John,
There are many important things that can not be modeled mathematically. This is
especially true for the non-computable. We have relational math and category
theory for that, but they will not provide the type of model you seem to be asking
for.
Don
John J Kineman wrote:
> I agree completely. My latest communication says essentially the same.
> My concern is on how to mathematically model a large-scale survey of
> public political preferences to maximize representativeness in the
> outcome. The feasibility of implementing that under US law is secondary,
> and interesting only in terms of context considerations.
>
> Francis Heylighen wrote:
> >
> > At 15:02 -0800 12/1/0, Norman K. McPhail wrote:
> > >I submit that if we use the standard of what "...most of the public
> > >would prefer..." to change the whole structure of our constitutional
> > >form of self governance, the social, political, economic and cultural
> > >fabric of the American experiment would quickly unravel. You seem to
> > >buy the Gore mantra that the supreme authority in this nation ought to
> > >be making sure all the votes are counted.
> > >
> > >Do you really think Mr. Gore cares that much about counting votes?
> > >Can't you see that the main thing he cares about is winning the
> > >presidency? To me, he seems to be willing to sacrifice anything that
> > >gets in his way including the clear and unambiguous U. S. Constitutional
> > >provisions for electing a president.
> > >
> > [...]
> >
> > >I don't think this would be Constitutional. Nowhere in the Constitution
> > >is Congress given the power to tell the state legislatures how to
> > >determine the way they select Electors. As I understand it, Congress
> > >did pass a law after the 1876 election saying how they would deal with
> > >counting Electors. In addition, they even went so far as to spell out
> > >in detail what rules they would use in the event of a controversy
> > >regarding the Electors sent by a given state. What leads you to suspect
> > >that Congress could require proportional representation of Electors?
> >
> > I would like to remind our estimated subscribers that this is a
> > mailing list about cybernetic philosophy, not about present
> > politicial debates. Applying cybernetical reasoning to analyse the
> > Florida situation is an appropriate subject for a PCP-discuss
> > message, but discussing the apparent motivations of the candidates,
> > the pecularities of the US legislation, and one's personal political
> > preferences is not. I can understand the temptation to get from the
> > one into the other, but please keep your discussions focused on
> > cybernetics.There are more than enough other channels to discuss the
> > political situation. Also take into account that for people outside
> > the US this is not necessarily interesting or even understandable.
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________________
> > Francis Heylighen <fheyligh@vub.ac.be> -- Center "Leo Apostel"
> > Free University of Brussels, Krijgskundestr. 33, 1160 Brussels, Belgium
> > tel +32-2-6442677; fax +32-2-6440744; http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
> > ========================================
> > Posting to pcp-discuss@lanl.gov from Francis Heylighen <fheyligh@vub.ac.be>
> ========================================
> Posting to pcp-discuss@lanl.gov from "John J Kineman" <John.J.Kineman@noaa.gov>
========================================
Posting to pcp-discuss@lanl.gov from Don Mikulecky <mikuleck@hsc.vcu.edu>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Dec 06 2000 - 14:07:41 GMT