{"id":7014,"date":"2021-08-06T14:14:16","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T14:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1363199"},"modified":"2021-08-06T14:14:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T14:14:16","slug":"algorithms-are-providing-a-way-to-fairly-select-citizens-assemblies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=7014","title":{"rendered":"Algorithms are providing a way to fairly select citizens\u2019 assemblies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Citizens\u2019 assemblies are having a moment. Growing distrust in governments and experts has revived the ancient Greek method of empowering the public to participate in politics.<\/p>\n

The model is now gaining traction around the world. In the UK<\/a> and France<\/a>, for example, citizens\u2019 assemblies have been convened to deliberate responses to climate change.<\/p>\n

But selecting the members of these bodies is a complicated task. Ideally, citizens\u2019 assemblies should be both representative and randomly selected. Balancing these two requirements is challenging as the volunteers tend to be unrepresentative of the whole population.<\/p>\n

A team of computer scientists from Harvard and Carnegie Mellon universities has devised a potential solution: selection algorithms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Computing democracy<\/h2>\n

The team\u2019s system finds panels that satisfy quota requirements and give potential members as equal a chance of selection as is mathematically possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

The algorithm first constructs a set of quota-dependent panels. These are developed by iteratively building an \u201coptimal portfolio\u201d of panels and computing the fairest distribution of participants. A single panel is then randomly drawn from the distribution.<\/span><\/p>\n

The open-source algorithm has already been used to select more than 40 citizens\u2019 assemblies around the world. In Michigan, the system was used to pick a panel of 30 residents to make recommendations about COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The process was a success, according to a June report by Fast Company<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Their chosen panelists were demographically representative, gender-balanced, aged 20 to 87, and had wide variations in race, education, and political views. The panel emerged with 12 policy recommendations on handling COVID-19 and the economy, including on mask mandates, unemployment benefits, and home relief grants.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The researchers will now explore new ways that computer science can contribute to democratic practices.<\/p>\n

In a time of declining respect for professional politicians, the team\u2019s algorithms could enhance an alternative form of representative democracy.<\/p>\n

You can read the open-access study paper in Nature<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Greetings Humanoids! Did you know we have a newsletter all about AI? You can subscribe to it right here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Citizens\u2019 assemblies are having a moment. Growing distrust in governments and experts has revived the ancient Greek method of empowering the public to participate in politics. The model is now gaining traction…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}