[EM] non-deterministic methods

Forest Simmons simmonfo at up.edu
Mon Dec 27 16:26:32 PST 2004


As Jobst recently pointed out, non-deterministic methods have not been 
adequately studied or promoted, considereing their potential contribution 
to fairness and to strategy free voting.

Consider, for example the following cycle of three:

   34 ABC
   33 BCA
   33 CAB

Though most methods would give the win to A, it seems like B and C have 
nearly as much claim as A.

What if we tossed two coins, and gave the win to B if they both came up 
heads, to C if they both came up tails, and to A otherwise.

This would give A a fifty percent chance of winning, and divide the other 
fifty percent equally between B and C.

Would this be fair?

Does it give too much probability to A ?  or too little?

Some might say that A, B, and C should be more equal in probability, since 
the faction sizes are nearly equal.

But the determinists would say that they should be even less equal: A 
should get one hundred percent of the probability.

Who is right?  And how should we assign the probabilities?

Forest



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