Journalists

 

A Day In The Life

I read the news today, oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well, I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph

Good or bad, we count on journalists to tell us the news.

“who disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. “  BTW Superman, whose Kryptonian name was Kal-El, was created by two Jews and is a thinly veiled retelling of the Moses story with a spaceship subbing for a basket in the bulrushes.

Journalists are supposed to be interested in the Truth, certainty, not merely in who wins, dominance.  Journalists are supposed to speak truth to power, not present both sides.

It is hardly surprising that 1/3 of the people support Trump.  The minimum number of players according to Game Theory is three.  ( yes, it may look like there are only two teams on the field, but have you forgotten about the refs?)  So 1/3 choosing Trump, and 1/3 choosing Biden, means that the battle for dominance is for the middle third.  

As a traffic engineer, I ask you to think about what happens when you encounter a “Lane Drop Ahead” sign.  The System Optimal solution would be to use the lane drop as long as possible and then seek a safe gap to merge into the continuing lane, a "rolling merge".  The User Optimal solution is to drive until the end of that lane being dropped and then force yourself into the continuing lane, regardless of others in that lane.

What happens is that neither the System Optimal or the worse case User Optimal solution is chosen by most cars.  Instead cars get into the moving lane as soon as possible and someone if necessary, usually a semi-tractor trailer truck,  blocks the lane which is being dropped.  This is called a Nash Equilibrium after John Nash, the subject of the movie A Beautiful Mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6eK0yiw9t0&t=11s .  Only in this case, semis are blocking the lane, not the Blonde.

The 1/3^rd who want their User Optimal try to convince the middle to let everyone choose their own User Optimal.  That can include lying if necessary, in order to win a majority of that middle 1/3^rd.  But if the middle 1/3^rd knows that those are lies, then expect a Nash Equilibrium instead. But we are counting on journalists to tell them that they are lies.  “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but they are not entitled to their own facts”.  Please journalists, fight for the Truth, Justice and the American Way. Be our Supermen.