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From: goldf...@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb)
Subject: Re: Psychohistory and Nate Silver
Sender: goldf...@kithrup.com (David Goldfarb)
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Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2012 06:30:16 GMT
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In article <63k0q7.bg1.1...@news.alt.net>,
Philip Chee  <phi...@aleytys.pc.my> wrote:
>On Fri, 9 Nov 2012 19:51:27 GMT, Mark Zenier wrote:
>> Reading a reprint of an article by Ken Bensinger, Los Angeles Times,
>> my first thought was that if they get too good at this, we'll have one
>> guy picked in a lottery sitting down in front of Multivac answering all
>> the poll questions.
>
>Didn't Isaac Asimov write a short story using this premise?

Yes.  The title was "Franchise".  I assume that's exactly what Mark was
referring to -- the name "Multivac" is pretty much specific to Asimov.

-- 
   David Goldfarb          |"Understanding is a three-edged sword."
goldfar...@gmail.com       |
goldf...@ocf.berkeley.edu  |         -- Babylon 5, "Deathwalker"