Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks! I should have put that in the post in the first place
We've updated it now, and put the open access link in the toptext. Thanks for posting this!
Thanks for correcting!
SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers
21–30 of 47 posts
Re: SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers
#22Thank you for this, I'm going to give it a read. I am unfortunately very bearish on politics in general. All politicians think short term, look after themselves, their families, their friends, and their interests first; Facts, and working simulations just get in the way. (I am still looking for a politician that is an exception to this rule) Human nature is unfortunately real, and the only way I can see to "solve pol…
People sure tried. But really the book traces how that happened. I think it became easier to imagine politics working like a computer than with people, like how computer reasoning and rational choice became an ideal to measure other political thought.
Re: SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers
#23Thank you for this, I'm going to give it a read. I am unfortunately very bearish on politics in general. All politicians think short term, look after themselves, their families, their friends, and their interests first; Facts, and working simulations just get in the way. (I am still looking for a politician that is an exception to this rule) Human nature is unfortunately real, and the only way I can see to "solve pol…
I think a better way to run a democracy might be to have our leaders chosen at random. Sounds like a joke, but I’m serious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition
There is such an enduring link between democracy, elections and math. What I interesting was the focus on trying to model politics correctly rather than "better" with computers. I dug up some good games and programs from the early days that I have to put online sometime.
Re: SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers
#24Thank you for this, I'm going to give it a read. I am unfortunately very bearish on politics in general. All politicians think short term, look after themselves, their families, their friends, and their interests first; Facts, and working simulations just get in the way. (I am still looking for a politician that is an exception to this rule) Human nature is unfortunately real, and the only way I can see to "solve pol…
I get the bearish case but it is easy to forget how much difference good vs bad politics can have and that politics isn't primarily a game of facts. It is an optimization problem under many unknowns and its history is littered with academic theories debunked and hard won compromises.
I mean it's debatable that it's an optimization problem but it's been tried. One thread in the book is the reaction the Limits of Growth. That model extrapolated trends, very abstractly, to predict the future. A successor, the Latin American World Model or the Bariloche Model, tried to imagine an ideal world and optimize for it. Very different approaches and a good question to ask when you hear someone talking about computer simulations.
Re: SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers
#25Can anyone tell me if it acknowledges the dialectic?
Its got sublimes for cheap.
Re: SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers
#26Thank you for this, I'm going to give it a read. I am unfortunately very bearish on politics in general. All politicians think short term, look after themselves, their families, their friends, and their interests first; Facts, and working simulations just get in the way. (I am still looking for a politician that is an exception to this rule) Human nature is unfortunately real, and the only way I can see to "solve pol…
Exactly right, and same for society in general. There’s a degree to which humans work okay in their primitive state (hunter-gatherers, small homogenous communities), but once scaling and technology enters the picture we’re 100% toast without a fundamental recalibration towards genuinely caring for one another.
Not at all, people incapable of caring for others can also contribute wonderfully but they operate entirely different. It is arguably mean to expect our behavior from people who feel nothing for other people and your generosity is weakness to be exploited. They do however have great respect for that what scares them shitless which can be upgraded to unmatched respect if the scary thing helps them when they most need it. Could be a person or an organization. In the old days they have wives. lmfao
Re: SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers
#27Thank you for this, I'm going to give it a read. I am unfortunately very bearish on politics in general. All politicians think short term, look after themselves, their families, their friends, and their interests first; Facts, and working simulations just get in the way. (I am still looking for a politician that is an exception to this rule) Human nature is unfortunately real, and the only way I can see to "solve pol…
"solving politics" is nonsensical beyond winning elections.
Most political issues don't have a "solution", they have various trade offs that are contingent.
Re: SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers
#28Thank you for this, I'm going to give it a read. I am unfortunately very bearish on politics in general. All politicians think short term, look after themselves, their families, their friends, and their interests first; Facts, and working simulations just get in the way. (I am still looking for a politician that is an exception to this rule) Human nature is unfortunately real, and the only way I can see to "solve pol…
Theres a big problem, which has been described by many philosophers and political theorists (from socrates to Machiavelli) which is that politicians are first and foremost self-serving.
Most political work is not done for the population as a whole but for the own continuing of the political class and personal enrichment. Yes, sometimes these incentives align with the interests of the constituents. But if politics is about compromise and you have two groups with opposing views whose only common ground is "we are all politicians here" its most likely that a lot of the agreements are going to benefit the political class.
There's people arguing for sortition and sortition (at least as citizens assemblies, the way the OECD describes) tries to solve this problem. As people go into an assembly and don't have other incentives than to defend their own positions with regards to a certain topic of discussions. Its not a permanent body and that gets rid of some of the perverse incentives of politicians.
Re: SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers
#29I didn't read the book but the problem in politics is always the silent majority.
On the internet, the 5% of haters and the 5% of the biggest fans mostly comment. 90% of the people don't, the silent majority.
How are you gonna model what those who don't give an opinion say?
Polls? Remember the USA 2016 election where Trump won?
Re: SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers
#30Thank you for this, I'm going to give it a read. I am unfortunately very bearish on politics in general. All politicians think short term, look after themselves, their families, their friends, and their interests first; Facts, and working simulations just get in the way. (I am still looking for a politician that is an exception to this rule) Human nature is unfortunately real, and the only way I can see to "solve pol…
If you are still in the camp of "all politicians...", you are part of the problem.
Its a shame that midterms are going to likely swing to the Dem side, because the thing that needs to happen is for Republicans to hold power for 10+ years to run the country into the ground so people like you feel real strife and stop living in your own little fantasy world where you pretend like you are morally superior above others.