NOVA: Wisdom of the Crowds

[sinistar99]

I heard a great metaphor for democracy once: Democracy is gang rape... 5 people say Yes, one says No... they ayes have it!

[no2religions]

"You don't hear much argument on the merits of democracy." Agreed. Not from me. "That millions of average people can together make a wise decision"... lol, if only! hehe

[createrainbowz]

ta

one love  :)

[studiosound]

You guys are funny. If it floats then it's a witch!

All funny aside, yes elections are not the same as weighing a cow, obviously. Buuuut a crowd is a good way to get an overall median. That's all this segment is about and I agree.

It's not accurate to use what he found and use it for things like presidential elections where 49% are for one side and 50.2%, especially with predetermined biases. But! For general ideologies and such it tends to be accurate :)

[cookeladoo]

If the crowd were brought up using Kg rather than pounds, the answer will be screwed.

Democracy fails in the same way when people are fed bullshit all the time

[dougmath]

Your disdain of democracy is troubling. I suppose that we should have modern intellectual elites make our decisions for us. People consume information from a variety of sources. In the end, it is the intellectual diversity that serves democracy well.

[cookeladoo]

You are reading me wrong. Most people are indoctrinated into believing that if you are against "democracy" tghen you are for Communism, fascism or the likes. Frankly I believe that some countries have the technology to make people decide on issues rather than politicians...now that is what I call a real democracy. If you think your Democracy is great when you are stuck with one political party for the next 3-4 years just because they promised but not delivered...well good on you sucker.

[cookeladoo]

More like Modern Intellectual "Managers" following the decisions of the people. Have you noticed how most independent poles predict the outcomes of elections within a few %. Well independent poles can be used to ascertain what the people think about certain issues. As far as I am concerned the "managers" should make sure that whatever the people "decided" in the pole, should be done or they will get the boot. No political agendas, just peoples decisions

[trianglechoke7]

Also, "common folk" have first hand knowledge about how much things weigh and their relation to size. You wouldn't ask the masses a question about the outcome of an esoteric science experiment, it wouldn't work. Same thing with democracy - people are voting on things that they don't really have knowledge about.

[Argonaut22j]

"same thing with democracy"

What aspect of democracy? What issue? Electoral reform? Term limits? Specific laws? The Wisdom of the Crowds actually describes Economic issues as one area where the principle applies.

[trianglechoke7]

There are way to many differences in voting in elections and guessing the weight of a cow. If you want to make weight guessing more like a democracy, choose two alpha males from the crowd, have them guess, then restrict everyone elses guess to those two guesses.

That's just one example of why the analogy doesn't work.

[caisback18]

It is way different to guess in something, than to choose between to candidates. i could have guessed that the weight of the cow was from 1000000000000000000000000tons to 10g, but if i was to choose a person how can i eve be right? i can not tell if Obama or McCain would be good presidents....

i have a major proof that the crows are wrong.... Bush!!!!

[HaoSci]

Well MATHEMATICALLY speaking, it may be so. So long as everyone feel free to speak out what he thinks. But sometimes public perception skew the outcome. And other factors may influence the result, too. But the experts VS. Common Men argument may go on forever. Why not combine them together?

[1986Lego]

bueno en mi punto de vista, no es del todo cierto, ya que depende quien sea el que hable primero, ya que la siguen lo primero que escuchan que sea lo contrario a lo que proponen... bueno al final todo depende de lo que piense el lider y no la poblacion

[marjan15]

There is no wisdom of the crowd, it's only crowd stupidity. Collective mind is arrogant and egoistic, it wants to silence smarter individuals.