• zzx@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    2 months ago

    Ah yes my favorite authoritative source on the mathematics of democracy: a YouTube video.

    Fuck off

    • save_the_humans@leminal.space
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      2 months ago

      The dude makes some pretty legit videos. He has a PhD in physics education research. Using YouTube is just a sign of the time we live in.

      Mathematics is, in a sense, about abstraction and generalization, and the video covers an ideal, or set of axioms, you’d want from a voting system. This perfect system was proven to be impossible and the researcher was granted the Nobel prize in economics. In short, there can be no perfect voting system. You can also say mathematics is about proofs, and, no matter how unintuitive something might seem, it leaves no room for doubt. It doesn’t hardly matter if the source comes from a YouTube video.

    • Groggeroo@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      2 months ago

      Veritasium is legit, they cite their sources and explain concepts exceptionally well.

      However, I don’t think the conclusion of the video is “Democracy is mathematically impossible”, but rather “perfect representation in a democracy” is mathematically impossible (but can still be much much better than FPTP).

      The video basically goes through all the top voting systems and explains their pros and cons and the history of the mathematicians who invented the systems.

      • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        2 months ago

        but rather “perfect representation in a democracy” is mathematically impossible (but can still be much much better than FPTP).

        It’s not even that. The more accurate title would be “Ranked voting types cannot mathematically meet all of the requirements of democracy this one guy made”

        The whole video I wanted to yell out “so switch to approval voting”.