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多边形的寓言：关于社会形状的可玩文章
Parable of the Polygons – a playable post on the shape of society
2014 — 2024，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这是 Nicky Case 与 Vi Hart 合作的可玩交互式图解文章，基于社会学家 Schelling 的隔离模型：每个多边形居民只要求邻居中有一定比例与自己形状相同（比如三分之一），仅仅轻轻拖动偏好滑块，整个棋盘就会自发分裂成高度隔离的同质聚居区。它用几分钟的游戏说明一个反直觉结论——宏观上严重的群体隔离，未必需要强烈的个体偏见。
为什么经久不衰：它把抽象的 Schelling 隔离模型与「相变」现象变成人人都能亲手操作的实验，几十年来关于居住隔离、社区分化和算法回音室的讨论都绕不开这个洞见，且每代读者都能重新玩一遍。
HN 评论精选
把模型对接到波士顿真实的居住隔离，并提出用房产平台的「融合度」标签引导选择，同时担心指标被反向利用。
这太棒了！我们刚注意到自己住的波士顿附近街区隔离得厉害，正想知道是什么造成的、又能做些什么。整座城市都是这样——白人比例远高于平均的街区紧挨着比例远低的街区。很有意思的是，这种格局可能只靠极小的偏见就自发形成（当然波士顿肯定还存在蓄意的住房歧视）；同样有意思的是，如果人们开始回避那些「对自己有利」的高度隔离街区，这种格局也许能逆转。我在想，能不能像 Zillow 标注好学校、公共交通那样，给种族构成接近大区域的街区加一个「融合良好」的标签？风险是这种指标也可能被反过来用来鼓励隔离，但我希望总体上我们还没那么糟。
JackC查看英文原文
This is fantastic! We were just noticing how segregated our own neighborhood near Boston is, and wondering what drives that and what could be done about it. You can see the same thing all over the city -- neighborhoods that are much more white than average right next to neighborhoods that are much less white than average. Really interesting that this could be self-generated with very little bias (setting aside that there's definitely still some intentional housing discrimination in Boston). And really interesting that it could potentially be reversed if people started to avoid neighborhoods that are highly segregated in their "favor." I wonder if integration could be advertised as a benefit of certain properties on real estate sites like Zillow. What would happen if home listings had a "well integrated neighborhood" indicator for neighborhoods that have about the same racial balance as the larger area, the same way they have indicators for good schools and public transportation and so on? Would that be appealing to actual buyers the same way it's appealing to the Polygons in the model? The risk is that an index like that could be used to encourage segregation instead -- but I'm hopeful that, on average, we're better than that at this point. Here's one census map if you want to check out your neighborhood: http://www.socialexplorer.com/ You can show racial data under "Change Data." We also found it helpful to change "Show data by: Tract" to "Block group" (more fine-grained), and to use quantile cutpoints under the color palette menu.
模型可推广：与种族相关的财富偏好和迁移限制同样制造隔离，仅消除种族偏见远远不够。
这篇非常吸引人，尽管它做了简化。要记住：即使排除种族偏见，只要人们还有其他相关的偏见或迁移能力受限，隔离依然会维持。很多国家贫困与种族高度相关，美国如此，别处也是。我住在伦敦，内城自治市镇在种族和财富上都很隔离；而一些外围区反而出现混合效应，比如我住的 Croydon 是伦敦最混杂的地区之一——房价水平把各族的年轻专业人士和各族的成熟家庭聚到一起，他们共同的诉求是内城要么太贵要么太差。想象没人有种族偏好、只有财富偏好和限制：要打破隔离几乎不可能，因为富人得甘愿住进远低于自己负担水平的房子，而穷人又无力搬到能改变处境的房子。
vidarh查看英文原文
This one is incredibly fascinating, even though it is simplified. One thing to keep in mind is that even if you exclude racial biases, you will maintain segregation if people have other - correlated - biases or limitations on their ability to move: In many countries, poverty is highly correlated with race, for example. This is certainly the case with the US, but also elsewhere. I live in London, and you see interesting effects of this. The inner city boroughs are quite segregated, both by race and wealth. Meanwhile, some of the outer boroughs are showing the reverse effect, where property price points appears to be a driver for mixing. E.g. Croydon, where I live, is one of the most mixed in London - it's at a price point that creates both young professionals of all races, and more established families of all races who are united in finding the inner boroughs either too expensive or too poor. But overall: Imagine that nobody had a racial preference, but had a wealth preference - and limitations. Now to overcome segregation, you face a near insurmountable barrier: Wealthier people would need to be willing to settle for housing and an environment of a much worse standard than they can afford, and poorer people would be unable to find housing that makes much difference. This is one of the biggest problems. The recent US situation with demonstrations over police killings, the race aspect has been blown out of proportion: You don't solve anything by focusing on the race issue, because so much of the violence is correlated more strongly with poverty than with race. You want to solve racial issues, start by addressing poverty. You'll still have race issues at the end of it, but it will turn out vastly smaller than what it appears, and you'll have removed a substantial source of excuses for racial biases.
用极端阈值做反直觉实验，主张把降低隔离当作流动性/技术问题而非单纯观念问题。
也许有点恶意，但我在实验里发现了维持近乎 0% 隔离的另一种办法：把满意度阈值调到很高（「如果少于 85% 和我一样我就搬」），结果就是持续不断的流动。但这也许指向另一个结论：提升流动性（远程办公、共享办公、高速廉价的环保交通等），世界可能变得更动态也更稳定。这是个技术问题，是我们能着手解决的；改变观念则不是技术问题。想象我们能像收拾行李箱一样轻易搬家，甚至瞬移——那时「邻里」的概念就消失了，全世界都是你的邻居。而通过提升流动性降低隔离，可能因接触增多而逐渐提升宽容度，进一步降低隔离。
alexvoda查看英文原文
This might be malicious of me but I found another way to maintain an almost 0 % segregation in the polygon experiment. Turn the satisfaction threshold way up: "I'll move if less then 85% are like me". This resulted in constant movement. But a different conclusion might be reached. Improve mobility (remote work, coworking spaces, high speed cheap eco friendly transportation, etc.) and the world might become more dynamic, and stable. This is a tech problem and it's something we can work on solving. Changing mentalities is not a tech problem. Imagine if we had the technology to move entire dwellings as easy as packing a suitcase. Even further, if we had teleportation, the notion of neighbourhood goes away, the entire world becomes your neighbour. And lowering segregation by increasing mobility might result in gradually increasing tolerance (due to exposure), thereby further decreasing segregation. Just my two cent ramblings.
质疑模型隐含的「少数族裔应融入多数」预设，认为小比例群体寻找同类邻里是合理的。
它其实没很好地处理少数群体。假如你的族裔在某个地区只占 3%–5%，难道你就该融入大众人群？我来自乡下，在 Mountain View 工作过几个月。起初觉得那里相对我家乡简直是熔炉，后来才发现我一个黑人都没见到……当地非裔美国人只占 2%–3%。所以如果你恰好是黑人、被谷歌招进来，想找一个能和邻居更有共鸣的社区，有什么问题吗？还是应该为了多元化而优化？
jcims查看英文原文
Doesn’t really do a good job of addressing minorities. What if your ethnicity makes up 3-5% of an area, are you just expected to diffuse into the general population? For example, I come from a relatively rural area and spent a few months working in Mountain View. At first i thought it was a proverial melting pot relative to home, but then i realized that i never saw any black folks... Demographics for the area show African American at 2-3%. So if you happen to be black and get hired on at Google, for example, is there sonething wrong with looking for an area where you might relate to your neighbors more or should you optimize for diversity?
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