[EM] Finding SociallyBest. Is it impossible?

[Peter de Blanc]

> Perhaps some artificial inteligence tool, like neural networks or genetic 
> algorithms, or a combination of both, could be used to search SociallyBest 
> (zero BR), or at least get near it. If such formula is found, it could be 
> truly complex or iloggical, something like a "black box" voting method, 
> but mathematically very good.

Zero BR is impossible with strategic voters; that would mean electing the 
candidate that maximizes aggregate utility. But if that's what you're doing, 
then voters will be motivated to lie about their utility functions. It 
doesn't matter what sort of contortions you use in designing the method.

With honest, perfectly introspective voters, you could just ask everyone to 
report their utility functions and sum them up. But such voters are a 
fantasy.

The difficulty with evolving a voting method is that you don't know what 
strategic voting would look like. Maybe you could evolve the voting 
strategies too, but I expect you'd have pretty major issues with local 
optima.

Peter de Blanc