New Think Tank

[Jtalk4456]

I've come across several discussion in this forum that well exceed simple tech talk and border on philosophy and deeper understandings of politics. One such discussion lately has tipped me in favor of an idea I've had for a long time. Traditionally think tanks are either government entities of groups consisting of scientific businesses and experts, but despite the overwhelming qualifications, many times I've heard or had simple ideas that think tanks have not come up with coming from normal people. So why should think tanks be exclusinve to rich people and scientists? I want to start an online think tank with the following structure.

 

Ideas come in from the public, sorted into categories of problems chosen when the idea is submitted.

 

Filtering used to remove profanity, namecalling, etc

Filtering used to sort answers into groups of common answers

Filtering used to redirect answers going to the wrong category, not sure how

 

The main Think Tank Founders will look into the answers said the most first

After sorting out stupid answers that made it through other filters, basic research will be done surrounding each idea.

Then the ideas will be sent out to a broad range of scientists, teachers, and otherwise experts who have agreed to participate in this (expressed beyond this as the public review panel)

At the same time, answers being reviewed will be in a multiple answer poll for the public to upvote any they like.

No downvoting poll will exist, as it will be far too susceptible to trolling and political bias downvoting, though there will be a moderated comment section below answers

 

Combined with popular opinion, relevant comments and responses from the public review panel, a report on the merit of each answer will be created and posted on the page that holds the answer. This would not simply be the answer listed again saying it might work, this would be an extensive report evaluating real world scenarios on how this could be implemented, the possible outcomes and consequences, along with the Job and economic impact being highlighted as an especially important part. Since this would be an ongoing thing, the page would initially be empty until a number of responses from the review panel came in, and beyond that it would be updated with new relevant info and responses

 

When an answer has a great potential for fixing the problem, the Merit report would be submitted once more to the public review panel for scrutiny and, pending any changes needing to be made, it would be sent to higher levels of government and/or industry leaders or pretty much who it affects.

 

As an example of the procedure, let's examine the middle east peace

a bunch of people make answers for solutions

the ones saying muslims are terrorists and other profanity are filtered out

those saying that israel should just give up gaza will be filtered out, but the ones saying why palestine has right over the land and proposing something that could be offered in return for a peace treaty and giving the land to palestine, that would be an answer looked into and sorted accordingly

The ones saying subsidize electric cars on the state government level and penalize states with higher pollution levels would be redirected to energy and environment forums.

Similar answers will appear and be sorted together. An answer page will be created by the think tank founders with a moderated comment section open to the public.

An AI will collect and sort public comments and filter out the profanity. More detailed responses that constructively add to the conversation will be highlighted for review, and this will allow for changes to be made.

    Ex: as above a girl says give up gaze and we will do THIS

but someone else says yeah give up gaza and we'll give you THAT

The main answer page will be updates say the answer is to give up gaza to the palestines and provide something in return, such as THIS or THAT

(Maybe needing to separate that out into two answers for that ex, not sure

That and other answers as they grow will be reviewed by the tank members and sent out to a mass email list of participating panel members

responses gathered and public sentiment gathered and combined into an all exculsive report, posted on the page and also available for pdf download to the public to print off and read if they want

This report will be sent back to panel members for final touchups, redactions of any false statements, etc.

Report will be revised on the page as well, anyone in the public who has CHOSEN to OPT IN for email communication will be alerted to the report creation and any other important changes.

The final report along with other reports from highly regarded answers would be sent to, among others, The palestine gov., the israel gov., the UN, and government heads in the major allies of both countries

That's just an example, but you get the idea. As a few side points I would make, people would not need an account to comment on an answer but would require an account to participate in the polls. getting email communication of answers wouldn't require an account, but submitting an answer would require an account. This is more to allow us to ensure somehow that answers that get used and do good in the world would provide recognition back to the first person who put up the idea.

I fully believe that some of the best ideas come from children, due to their imagination and honesty, however since the internet is a cesspool of humanity wonderful place of rainbows and unicorns, accounts would be limited to 13 and above. Any younger wanting to submit ideas would need to submit through their parents.

What does everyone think, and would anyone else support the creation of said think tank?

I'm going to look into what it takes to make a traditional think tank in the meantime while you guys give me some feedback.

 

[OJTheAviator]

Would this be based in a certain country? If so, which one? It would be cool to have people running it from most nations and parts of the globe. Cool idea!

[Jtalk4456]

Well I wouldn't want it limited to a country, as a matter of fact, I would want the homepage to list problems and you could sort the problems by country. The hopes would be at least one person from every country joining in the main think tank group

[Canada EH]

1 hour ago, Jtalk4456 said:

Traditionally think tanks are either government entities of groups consisting of scientific businesses and exper

not necessarily scientific, it ranges over a broader spectrum then that.

and government, where do you get that from, never heard of such a think tank. governments do what they please at the expense of society, like wasteful spending without any input.

[Jtalk4456]

9 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

not necessarily scientific, it ranges over a broader spectrum then that.

depending on a loose definition of science. I consider economics to be an applied science, and many think tanks are made with economic experts

[Jtalk4456]

10 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

not necessarily scientific, it ranges over a broader spectrum then that.

Overall what do you think

[Jtalk4456]

I was hoping for more responses to this...

[TopHatProductions115]

I'm interested. This could act as an information analysis outlet potentially, reducing the amount of political spin that trickles in. The search for truth is a worthy cause  

[2FA]

Generally, think tanks are rather focused in their scope. Not only that, the tank is full of experts on that field with backgrounds in even more focused areas of that field. This sounds more like a question and answer forum unless you have an idea on how you would go about influencing policy of government and industry. besides simply submitting the stance to government/industry leaders.

 

I understand that you would like to make it so the masses are actually able to more directly influence policy but how would you handle mob mentality decisions?

4 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

Combined with popular opinion, relevant comments and responses from the public review panel, a report on the merit of each answer will be created and posted on the page that holds the answer. This would not simply be the answer listed again saying it might work, this would be an extensive report evaluating real world scenarios on how this could be implemented, the possible outcomes and consequences, along with the Job and economic impact being highlighted as an especially important part. Since this would be an ongoing thing, the page would initially be empty until a number of responses from the review panel came in, and beyond that it would be updated with new relevant info and responses

That's not so much a think tank as it is an open opinions survey, voting on the best submitted solution, and making it your official stance. It doesn't sound very organized to me nor dedicated to a specific area of research, thereby I have to question calling this a think tank. I'm not opposed to an organization like this existing but the naming makes me rather incredulous. If you decide on focusing the project on an specific area of interest, then yeah I would be interested.

[Jtalk4456]

13 hours ago, 2FA said:

Generally, think tanks are rather focused in their scope. Not only that, the tank is full of experts on that field with backgrounds in even more focused areas of that field. This sounds more like a question and answer forum unless you have an idea on how you would go about influencing policy of government and industry. besides simply submitting the stance to government/industry leaders.

 

I understand that you would like to make it so the masses are actually able to more directly influence policy but how would you handle mob mentality decisions?

That's not so much a think tank as it is an open opinions survey, voting on the best submitted solution, and making it your official stance. It doesn't sound very organized to me nor dedicated to a specific area of research, thereby I have to question calling this a think tank. I'm not opposed to an organization like this existing but the naming makes me rather incredulous. If you decide on focusing the project on an specific area of interest, then yeah I would be interested.

I get what you're saying but to clarify, while the answers could be submitted by the public, the think tank itself would also be doing research and submitting answers

Quote

After sorting out stupid answers that made it through other filters, basic research will be done surrounding each idea.

I shouldn't have said basic, lets just leave that at us doing research

Quote

this would be an extensive report evaluating real world scenarios on how this could be implemented, the possible outcomes and consequences, along with the Job and economic impact being highlighted as an especially important part.

This research and brainstorming surrounding each solution along with us submitting our own answers would be why I was considering this as a think tank. As for whether it has to be called a think tank or not, i couldn't care less, that's just the closest to the idea I could think of. As for it being focused to one category of problems, That would defeat the purpose of my idea. I want to see anyone able to submit their ideas on how to make this world better. I don't want to be limited to one topic. Someone somewhere is always thinking of big ideas, but if they have no place to let that idea be embraced, it will sit in that persons head and it might be the end to world hunger or the solution to the energy crisis or the cure to cancer. If we rely only on existent think tanks, a lot of ideas will continue to be ignored

[2FA]

10 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

I get what you're saying but to clarify, while the answers could be submitted by the public, the think tank itself would also be doing research and submitting answers

I shouldn't have said basic, lets just leave that at us doing research

This research and brainstorming surrounding each solution along with us submitting our own answers would be why I was considering this as a think tank. As for whether it has to be called a think tank or not, i couldn't care less, that's just the closest to the idea I could think of. As for it being focused to one category of problems, That would defeat the purpose of my idea. I want to see anyone able to submit their ideas on how to make this world better. I don't want to be limited to one topic. Someone somewhere is always thinking of big ideas, but if they have no place to let that idea be embraced, it will sit in that persons head and it might be the end to world hunger or the solution to the energy crisis or the cure to cancer. If we rely only on existent think tanks, a lot of ideas will continue to be ignored

Okay going off of this then, the group overall would have to be very large compared to traditional think tanks. Probably 100s of members versus a couple or few dozen. How do you see the organization attracting that many people and being able to pay them? Research isn't cheap and is the reason why pretty much all scientists are backed by government, educational institutions, or companies.

[Jtalk4456]

1 hour ago, 2FA said:

Okay going off of this then, the group overall would have to be very large compared to traditional think tanks. Probably 100s of members versus a couple or few dozen. How do you see the organization attracting that many people and being able to pay them? Research isn't cheap and is the reason why pretty much all scientists are backed by government, educational institutions, or companies.

Well I might be sunk on that, not sure honestly how to approach that problem

[TopHatProductions115]

Or we could all do this from the kindness of our own hearts and do it without pay. I would  

[Jtalk4456]

3 minutes ago, TopHatProductions115 said:

Or we could all do this from the kindness of our own hearts and do it without pay. I would  

That's kinda what I was going for, but i know that most people won't

[2FA]

34 minutes ago, TopHatProductions115 said:

Or we could all do this from the kindness of our own hearts and do it without pay. I would  

Researchers are full time positions and require money to survive just like anyone else. That's akin to telling an artist they are being paid in experience by doing your commission for free.

[Jtalk4456]

38 minutes ago, 2FA said:

Researchers are full time positions and require money to survive just like anyone else. That's akin to telling an artist they are being paid in experience by doing your commission for free.

At the same time with enough participants, the time and effort required for this would be almost nothing. For example one guy gets the answer and checks to see if it has been tried before and whatever he finds he sends along to the next person who looks at economic cost, etc. With enough breakdown of tasks, it could be done for free

[Christophe Corazza]

3 hours ago, 2FA said:

Research isn't cheap and is the reason why pretty much all scientists are backed by government, educational institutions, or companies.

Modern research studies indeed necessitate substantial costs!

 

13 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

At the same time with enough participants, the time and effort required for this would be almost nothing. For example one guy gets the answer and checks to see if it has been tried before and whatever he finds he sends along to the next person who looks at economic cost, etc. With enough breakdown of tasks, it could be done for free

Scientists are not socially clumsy people with white/grey hair, a lab coat, wearing glasses or goggles, perhaps staring intently into a microscope, devoted only to their work

 

Apart from the special research equipment, good research typically takes much time to be completed. Conducting research is always an exploration of the unknown, and never progresses in an automatic manner. Perhaps you have heard about the so-called “scientific method for research”, wrongly leading you to view experiments as cut and dried exercises that always work as planned; nothing could be farther from the truth! Not all experiments work, and many of those that do work proceed in a different manner than expected. Acquiring one unanticipated result sometimes necessitates undertaking several new experiments in order to pin down the whys and wherefores of the earlier new data. The long time needed for conducting research work costs lots of money. 

[Jtalk4456]

Just now, Christophe Corazza said:

Modern research studies indeed necessitate substantial costs!

 

Scientists are not socially clumsy people with white/grey hair, a lab coat, wearing glasses or goggles, perhaps staring intently into a microscope, devoted only to their work

 

Apart from the special research equipment, good research typically takes much time to be completed. Conducting research is always an exploration of the unknown, and never progresses in an automatic manner. Perhaps you have heard about the so-called “scientific method for research”, wrongly leading you to view experiments as cut and dried exercises that always work as planned; nothing could be farther from the truth! Not all experiments work, and many of those that do work proceed in a different manner than expected. Acquiring one unanticipated result sometimes necessitates undertaking several new experiments in order to pin down the whys and wherefores of the earlier new data. The long time needed for conducting research work costs lots of money. 

Perhaps you didn't read what I wrote above that you quoted stating that the workload could be split and delegated greatly, so that while the total workload might be as monumental as any scientific process filled with failures and unexpected results, but with the INDIVIDUAL workload would be minimal with enough volunteers being part of the process. Also if it gets popular and enough people are answering, it would be super easy to implement a donation platform when people answer questions if we needed, for example, to pay a lab to test something