Can math help repair democracy? | Sam Wang
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 11.9K Ratings
🗓️ 10 September 2024
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Could math help make American democracy more responsive to the people? From detecting gerrymandered districts to predicting the impact of alternative election methods like ranked-choice voting, neuroscientist Sam Wang outlines how computer simulations can help fix the bugs in US democracy — and put it on the path to repair.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ted Audio Collective. |
| 0:02.0 | Audio Collective. |
| 0:04.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, |
| 0:08.0 | where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. |
| 0:15.0 | I'm your host, Delies Hugh. |
| 0:17.0 | Today, a different way to think about politics and challenges of democracy. |
| 0:20.0 | Neuroscientists Sam Wang specializes in simulations, computer models. |
| 0:25.0 | He gets into the math to help us understand why political polarization is growing, |
| 0:30.0 | how it leads to the elections of more extreme leaders and the repairs required to |
| 0:35.5 | stabilize democracy coming up after a quick break. |
| 0:40.3 | And now our TED Talk of the day. |
| 0:45.0 | Computer simulations are everywhere. |
| 0:48.0 | If you navigated here today or you looked at a weather report, then you use simulations. |
| 0:54.6 | A simulation can game through thousands |
| 0:56.2 | or even millions of possibilities. |
| 0:59.1 | What if computer simulations could help us |
| 1:00.8 | out of one of the most pressing problems of our time, |
| 1:03.0 | a rickety democracy here in the United States or around the world. |
| 1:08.0 | I'm here to argue today that simulations can help us preserve democracy |
| 1:13.0 | in a time of crisis, |
| 1:15.0 | in a time of rapid change, |
| 1:16.5 | both technological and demographic, |
... |
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