Algorithmic Redistricting: Elections made-to-order
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as an entertaining demonstration of how powerful algorithmic gerrymandering can be.
What it is
AlphaPhoenix uses Monte Carlo simulation and annealing-style methods to draw North Carolina congressional district maps, both gerrymandered and fair. He focuses on the fascinating computational problem rather than the politics.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2023 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec opdahl · 2023-06 · on “Math Has Changed the Shape of Gerrymandering”
For a great (and entertaining!) look into how you can use simulations to generate these types of maps you should check out this video by the superb channel AlphaPhoenix: [this video]
Strong rec Spivak · 2025-08 · on “”
Required watching to put things into perspective of how powerful gerrymandering can be [this video] There was a proposed (and failed) ballot initiative in Ohio that tried to address this in the only way you actually can. The tl;dr is that there is no such thing as a fair map and so the state would be required to gerrymander the districts to match the state-wide election results. Basically proportional representation with extra steps, but brings the "secret metric" in map making to the forefront and requires it be a specific value so you can't tune it to your favor.
Cites j5155 · 2023-05 · on “What if you did the exact opposite?”
This aspect of adding randomness to avoid local randomness reminds me of AlphaPhoenix’s automated gerrymandering project: [this video]