Method of Majority Voting
In class, we saw how the method of majority voting can fail with more than two alternatives to chose from. This system seems simple because the winning option is determined by whichever is most favorable for the greatest number of people. However, this ranking system gets tricker with more options. This is known as the […]
Network Effects in Tech Companies
https://medium.com/@nfx/the-network-effects-manual-13-different-network-effects-and-counting-a3e07b23017d It’s becoming more and more true today that an increased user-base benefits not only the company in question but also the individual members within the said user-base. Here, we observe a textbook case of network effects: each new user adds more value to the good or service and in turn makes the experience better […]
Twitter Bots and Information Cascade
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/twitter-bots-fake-news-2016-election In the article “How Twitter bots get people to spread fake news”, the author describes how some posts on twitter are shared by twitter bots so that the content “appear popular enough that human users would trust it and share it more widely”. These bots will promote low-credability posts by giving the “first big push”, […]
S.A.D. defines the “popular” Asian, but it’s what we expect.
Subtle Asian Dating (S.A.D.) is a new Facebook group, created by the Subtle Asian Dating page and inspired by the title of another popular group called Subtle Asian Traits, on which members of the global Asian community post dating profiles for their friends or themselves, highlighting pros and cons with accompanying pictures. It has recently […]
How do internet memes spread?
An internet meme is an idea, behavior or practice that spreads from person to person within a culture and strictly through the internet. Memes are particularly important in our modern society because of the ease of creating and spreading memes through the internet. They can push a political message, create humor, show emotion, etc. In […]
How Cascading Information Can Help Spread Fake News
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/business/media/how-fake-news-spreads.html In this article, The New York Times deconstructs exactly how a tweet from a 35-year-old Texas resident went viral and became a fake-news phenomenon. They explained how it all started with Mr. Tucker tweeting a misinformed tweet to his very small following on Twitter. Later that day, someone from a conservative discussion forum […]
The diffusion of true and false information on the internet
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6380/1146 This article concerns the findings of three researchers : Vosoughi, Roy, and Aral. Utilizing a “data set of rumor cascades”, these researchers were able to come to the conclusion that false news actually diffuses through networks to greater depth, and faster than, true news. “The top 1 percent of false news cascades diffused to […]
Game Theory: Pablo Escobar vs. the Colombian Government
An interesting real world example of game theory is that of Pablo Escobar’s attack on the Colombian Palace of Justice. Escobar was the leader of the world’s largest drug cartel: the Medellin Cartel. He is infamous for being one of the most cruel and destructive drug lords of all time, and at one point he […]
Why Anthony Joshua Did Not Accept the Wilder Fight – Game Theory
Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder are the two biggest stars in the heavyweight boxing division. Between the two of them, they hold all four belts in the heavyweight division. So naturally, one would think that they should fight, as it would generate the most possible money, publicity, and the most exciting fight in recent boxing […]
Information Cascades: How Men’s Fashion Trends Spread
https://www.businessinsider.com/fashion-trends-data-2016-10#mens-leather-backpacks-are-selling-out-1 Information cascades are a social catalyst in which information is passed rapidly across group of individuals. A cascade begins with one individual’s choice, and connected individuals subsequently make their own choice based on their inferences on why the initial individual acted as they did. Such a phenomenon can be observed in a plethora […]
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