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Story about an AI who selects the new President
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Quite a while ago (early 90s, I think) I read a short story about a future in which American electoral politics worked in a radically different way:
- In the future, "voting for President" is still called that, but it's not the familiar democratic process we know. Instead, you go in and take a test overseen by an AI whose task is to choose the best qualified applicant and appoint them as the new President.
- As the complexity of the world increases, so too does the difficulty of the job of the leader of its most powerful nation.
- It's election time, and the Department of Something-or-other has been monitoring the process. All of the candidates they thought likely to win have voted already, and failed.
- They realize that this is due to a glitch in the AI's directive. Instead of selecting the best-qualified applicant, it's selecting the best qualified applicant, and the job has now gotten complex enough that nobody is qualified!
- In order to avert the social chaos that would inevitably arise when the election comes and goes without producing a new President, they have to scramble to put together an election fraud scheme, inventing a qualified candidate where none exists.
- They end up picking an obscure academic who might reasonably be believed to be smart enough to handle the job, explaining to him why this is all necessary, and then actually passing the test by having several experts in various fields take the different sub-sections of the test for him.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?
story-identification
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Mason Wheeler
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up vote
17
down vote
favorite
Quite a while ago (early 90s, I think) I read a short story about a future in which American electoral politics worked in a radically different way:
- In the future, "voting for President" is still called that, but it's not the familiar democratic process we know. Instead, you go in and take a test overseen by an AI whose task is to choose the best qualified applicant and appoint them as the new President.
- As the complexity of the world increases, so too does the difficulty of the job of the leader of its most powerful nation.
- It's election time, and the Department of Something-or-other has been monitoring the process. All of the candidates they thought likely to win have voted already, and failed.
- They realize that this is due to a glitch in the AI's directive. Instead of selecting the best-qualified applicant, it's selecting the best qualified applicant, and the job has now gotten complex enough that nobody is qualified!
- In order to avert the social chaos that would inevitably arise when the election comes and goes without producing a new President, they have to scramble to put together an election fraud scheme, inventing a qualified candidate where none exists.
- They end up picking an obscure academic who might reasonably be believed to be smart enough to handle the job, explaining to him why this is all necessary, and then actually passing the test by having several experts in various fields take the different sub-sections of the test for him.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?
story-identification
asked yesterday
Mason Wheeler
2,29621438
add a comment |Â
up vote
17
down vote
favorite
up vote
17
down vote
favorite
Quite a while ago (early 90s, I think) I read a short story about a future in which American electoral politics worked in a radically different way:
- In the future, "voting for President" is still called that, but it's not the familiar democratic process we know. Instead, you go in and take a test overseen by an AI whose task is to choose the best qualified applicant and appoint them as the new President.
- As the complexity of the world increases, so too does the difficulty of the job of the leader of its most powerful nation.
- It's election time, and the Department of Something-or-other has been monitoring the process. All of the candidates they thought likely to win have voted already, and failed.
- They realize that this is due to a glitch in the AI's directive. Instead of selecting the best-qualified applicant, it's selecting the best qualified applicant, and the job has now gotten complex enough that nobody is qualified!
- In order to avert the social chaos that would inevitably arise when the election comes and goes without producing a new President, they have to scramble to put together an election fraud scheme, inventing a qualified candidate where none exists.
- They end up picking an obscure academic who might reasonably be believed to be smart enough to handle the job, explaining to him why this is all necessary, and then actually passing the test by having several experts in various fields take the different sub-sections of the test for him.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?
story-identification
asked yesterday
Mason Wheeler
2,29621438
Quite a while ago (early 90s, I think) I read a short story about a future in which American electoral politics worked in a radically different way:
- In the future, "voting for President" is still called that, but it's not the familiar democratic process we know. Instead, you go in and take a test overseen by an AI whose task is to choose the best qualified applicant and appoint them as the new President.
- As the complexity of the world increases, so too does the difficulty of the job of the leader of its most powerful nation.
- It's election time, and the Department of Something-or-other has been monitoring the process. All of the candidates they thought likely to win have voted already, and failed.
- They realize that this is due to a glitch in the AI's directive. Instead of selecting the best-qualified applicant, it's selecting the best qualified applicant, and the job has now gotten complex enough that nobody is qualified!
- In order to avert the social chaos that would inevitably arise when the election comes and goes without producing a new President, they have to scramble to put together an election fraud scheme, inventing a qualified candidate where none exists.
- They end up picking an obscure academic who might reasonably be believed to be smart enough to handle the job, explaining to him why this is all necessary, and then actually passing the test by having several experts in various fields take the different sub-sections of the test for him.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?
story-identification
story-identification
asked yesterday
Mason Wheeler
2,29621438
asked yesterday
Mason Wheeler
2,29621438
asked yesterday
Mason Wheeler
2,29621438
asked yesterday
Mason Wheeler
2,29621438
asked yesterday
Mason Wheeler
2,29621438
2,29621438
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
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17
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According to this discussion on the Straight Dope message board, it's Michael Shaara's "2066: Election Day":
It is the year 2066. The American Government has changed dramatically. In a world where anyone can become president, there exists a system that judges the qualities of America's next leader. Its name is UNCLE SAM. Through this highly advanced supercomputer, qualified people are chosen without scrutiny and human fault. What was not foreseen, however, was SAM not choosing the next president of the United States. If something is not done, war will break out, and America will be no more. At a gathering of America's most powerful men, Harry Larkin is secretly sworn in as President. Although he is a political science professor, he manages to pull himself together in order to govern an America on the brink of a political meltdown.
I found it with search terms of science fiction short story president election different experts take tests
answered yesterday
FuzzyBoots
81.3k10247392
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
17
down vote
accepted
According to this discussion on the Straight Dope message board, it's Michael Shaara's "2066: Election Day":
It is the year 2066. The American Government has changed dramatically. In a world where anyone can become president, there exists a system that judges the qualities of America's next leader. Its name is UNCLE SAM. Through this highly advanced supercomputer, qualified people are chosen without scrutiny and human fault. What was not foreseen, however, was SAM not choosing the next president of the United States. If something is not done, war will break out, and America will be no more. At a gathering of America's most powerful men, Harry Larkin is secretly sworn in as President. Although he is a political science professor, he manages to pull himself together in order to govern an America on the brink of a political meltdown.
I found it with search terms of science fiction short story president election different experts take tests
answered yesterday
FuzzyBoots
81.3k10247392
add a comment |Â
up vote
17
down vote
accepted
According to this discussion on the Straight Dope message board, it's Michael Shaara's "2066: Election Day":
It is the year 2066. The American Government has changed dramatically. In a world where anyone can become president, there exists a system that judges the qualities of America's next leader. Its name is UNCLE SAM. Through this highly advanced supercomputer, qualified people are chosen without scrutiny and human fault. What was not foreseen, however, was SAM not choosing the next president of the United States. If something is not done, war will break out, and America will be no more. At a gathering of America's most powerful men, Harry Larkin is secretly sworn in as President. Although he is a political science professor, he manages to pull himself together in order to govern an America on the brink of a political meltdown.
I found it with search terms of science fiction short story president election different experts take tests
answered yesterday
FuzzyBoots
81.3k10247392
add a comment |Â
up vote
17
down vote
accepted
up vote
17
down vote
accepted
According to this discussion on the Straight Dope message board, it's Michael Shaara's "2066: Election Day":
It is the year 2066. The American Government has changed dramatically. In a world where anyone can become president, there exists a system that judges the qualities of America's next leader. Its name is UNCLE SAM. Through this highly advanced supercomputer, qualified people are chosen without scrutiny and human fault. What was not foreseen, however, was SAM not choosing the next president of the United States. If something is not done, war will break out, and America will be no more. At a gathering of America's most powerful men, Harry Larkin is secretly sworn in as President. Although he is a political science professor, he manages to pull himself together in order to govern an America on the brink of a political meltdown.
I found it with search terms of science fiction short story president election different experts take tests
answered yesterday
FuzzyBoots
81.3k10247392
According to this discussion on the Straight Dope message board, it's Michael Shaara's "2066: Election Day":
It is the year 2066. The American Government has changed dramatically. In a world where anyone can become president, there exists a system that judges the qualities of America's next leader. Its name is UNCLE SAM. Through this highly advanced supercomputer, qualified people are chosen without scrutiny and human fault. What was not foreseen, however, was SAM not choosing the next president of the United States. If something is not done, war will break out, and America will be no more. At a gathering of America's most powerful men, Harry Larkin is secretly sworn in as President. Although he is a political science professor, he manages to pull himself together in order to govern an America on the brink of a political meltdown.
I found it with search terms of science fiction short story president election different experts take tests
answered yesterday
FuzzyBoots
81.3k10247392
answered yesterday
FuzzyBoots
81.3k10247392
answered yesterday
FuzzyBoots
81.3k10247392
answered yesterday
FuzzyBoots
81.3k10247392
81.3k10247392
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
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