Decision making independent of irrelevant alternatives

摘要

Decision making systems and methods independent of irrelevant alternatives. A preferred alternative is found, using weighted preference lists while restricting the impact of spoilers, this preferred alternative is called an Independent Collective Choice. If a list is required, the selected preferred alternative is added to an ordered list of Independent Collective Choices and removed from weighted lists, and finding, adding, and removing are repeated. When selection of a plurality of alternatives with proportional representation is required, the lowest ranked alternative in Independent Collective Choice Ordered List is removed repeatedly as needed to find alternatives in a top choice set with predetermined quota. Some embodiments apply collective choice procedures repeatedly to select the highest ranked alternative, compare the outcomes before and after the removal of alternative combinations, and use the selection of Independent Collective Choice recursively and iteratively when selecting highest or lowest ranked alternatives. Various embodiments in methods, devices, means, apparatuses, and software programs or embedded programs in hardware devices, where decisions on a number of alternatives based on a plurality of inputs are made, can be used in systems including humans and machines for selection, sorting, routing, controling and prediction problems.