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Re: Math and the electoral college's virtue
Posted:
Nov 14, 2000 7:10 PM
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Jim Dars <jim_dars@email.msn.com> a ÃÂécrit dans le message :
3a0e61ba@defiant.btitelecom.net...
>
> and then you
> >>randomly (uniformly) select an individual vote from all the votes cast
and
> >>make the decision based solely on that.
> >
> Hi All,
>
> Long, long ago (about 50 years) I read a science fiction story wherein a
> computer selected a single individual and he would decide the election.
(I
> don't remember if the computer used intelligent or random selection --- I
> believe the individual was the "most" representative of the population.)
> The guy was nervous, of course, and didn't sleep well. A government
> official came by and asked him what he thought of the price of eggs, etc.
> Alas, I remember not the story title, author, or outcome,
It's a classical Isaac Asimov story (1955). Called "Franchise" ,IIRC, it is
the story of one Normal Muller, selected by Multivac as the typical elector,
indeed. At the end, from his answers to the official questionnary , the huge
computer deduces what would be the result of the election, but , of course,
the guy is not allowed to know his own "vote" before the official
publication of the results.
>
> Best wishes, Jim
>
>
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