We cannot even build a half-functional electronic voting machine! Science fiction from the 60's through the late 70's is populated with dozens of dystopias based on surveillence, instant polling, instant voting, virtual meetings, avatars and nearly every other bit of technology we have just 'discovered'. The benefit of these novels is that they took a seemingly good idea and showed how it could be twisted into something that has nearly the opposite effect.
What if someone created a thousand virtual identies and had them participate in a virtual meeting? Could they sway opinion? Could the influence a vote?
If I have time, I may dig up some of these old novels. It is sad to remember the storyline but not the title or author. One was about a society where the entire populace was polled on major decisions. It sure sounded good but the government began to respond to the polls, manifesting itself in dramatic policy swings. Eventually, someone discoved that asking the right questions could influence the poll of subsequent questions. The dramatic swings did stabalize but the opinion of the populace was ultimately unimportant since they were just reflecting back the answer they were programmed to give.
If we had been more cautious in implementing todays Credit/Debit system, we probably would not have the identity theft problem we have today. See The Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison, written in the 60's, for some early warnings of an digital-based identity system.
