Best posts made by k98kurz

@jack-waugh then perhaps the solution, though it would somewhat complicate the tallying process, is to allow each voter to select a baseline score for unknown candidates. I think there is a way to do it with just one count of the ballots and an algorithm that encodes baselines for unknown candidates by tallying up to a set representing known candidates and then adding that score to any candidate not in that set as a second (and much quicker) summation round.

@gregw there is a cyber security technique called "fuzzing" in which attacks are simulated with random data. The VSE simulations seem to provide a framework for fuzzing, where in this case the random data would be some kind of strategy. Developing a genetic algorithm to evolve a strategy that breaks a system would be an interesting side project. When I get the spare time and energy, I'll see if I can cook one up and set up a computer to just chug away at it until I have some results. (I wrote and published a library called bluegenes in case anyone wants to try stapling libraries together before I get around to it.)

@bmjacobs An open source solution using cryptography would go a long way toward making the system robust against accusations of rigging. You could do something like the following: 1) take a cryptographic commitment of each ballot using sha256; 2) sort the list of ballot hashes; 3) concatenate and hash them together or progressively hash them into a single sha256 hash; 4) use the resulting hash as the seed for a CSPRNG (cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator). This procedure is deterministic and thus impossible to rig, but the output will be impossible to predict and functionally random.

@toby-pereira very interesting. Many ancient cultures employed sortition for allocating responsibilities or making decisions, though perhaps this will be a more difficult sell without the appeal to "the will of the gods" becoming rhetorically effective again.