Tag: arrow’s impossibility theorem

Five articles by Michael Nielsen. If you aren’t familiar with Michael Nielsen, this is a great place to start!

1. His version of how to write better.
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2. A scientist’s explanation of Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem.
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3. May this come true, and right soon.
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4. “In the US House of Representatives, 61 percent of Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act, while a much higher percentage, 80 percent, of Republicans voted for the Act. You might think that we could conclude from this that being Republican, rather than Democrat, was an important factor in causing someone to vote for the Civil Rights Act. However, the picture changes if we include an additional factor in the analysis, namely, whether a legislator came from a Northern or Southern state. If we include that extra factor, the situation completely reverses, in both the North and the South. Here’s how it breaks down:North: Democrat (94 percent), Republican (85 percent)

   South: Democrat (7 percent), Republican (0 percent)

   Yes, you read that right: in both the North and the South, a larger fraction of Democrats than Republicans voted for the Act, despite the fact that overall a larger fraction of Republicans than Democrats voted for the Act.”
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   One of my favorite problems from statistics: Simpson’s Paradox. And an old frenemy: correlation is not causation.
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5. Memory, and how to get better at it.