban area with a population of 9.1 Million inhabitants, but because of urban sprawl outside of the cities borders Indonesia itself has a total of 261 Million with this number growing steadily year after year. According to the laws of Infomacracy (every 100,000 being a new centinal) in 2017 Indonesia would have a total of 2,610 centinal Governments.

Even after reading chapter 4, Malka Older left many questions when it comes to issues like...  

Google Maps, Google, 2017, www.google.com/maps/place/Jakarta, Indonesia/@-5.9753832,106.3289725,228114m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x2e69f3e945e34b9d:0x100c5e82dd4b820!8m2!3d-6.17511!4d106.8650395.

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Older, Malka . “Know Your Parties! A List of Micro-Democratic Governments in Infomocracy and Null States.” Tor.com, 18 Sept. 2017, www.tor.com/2017/09/19/know-your-parties-a-list-of-micro-democratic-governments-in-infomocracy-and-null-states/.

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“Wonderful Indonesia.” Jakarta, 2017, www.indonesia.travel/gb/en/destinations/java/dki-jakarta#.