[FRIAM] gerrymandering algorithm question

[Nick Thompson]

Oh, I absolutely agree that we could design districts to maximize any variable we wanted.  And with a little luck, we might maximize a couple, or even three.  But inevitably, we will encounter some variable that is negatively correlated with those we already maximize, so even we philosopher kings will be dissatisfied with the result.  

 

So, you philosopher-kings out there:  if you were designing districts out there, how would you do it.  How about all districts at-large?  Ranked choice voting?  How about requiring all districts to match the state-wide political distribution of the whole state and redistricting after every election?  Seriously.  How would you do it? 

 

Nick 

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

 <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

 

From: Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2018 11:24 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] gerrymandering algorithm question

 

Nick writes:

 

“I don’t mean to say that “fair districts” aren’t possible.  I just mean to say that I, as your philosopher-king, could not design them.”

 

Wasn’t there a recent effort by the MIT Sloan school to redesign the school bus routes in Boston?   They managed to reduce the cost and time of the routes by a large amount, but then many complained because it didn’t reflect the underlying class structure of the community and the preferences of the richer communities.

 

One can design an optimization to balance any set of goals.  It’s just that some of the goals we don’t talk about.  They are wired-in to our reptile brain as baseline expectations and not reflected in the political conversations of dinner parties.  

 

Marcus

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