Seismocracy
Are you sick to the eye-teeth of quote-unquote representational democracy? Do you feel as though your voice isn’t being heard? As though your scream is but the whisper of a pin prick against the din of the events haunting the world? Would you wield this anger in protest but for the risk to your body by over-funded and under-sanctioned police forces, or the effect being arrested may play on your career or social life? Feel trapped in this state of affairs we’ve had unfurled for us by time? The veins of capitalism and “democracy” running through us so densely that we’re simply puppets held aloft by the fibres of their overarching existence.
Well c’mon let’s try fuck it up pull a little back level them with a threat that beyond the limitations of our own collectivity they have little recourse to punish or curtail.
Seismocracy is a democratic measure of the energy each person has to release upon the world in a sustained burst of jumping over the course of a minute (or less, or more). Theoretically, with enough people jumping at once, at least in the PNW, we could trigger The Big One, or at least level the threat of doing so at whatever government for whatever demands we may have to prevent such an eventuality.
The notion of triggering a megathrust earthquake, I mean not only do I not know quite enough about plate tectonics to know to what extent this is even possible, is the acme of the potential of seismocracy. Obviously nobody wants the destruction and devastation of a huge earthquake to happen, least of all where one lives, but “nobody actively wants the destruction of the planet” is a statement that stands to reason until you look around. Seismocracy could also be an alternative to lower-ticket, ballot-based democracy. The temporal nature of it, as well as the ease with which citizens can excercise it, allows for jump-votes to be enacted on particular subjects and issues in abundance. In the course of half an hour, often the time it takes to crawl one eighth of a voting queue, people could vote on up to 100 different issues, dependent on the time allocated for jumping to each particular subject. This is all also theoretical and highly subject to the interest of your average civilian, which like haha look around I doubt it.
The core concept is a potentially violent (with the collection of a sizeable enough collective) but individually arbitrary physical activity that utilises one’s personal energy stores and capacity in aid of democratic/popular action. Only with the collective pledged protest of scores of people do we expect the government to act upon whatever mandate the pledged jumpers give to them. I.e. only if destruction is possible.
Having crunched some numbers, it seems as though the potential of triggering a 9.0 earthquake is slim to nil, though I reiterate I have scant seismic knowledge as to what might trigger such an event. Should it take a 5.0 to awaken a 9.0, yeah it ain’t looking great for seismocracy, should it take a 3.0, however, now we’re within the realms of possibility. I also note that the demographic density of our jumpers will likely play a role in creating an epicenter in whatever tremor. This among many other things I intend to consult a seismologist about.
Please find below some preliminary calculations as to the size of earthquake possible from a certain number of people:
All of this math is founded on the notion that one Joule-metre is equivalent to a single Newton-metre in a 1:1 ratio (source), since the energy of jumping I guess is largely measured in Newtons and the Richter scale of earthquakes is built on Joules.
So,,,,, the amount of energy exerted on the ground when your average human jumps is ~1600N
The amount of energy released for earthquakes of magnitude (source):
3.0: 794,328,235 J
4.0: 25,118,864,315 J
5.0: 794,328,234,724 J
So by dividing the number of joules released by relative sizes of earthquakes by the number of Newtons released when an average individual jumps, we can find the equivalent number of people jumping needed to release as much energy as such an such an earthquake.
SO,,,,,,, (and these numbers are subject to inquiry, despite how hopeless they may seem) to achieve the following magnitudes of earthquakes by jumping, we would need collectives of the following populations:::::::
5.0: 496,455,147 wishful thinking
4.0: 15,699,290 the approximate population of Karachi
3.0: 496,455 now we’re getting somewhere! (though still wishful thinking)
For Vancouver context::::::
In 2025, socialist Sean Orr won a city council seat with 34,448 votes (source).
If everybody who voted for Sean Orr in the 2025 by-election jumped at the same time in Vancouver, they would release 55,116,800 J of energy, this would register somewhere between a 2.0 and a 2.5 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale.
So it’s basically all seeming like small change right and the like three people who read this website are gonna trigger nothing more than deep feelings of inconsequentiality, BUT, you know, we gotta stay hopeful. Find below a list of population sizes around the West Coast Cascadia subduction zone and their resulting earthquake magnitudes if the populations of these places all happened to jump at the same time:
Vancouver (metro): 2,642,825 -> 3.5
B.C.: 5,719,961 -> 3.7
Washington: 7,958,180 -> 3.8
Oregon: 4,272,371 -> 3.6
Bay Area: 7,520,000 -> 3.8
Los Angeles: 3,898,747 -> 3.6
West Coast U.S.: 53,848,093 -> 4.2
Again, I’m not sure how population densities or lack thereof will effect the conversion of these joules into seismic activity, lacking a traditional epicenter, but I would guess the results are likely inflated and if such and such a number of people decided to jump in their usual location, without gathering together, you can probably halve these expectations, and exponentially too, thanks Richter.
Take note that should the population of Venice embrace seismocracy through pledges, they could probably sink the whole city. Woulda been nice for Bezos’s wedding.
Besides the point. Seismocracy is a SYMBOLIC, PHYSICAL, HUMANISTIC, SACRIFICIAL rejection of a representative democracy that has been coopted by capitalism and is no longer used in the interest of the average citizen of whatever country.
One can still vote on voting day, as to make change in one’s state is important, but also one can jump to enact one’s disdain for the current way of the world.
Specific times for jumps are yet to come, this whole project is still in its germinal stage.
But basically the idea is that it’s protest that cannot be punished, for by it’s very nature, if it were violent (i.e. triggered a major earthquake), it would have established a mandate by the sheer number of people who would have had to have participated in it. Any event of this size, would be regarded as a ‘Quorum Event’. Ideally it would not happen and the number of participants would be registered as ‘pledges’, not as actual jumpers, since we don’t actually want to trigger a devastating event, we would just want to show the powers that be that we would have the numbers and the will to sacrifice to cause untold devastation. But looking at the numbers above, this is all pipedream anywayyyysss.
Some pitfalls of seismocracy:
Ableist
If one can’t jump, one can’t participate in seismocracy is the basic seeming of the whole concept. Ideally this can be remedied, as this is a politics for everyone to have the mass of their body and their feelings be felt. Either other ways an individual can express energy onto the ground can be devised, be it pounding, or falling onto a dense but protective layer, or a technology could be designed that exerts one’s mass onto the ground for them. Workshop phase, please give notes..
Not every jump is equal
Obviously every human body is different and weighs different amounts and jumps differently etc etc. This detracts from the equality of everyone’s votes. This ought not encourage weight gain, but collectivity, while the difference in Newtons exerted on the ground may vary from person to person, I think it’s prob gonna be pretty slight. Those concerned about the energy differential ought to gather more closely with fellow jumpers to maximise their epicentered density, or simply wear heavy boots.
Capitalistic interests
Much like how the interests of capitalism sway elections with vast chunks of investment to their preferred outcomes, the rich and wealthy of the world could rent cranes and other heavy machinery to exert additional mass onto the earth in the interest of whatever seismic vote they may be participating in. This is obviously not cool and should be treated as rule breaking. How to enforce that everybody jump with just the weight of their own body and clothes, I’m not sure. It’ll introduce the idea of polling places which would help the density problem, but probably also incite indifference and too much organisation is a bad look.
Getting everyone to agree
Obvious shortfall is that to find a cause that enough people will get behind to trigger any sort of rumble is gonna be tricky. A manifesto could be drawn up but fuck we’ve ultimately got it pretty good here in BC to be threatening fucking it all up with an earthquake. An initial cause that could be taken by seismocracy could be the way representational democracy works, before any other issue, alternatively, it could be in protest of certain logging plans or particular environmental setbacks, (something people must care about but must not know how to protest). Alternatively, votes could be placed on individual, small issues, and the resulting seismic readings for each one could be how votes for certain bills are passed. Like a clap-o-meter, or a massive polygraph test.
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