"Having to charge it in the middle of the conversation when you want it would rather defeat the purpose but - I frequently realize something while I'm talking with people and it'd be really convenient to just get it moving immediately instead of writing it down or trying to recall it later."

"I just organize my life so I can always write things down."

"It's a bit weird to write things down in the middle of a cocktail party."

"I'm the Queen and they can deal."

"I suppose that would do it. You and Mitros will not be doing any of that silly democracy nonsense?"

"Seems premature before everyone else has the correct values. I don't actually think one of them is 'democracy' per se, do you?"

"'a government that can be changed by their engagement', I think yes. 'one person, one vote', no, not especially."

"Mitros will reschedule a surprising variety of things to have more time to sit around waiting for people to come yell at him about stuff."

"I can't say I've been tempted to do that, there are too many people and it wouldn't filter very well."

"We'll have to streamline the system as the population grows. He just really likes lounging on his throne listening intently to people's problems!"

"I imagine he would! And everyone feels safe coming in to talk about them -"

"He's got a good track record at not lashing out. Even when someone managed to make his father listen to a problem the lashings-out were typically verbal and/or neglectful, not 'regret you came' level of bad. His grandfather was pretty benign too."

"That's a good kind of credibility to have."

"Yes."

"We're not there yet. Maybe someday."

"I know you execute people for a lot of crimes, but for showing up and complaining?"

"No, definitely not, but - it's not likely that your problem will get solved and someone powerful who is annoyed with you can complicated your life even if they can't arrest you - email your employer to ask how you got the time off work to come bother them, say - and that doesn't have to happen very often at all to make the calculus not worth it."

"Huh."

"Our government's official channels for doing things don't do much, and most people don't have a way to learn the channels that do work. This is partially by design, but it's still really annoying."

"By design because there's too many people?"

"Only a little bit. Mostly by design because we don't actually value their input and because there's more - plausible deniability and space for string-pulling - if everything happens through informal channels."

"Wow."

"One of the things Cam commented on was that - his society when he was born had lots of the same problems as ours but much less endorsedly, which made fixing them easier."

"Yeah - anyone who does want to keep those things has to operate with more constraints, anyone who doesn't can get more support and resources if they have a way to use them..."

"People will generally agree that you are reasonable if you aim to change them, instead of considering it a bizarre foreign imposition -"