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Re: Math and the electoral college's virtue
Posted:
Nov 12, 2000 10:28 PM
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On Mon, 13 Nov 2000, Gerry Myerson 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, ....
Asimov, I believe. I'm fairly certain the story involves Multivac, which
is an Asimov invention. Plus, Multivac knowing everything about the
populace is a standard theme for Asimov stories involving
it. Unfortunately, I don't remember the title of the book in which it was
printed, nor do I have it in my apartment. However, *searches* maybe it
was "The Ten-Second Election" (Omni, Nov 1984, p. 112) You can check the
alt.books.isaac-asimov newsgroup, if you're really interested.
Steve L
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