[EM] The tree is known by its fruits.

[Richard Lung]

Kristofer, you are repeating yourself! And you don't have my excuse of 
old age. So, I refer you again to HG Wells: The Elements of 
Reconstruction, 1916.
Most of his books are available from Project Gutenberg. I did a 
bibliography, with quotes, on his election method writings. (in my book 
Scientific Method of Elections). You think he was all politics and knew 
nothing about science?
Science without a conscience is so far unscientific.
I have written another book on your complaint about the distinction 
between science and politics: Science is Ethics as Electics.


Richard Lung.

On 08/10/2017 13:21, Kristofer Munsterhjelm wrote:
> On 10/08/2017 01:26 PM, Richard Lung wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> The tree is known by its fruits.
>>
>> So, election methods cannot be perfect. Whoever said they could? This
>> superficial conclusion has caused immense mischief to the improvement of
>> election methods. The Plant report eagerly seized on it, to justify
>> digging their heels in, or dumping, half a dozen dud voting systems on
>> the British public. New Zealandtook their cue from Plant, in their Royal
>> Commission on election systems. And now Canadais blithely
>> following.
>>
>> Imperfection is in the voters knowledge of who to elect. They must act
>> on imperfect information. And their choices must be probabilities. An
>> election is a statistical summation with margins of error. Election
>> method is improved by further marginalising the errors. Imperfection is
>> not a conclusion about election methods, it is a premise, on which they
>> are founded.
>
> This all seems to be a matter of politics, as it were. The 
> imperfection of voting methods mean that you have to choose which is 
> best based on what behavior and criteria you value.
>
> Similarly, the kind of people who have a vested interest in the status 
> quo can adjust their arguments to fit a desired conclusion (instead of 
> the other way around). That there's no perfect method gives enough 
> wiggle room to say "but it just so happens that Plurality is the best 
> according to what I consider important, which has nothing to do with 
> the fact that Plurality got me here to begin with".
>

-- 
Richard Lung.
http://www.voting.ukscientists.com
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