Earlier on Monday, I was reminded just whose "Franchise" Daily Kos is.
Markos Moulitsas, circa October 2008…
6 Science Fiction Classics To Help You Choose
The Next President
io9
Charlie Jane Anders
10/06/08 2:20pm
We asked six political pundits, including Andrew Sullivan and DailyKos' Markos Moulitsas, to pick one piece of science fiction that you must read or watch before stepping into the voting booth next month. After all, science fiction often deals with some of the biggest what-ifs and alternate futures imaginable. So we couldn't imagine any better preparation for participating in democracy than six science fiction classics, as chosen by the experts.
Illustration accompanying Isaac Asimov's short story, "Franchise,"
If: Worlds of Science Fiction (1955)
The pundit: Markos Moulitsas (DailyKos)
What they recommended: "Franchise" by Isaac Asimov.
What it's about: This 1955 story is part of Asimov's "Multivac" series of stories. In the futuristic world of 2008, the United States has become an "electronic democracy." Multivac, the super-computer, chooses one lucky person to be "voter of the year." This person, Norman Muller, answers a series of questions and the computer uses those to decide what the results of an election would have been, if an election had happened.
Why is this good election-season material? Moulitsas tells io9:
We live in a world that has accepted 1984's doublespeak as part and parcel of the political process. But that's too easy and cliched and answer. So how about Asimov's "Franchise"? A single voter, chosen by computer, decides the election, and he's proud that the citizens got to make their voice heard through him, except, of course, that everyone else didn't get to vote. Consider the modern political campaign, with robo polls which proclaim the electorate's choice after a few hundred responses, and robo calls and electronic voting machines and all that stuff, and maybe someone can torture out an analogy. In reality, this election season has been stranger than any fiction imaginable.
More on “Franchise,” from Wikipedia…
Franchise (short story)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Franchise is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the August 1955 issue of the magazine If: Worlds of Science Fiction, and was reprinted in the collections Earth Is Room Enough (1957) and Robot Dreams (1986). It is one of a loosely connected series of stories concerning a fictional computer called Multivac. It is the first story in which Asimov dealt with computers as computers and not as immobile robots.
Plot summary
In the future, the United States has converted to an "electronic democracy" where the computer Multivac selects a single person to answer a number of questions. Multivac will then use the answers and other data to determine what the results of an election would be, avoiding the need for an actual election to be held.
The story centers around Norman Muller, the man chosen as "Voter of the Year" in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Although the law requires him to accept the dubious honour, he is not sure that he wants the responsibility of representing the entire electorate, worrying that the result will be unfavorable and he will be blamed.
However, after "voting", he is very proud that the citizens of the United States had, through him, "exercised once again their free, untrammeled franchise" – a statement that is somewhat ironic as the citizens did not actually get to vote.
The idea of a computer predicting whom the electorate would vote for instead of actually holding an election was probably inspired by the UNIVAC I's correct prediction of the result of the U.S. presidential election in 1952.
Markos Moulitsas, circa May 2014: “
Hillary Clinton presidential poll.”
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It's getting late and I'm kind of full. So, I won't be staying around for the pie, since tomorrow's a school day. Bon appetit...
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