Hacker News: mckelveyf

New comment by mckelveyf in "SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers"

mckelveyf — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 15:55:21 +0000

The nuance that kept me from spinning out in writing the book was the assumption that politics is weird, and not the same as the economy.

New comment by mckelveyf in "SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers"

mckelveyf — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 15:53:23 +0000

But that's always been the case. Nixon started to use the term in 1969 just as his campaign was working with top advisor to build more interactive systems to measure and predict the elections per riding. A bit theme of the book is how to appreciate the gap between a simulation and reality, something old and new.

New comment by mckelveyf in "SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers"

mckelveyf — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 03:26:16 +0000

Its got sublimes for cheap.

New comment by mckelveyf in "SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers"

mckelveyf — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 03:25:18 +0000

I mean it's debatable that it's an optimization problem but it's been tried. One thread in the book is the reaction the Limits of Growth. That model extrapolated trends, very abstractly, to predict the future. A successor, the Latin American World Model or the Bariloche Model, tried to imagine an ideal world and optimize for it. Very different approaches and a good question to ask when you hear someone talking about computer simulations.

New comment by mckelveyf in "SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers"

mckelveyf — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 03:19:21 +0000

There is such an enduring link between democracy, elections and math. What I interesting was the focus on trying to model politics correctly rather than "better" with computers. I dug up some good games and programs from the early days that I have to put online sometime.

New comment by mckelveyf in "SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers"

mckelveyf — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 03:16:28 +0000

People sure tried. But really the book traces how that happened. I think it became easier to imagine politics working like a computer than with people, like how computer reasoning and rational choice became an ideal to measure other political thought.

New comment by mckelveyf in "SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers"

mckelveyf — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 03:12:25 +0000

Thanks for correcting!

New comment by mckelveyf in "SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers"

mckelveyf — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 03:12:05 +0000

I was tempted with Show HN, but it also seems more like demos, and this is more a link to an open access book so I thought it was more reading material.

New comment by mckelveyf in "SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers"

mckelveyf — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 21:53:50 +0000

Yeah, it's my book and happy to answer any questions too. Internet Daemons is open access too: https://www.internetdaemons.com/

I'm Fenwick dot McKelvey at Concordia dot ca if you have questions.

New comment by mckelveyf in "SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers"

mckelveyf — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 19:04:27 +0000

Thank you! Hope you find it interesting!

New comment by mckelveyf in "SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers"

mckelveyf — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 16:33:41 +0000

Thanks! I should have put that in the post in the first place

SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers

mckelveyf — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 14:20:14 +0000

https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/6166/SimPoliticsAm...

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48846332

Points: 108

# Comments: 45

New comment by mckelveyf in "Generative AI might end up being worthless – and that could be a good thing"

mckelveyf — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 15:40:09 +0000

In the rush to cash in on the generative artificial intelligence gold rush, one possible outcome of AI’s future rarely gets discussed: what if the technology never works well enough to replace your co-workers, companies fail to use AI well or most AI startups simply fail?

Generative AI might end up being worthless – and that could be a good thing

mckelveyf — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 15:40:09 +0000

Article URL: https://theconversation.com/generative-ai-might-end-up-being-worthless-and-that-could-be-a-good-thing-266046

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45415172

Points: 3

# Comments: 1