[liberationtech] Aggregation of Social Consensus by Information Theoretic Methods

[Peter Lindener]

Fellow Lib-Techys -

    Maybe we could start with the observation made by Von
Neumann–Morgenstern's utility
theorem<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann%E2%80%93Morgenstern_utility_theorem>that
up to an arbitrary scale factor, A voter's Ranking of preference over
a
choice space, is properly defined from an Information Theoretic perspective
along the real number line.

    This seem a completely reasonable assertion in the face of any
uncertainty of outcome  (unknown due to the uncertainty of input from other
voters).

   This is, contrary to the assertion sometimes still promoted by some, that
a voter's preference schedule is strictly ordinal by its nature "As there is
no other information".

   Recognizing that some are still struggling with the reality of Von
Neumann–Morgenstern's
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann%E2%80%93Morgenstern_utility_theorem>assertion
it seems will prove key in making real and insightful progress on
the nature of the ranked choice tallying problem in the face of Kenneth
Arrow <http://fsi.stanford.edu/people/kennethjarrow/>'s Impossibility
Theorem <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow%27s_impossibility_theorem>.

   -Peter


On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 3:21 PM, Peter Lindener <lindener.peter at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dear
>     Fellow Lib-Techys
>
>     I was somewhat under the impression, that computing  Ranked Choice
> Social Consensus, would seem to mater amid all of this questing for some
> form of liberation, i,e. that better resembles some sense of true
> democracy?....
> ...Am I missing something here?
>
>    My younger very bright Co-Author, Joey<http://motion.mee.ucsb.edu/%7Ejoey/website/voting_theory.html>on the
> paper we published together<http://www.votingmatters.org.uk/ISSUE27/I27P1.pdf>,
> suggests that the real miracle to work is during the consensus building
> phase just prior to making a more informed, thoughtful group decision.
>
>    In any case, eventually one seems to need to take some measure of the
> group's most preferred of alternatives over a Ranked Choice Space containing
> the very best thinking as to how to creatively address the issue at hand...
> ... If we would seem as a society to even be able to figure out how such
> would best be computed?......
> ...Do we have some kind of significant dilemma on our hands here?
>
>    It is my hope that there are a number of very bright minds on this list
> that might be interested in discussing the nature of this computational
> challenge....
> ...After all this list is @ Stanford, and I've never known the brighter
> minds there to run away from building world improving technology...
> ...In this case perhaps a FaceBook plugin that aggregates Social Consensus?
>
>    -Peter
>
>
>
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