Premises

Some of the premises underlying this project:
 * Current democratic processes are badly broken.
 * Advances in technology make it possible to design much better democratic processes.
 * This is something which needs to be initiated at the grassroots level, and can be initiated by individual coders (working alone or together).
 * New processes need to be tested with small groups before they are used at a scale with large potential losses.
 * Having accurate information about the trustworthiness of other individuals is a key element to creating any kind of systemic change that doesn't just trade one form of disempowerment for another.
 * The best way for any given individual to get this information is to consult their (existing) friends.
 * These are the people you've already decided to trust, whose actions and expressions feel right and consistent with the idea that they care.

Objections

 * Q: P2P reputation be gamed for espionage
 * A: The question is not whether it cannot be gamed at all; the question is whether it is less vulnerable to gaming than existing systems.
 * A: The systems discussed here are not aimed at keeping secrets, but at enabling wise consensus-building among large numbers of people.
 * It can support subsystems that are aimed at secrecy and privacy.
 * Q: There are already organizations dedicated to helping people.
 * A: There are many, many people who still need help (and this number appears to be growing). We need solutions that can be generalized and/or replicated.