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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>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? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Nick <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Nicholas S. Thompson<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Clark University<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/"><span style='color:#0563C1'>http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> Friam [mailto:friam-bounces@redfish.com] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Marcus Daniels<br><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, November 03, 2018 11:24 AM<br><b>To:</b> The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [FRIAM] gerrymandering algorithm question<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Nick writes:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>“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.”</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Marcus<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>