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Second Mechanism of Democratic Reason: Majority Rule

Hélène Landemore

in Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence, and the Rule of the Many

This chapter argues that majority rule is a useful complement of inclusive deliberation, not just because majority rule is more efficient timewise, but because it has distinct epistemic properties of ... More

This chapter argues that majority rule is a useful complement of inclusive deliberation, not just because majority rule is more efficient timewise, but because it has distinct epistemic properties of its own. It also stresses that majority rule is best designed for collective prediction—that is, the identification of the best options out of those selected during the deliberative phase. Of all the competing alternatives (rule of one or rule of the few), majority rule maximizes the chances of predicting the right answer among the proposed options. The chapter considers several accounts of the epistemic properties of majority rule, including the Condorcet Jury Theorem, the Miracle of Aggregation, and a more fine-grained model based on cognitive diversity.Less

Simulating Digital Logic with the Reversible Aggregation Model of Crystal Growth

George E. Homsy and Norman H. Margolus

in New Constructions in Cellular Automata

We are concerned with understanding the implicit computation occurring in a physical model of crystal growth, the Reversible Aggregation (RA) model. The RA model is a ... More

We are concerned with understanding the implicit computation occurring in a physical model of crystal growth, the Reversible Aggregation (RA) model. The RA model is a lattice gas model of reversible cluster growth in a closed two-dimensional system, which captures basic properties of physics such as determinism, locality, energy conservation, and exact microscopic reversibility. There are three species of particles in the RA model: gas, heat, and crystal. A diffusing gas particle may aggregate when contacting the boundary of a crystal cluster. Latent heat is released during each aggregation event and is explicitly modeled by introducing a heat particle into a diffusing heat bath. Conversely a cluster member at the boundary of the crystal may absorb a heat particle and evaporate, becoming a diffusing gas particle. Allowing ourselves complete control over all the initial conditions of the model, we show that the RA model can simulate any logic circuit, and, hence, perform any computation. The mobile gas and heat particles are used as logic signals. The paths these particles take are the wires. Sequences of conditional crystallization events form the basis of the logic gates. We show how to embed a universal single use gate into the dynamics of the model, then show how to construct a reusable universal gate, showing the system is capable of space-efficient computation. We show how to build arbitrary logic circuits by interconnecting gates. This requires steering and routing the signals, delaying them, and letting them cross. Finally, we briefly discuss the relationship of computation in the RA model to computation in real physical systems. We examine the computational capabilities of a physical model of crystal growth, the Reversible Aggregation (RA) model [3], which captures basic properties of physics such as determinism, locality, energy conservation, and exact microscopic reversibility. The RA model is a lattice gas model of reversible cluster growth in a closed two-dimensional system. It was introduced as a microscopically reversible physical model for studying the thermodynamics of crystal growth and pattern formation. By microscopically reversible we mean that from any state in the system we can recover the previous state exactly. Less

Numbers: With and Without Contractualism

Joseph Raz

in From Normativity to Responsibility

The conformity principle is defended, and shown to be the basic principle that points to the limited degree to which aggregation has a role in practical thought. Scanlon’s contractualist thesis is ... More

The conformity principle is defended, and shown to be the basic principle that points to the limited degree to which aggregation has a role in practical thought. Scanlon’s contractualist thesis is considered and his arguments criticised in so far as they aim to provide a solution to problems of conflicts of reasons.Less

Green Realism: Limits, Linkages, and Outcomes

Graham Bullock

in Green Grades: Can Information Save the Earth?

Chapter 7 synthesizes the results from the previous chapters in a discussion of the idea of information realism and its cousin, green realism. It acknowledges the valid points that the optimist and ... More

Chapter 7 synthesizes the results from the previous chapters in a discussion of the idea of information realism and its cousin, green realism. It acknowledges the valid points that the optimist and pessimist sides of the debate have made about the role of information-based governance strategies, while also highlighting the shortcomings of these two opposing perspectives. It outlines three possible futures for information-based governance strategies – one that heeds the concerns of skeptics and lessons learned discussed in this book, one that ignores them, which will lead to their further loss of support and effectiveness, and a third that is based on the insights of information realism presented in the book. In particular, the chapter highlights the importance of creating linkages between information-based governance strategies and traditional regulation-based approaches and efforts to change industry norms more broadly. It returns to the green decision scenarios posed in Chapter 1, and offers specific recommendations for designers, users, and policymakers who are interested in improving the effectiveness of information-based environmental governance strategies.Less

The Asbestos Litigation

Rob Merkin and Jenny Steele

in Insurance and the Law of Obligations

Explores the role of insurance in asbestos litigation in respect of mesothelioma. Shows how and why the Trigger Litigation though ostensibly concerned with insurance cover required the courts to ... More

Explores the role of insurance in asbestos litigation in respect of mesothelioma. Shows how and why the Trigger Litigation though ostensibly concerned with insurance cover required the courts to determine the nature of the legal principles developed in earlier tort cases. Argues that the development of the law in these cases would have been vacuous without an expectation that insurance would be in place to respond to the liabilities, and emphasises that insurers were involved at every step of the litigation. Explains that it is now plain that tort claims are made in relation to harm suffered, rather than the risk of harm, and that no manipulation of policy terms or insurance law principles was required to match the liabilities to the cover. Explains that as between insurers and reinsurers, litigation over the division and location of liabilities continues, identifying key issues that remain to be resolved.Less

Insurance Contracts and Insurance Market

Rob Merkin and Jenny Steele

in Insurance and the Law of Obligations

Introduces the nature of the insurance contract and its distinctive features. Sets out the main classes of insurance and the definition of insurance business for the purposes of regulation. Outlines ... More

Introduces the nature of the insurance contract and its distinctive features. Sets out the main classes of insurance and the definition of insurance business for the purposes of regulation. Outlines the drafting process and the sources of law in relation to insurance contracts. Explores the manner in which risks and the market for insurance have evolved in tandem. Explains the distinction between first party and third party (liability) insurance. Outlines the history and key forms of liability insurance; questions the assumption that liability insurance was initially seen as raising unique questions of legality or public policy; and identifies key issues in relation to triggering events; aggregation of losses; and interpretation of policy terms.Less

Crime, Law Enforcement, and Sentencing in an Era of Prison Expansion

Franklin E. Zimring

in The Insidious Momentum of American Mass Incarceration

This chapter shows that rates of crime and arrest cannot explain the huge increase in prison population but that the extreme growth in prison admissions indicates that behavior of local criminal ... More

This chapter shows that rates of crime and arrest cannot explain the huge increase in prison population but that the extreme growth in prison admissions indicates that behavior of local criminal justice agencies, prosecutors, and courts was the dynamic force that accounts for most of the prison population explosion.Less

Types of Cloud Computing

Nayan B. Ruparelia

in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has five key characteristics: a) Broad network access, b) On-demand self-service, c) Resource pooling or shared services d) Rapid elasticity and e) Measured Service. Each of these ... More

Cloud computing has five key characteristics: a) Broad network access, b) On-demand self-service, c) Resource pooling or shared services d) Rapid elasticity and e) Measured Service. Each of these characteristics needs to be present to qualify a cloud service. New concepts to the analysis and use of cloud computing are developed. One such concept uses cloud relationships: aggregation, composition and federation. Another concept is that of cloud cells, somewhat akin to cloud gears but with greater functionality from an object oriented perspective. Cloud cells provide specialization as they have only one function, such as data storage, providing a database service or web services, for example. Applying these two novel concepts means that you can re-use cloud cells and, through various combinations, create a variety of cloud services. This approach is extended further by creating cloud patterns. These describe distinct use cases based upon a combination of cloud cells and their relationships.Less

Multiple Scales of Interaction in the Early Side-Notched Horizon

Kara Bridgman Sweeney

in Early Human Life on the Southeastern Coastal Plain

The author uses Social Network Analysis (SNA) to remodel a large, previously collected database of Early Archaic, side-notched artifacts where multiple overlapping scales of social interaction were ... More

The author uses Social Network Analysis (SNA) to remodel a large, previously collected database of Early Archaic, side-notched artifacts where multiple overlapping scales of social interaction were previously indicated. Using stone tool attributes, degrees of interaction are plotted over the South Atlantic and Florida Coastal Plain, suggesting social connections including aggregation spaces.Less

Ritualized Practices of the Suwannee Valley Culture in North Florida

Neill J. Wallis

in New Histories of Pre-Columbian Florida

Considerations of ritual in archaeology are often focused on mortuary practices and the deposition of finely crafted objects. From this perspective, ceremonialism and rituality in North Florida were ... More

Considerations of ritual in archaeology are often focused on mortuary practices and the deposition of finely crafted objects. From this perspective, ceremonialism and rituality in North Florida were most pronounced during the construction and inhabitation of the McKeithen site and similar Weeden Island ceremonial centers (ca. AD 200-700), where elaborate mortuary traditions were enacted, and then severely attenuated within the Suwannee Valley culture during subsequent centuries. While neither aggregation at permanent settlements nor ostentatious mortuary ceremonialism are evident in late Pre-Columbian North Florida, new evidence from the Parnell site indicates that distinctive ritual practices were located off of burial mounds and that the number of participants who gathered periodically for feasts and other ritualized events may have surpassed the social scales of previous Weeden Island ceremonial centers. Evidence of an immense feast at Parnell gives a glimpse of practices associated with extensive competitive social networks among Suwannee Valley hunter-gatherers with otherwise somewhat limited archaeological visibility.Less

Formalizing Measurement and Modeling: The Preinstitutional Society

Martin Shubik and Eric Smith

in The Guidance of an Enterprise Economy

In this chapter we introduce the concepts of symmetry, dimensions and scaling, which are fundamental to a principled construction and interpretation of minimal models in this book. We also introduce ... More

In this chapter we introduce the concepts of symmetry, dimensions and scaling, which are fundamental to a principled construction and interpretation of minimal models in this book. We also introduce the formal models for production and preferences, which we call the “pre-institutional society”. Society defines the context within which the institutions of the polity and the economy exist. The pre-institutional society is meant to represent the shared layers of constraint within which the different economic institutions must function. Economic life is potentially complex in all its dimensions. In comparison to reality, the space of tractable models is small. The subject of this chapter is to develop criteria for categorizing models and criteria by which to judge the validity of using them as sufficient representations of economic phenomena.Less

Meaning

Onnig H. Dombalagian

in Chasing the Tape: Information Law and Policy in Capital Markets

This chapter discusses regulatory approaches to overseeing the activities of intermediaries who impart higher orders of meaning onto information flows, such as exchanges, underwriters, auditors, ... More

This chapter discusses regulatory approaches to overseeing the activities of intermediaries who impart higher orders of meaning onto information flows, such as exchanges, underwriters, auditors, attorneys, securities analysts, and credit rating agencies. It first considers the role that informational intermediaries play in the aggregation and verification of information and in interpreting low-level information for use in higher-order processes (such as by transforming narrative and financial disclosures into prices, ratings, and investment recommendations). It then surveys the traditional utility and gatekeeping models of regulation that impose quasi-public or professional standards of care, independence, and public accountability. The chapter then considers the merits of incentive-based and performance-based approaches to intermediary regulation, such as subscriber-pays models, independent funding, and publication of performance statistics.Less

Macroeconomic Shortcuts

Kartik B. Athreya

in Big Ideas in Macroeconomics: A Nontechnical View

Why do macroeconomists usually work with models that seem, to many, to be ridiculous simplifications of reality that stress mathematical coherence over economic substance? This chapter addresses ... More

Why do macroeconomists usually work with models that seem, to many, to be ridiculous simplifications of reality that stress mathematical coherence over economic substance? This chapter addresses important aspects of macroeconomic methodology. These ideas are infrequently discussed in existing work for nonprofessional economists. There are some reasons for using an overall approach to macroeconomics that seems to give easy ammunition to critics. The chapter covers each of these four “sins”: Aggregation, Rationality, Equilibrium, and Mathematics.Less

Internal DLA for Cylinders

David Jerison, Lionel Levine, and Scott Sheffield

Charles Fefferman, Alexandru D. Ionescu, D. H. Phong, and Stephen Wainger (eds)

in Advances in Analysis: The Legacy of Elias M. Stein

This chapter discusses the continuum limit of internal Diffusion-Limited Aggregation (DLA), a random lattice growth model governed by a deterministic fluid flow equation known as Hele-Shaw flow. The ... More

This chapter discusses the continuum limit of internal Diffusion-Limited Aggregation (DLA), a random lattice growth model governed by a deterministic fluid flow equation known as Hele-Shaw flow. The internal DLA model was introduced in 1986 by Meakin and Deutch to describe chemical processes such as electropolishing, etching, and corrosion. The chapter focuses primarily on fluctuations, and seeks to prove the analogous results for the lattice cylinder. In the case of the cylinder, the fluctuations are described in terms of the Gaussian Free Field exactly. The main tools used in the proofs are martingales. As the chapter shows, the martingale property in this context is the counterpart in probability theory of well-known conservation laws for Hele-Shaw flow.Less

Relevance Rides Again?: Aggregation and Local Relevance

Aart van Gils and Patrick Tomlin

in Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy Volume 6

Often institutions or individuals are faced with decisions where not all claims can be satisfied. Sometimes, these claims will be of differing strength. In such cases, it must be decided whether or ... More

Often institutions or individuals are faced with decisions where not all claims can be satisfied. Sometimes, these claims will be of differing strength. In such cases, it must be decided whether or not weaker claims can be aggregated in order to collectively defeat stronger claims. Many are attracted to a view, which this chapter calls Limited Aggregation, where this is sometimes acceptable and sometimes not. A new version of this view, Local Relevance, has recently emerged. This chapter seeks to explore and evaluate this view. In order to do so, the chapter offers a more precise interpretation of this basic approach, calling it ‘Sequential Claims-Matching’. The chapter shows how Sequential Claims-Matching avoids problems that dog other Limited Aggregation views but suffers from difficulties and ambiguities of its own. In particular, the chapter shows that it is hard to accommodate some core Limited Aggregation intuitions around tie-break cases within the Local Relevance view.Less