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Re: Math and the electoral college's virtue
Posted:
Nov 12, 2000 10:23 PM
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In article <gerry-289BA1.13231713112000@[137.111.1.11]>, Gerry Myerson
<gerry@mpce.mq.edu.au> wrote:
:In article <8uhgqv$b80$1@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk>, "Dan Goodman"
:<dog@fcbobDOTdemon.co.uk> wrote:
:
:> I came up with an interesting idea which I haven't really had much
:> time to play with yet, the idea of "random democracy". Rather than
:> choosing the president (or whatever) based on who has the most votes
:> (be they electoral college or individual votes), you get everyone to
:> vote, and then you randomly (uniformly) select an individual vote
:> from all the votes cast and make the decision based solely on that.
:
:Many years ago someone wrote a short story based on a similar idea.
:The premise was that some day computers would be so good at
:modeling social behavior that they would be able to select the one
:American who most closely models the entire electorate; then, by
:asking that one elector a number of questions about his or her
:opinions on various matters the computer would be able to decide
:whom the country really wanted to be the next President.
:
:The story must go back at least 35 years, maybe even 45 - wish I
:could remember the title, who wrote it, ....
Isaac Asimov! Who knew better (but it made a grand story). Instead of
being known as the "Gore" administration, it became known as the "Smith"
administration, where Smith was the elector.
--Ron Bruck
--
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