  Direct democracy is often proposed as a possible solution to the 21st-century
problems of democracy. However, this suggestion clashes with the size and
complexity of 21st-century societies, entailing an excessive cognitive burden
on voters, who would have to submit informed opinions on an excessive number of
issues. In this paper I argue for the development of voting avatars, autonomous
agents debating and voting on behalf of each citizen. Theoretical research from
artificial intelligence, and in particular multiagent systems and computational
social choice, proposes 21st-century techniques for this purpose, from the
compact representation of a voter's preferences and values, to the development
of voting procedures for autonomous agents use only.
