NOVA scienceNOW | Wisdom of the Crowds | PBS

[floridagirlful1]

I dont understand this video, I watched 3 times.. Can anyone please tell me what is this video about?

[aluisious]

Millions of people can make a wise decision together eh? We had 8 years of Bush.

[Contextcatcher]

Charles Bukowski his poem "The Genius of the Crowd" is about an average people too...with a total different outcome.

His fisrt line:

"There is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average

human being to supply any given army on any given day"

etc.

[bunnysick]

you are stuck in the ball game of only two choices the establishment wants you to be stuck in, no candidates, no parties, only issues, debated on forums, online local, state and national weekly votes. Bills written and edited by the people, views discussed by all sides, 100 different possible answers, the average is the middle ground...decisions by the people for once, throw out the representatives who only represent their highest bidders DEMAND DIRECT DEMOCRACY!

[malcolmbryant]

Love the 'Dick van Dyke' English accents!

[SailorBarsoom]

Why was this segment, of all the ones in that ipisode, set to music and made cartoonish?

[MrBipBipp]

wtf is this?

[100110100]

How could you ask Jimmy Wales to appear in your episode! He is a quack and you defiled your reputation for asking him to appear!

[smaakjeks]

Of course the "wisdom of crowds" work on something like guessing weight or amount of ordinary things. Most of us have a reasonable understanding of simple weight and space, and the ones that don't are wrong following a normal distribution. I'm fairly sure this effect doesn't work with things we have no intuitive (evolved) understanding of. It's not magic. It's not mysterious or "surprising". It's completely expected of us.

[shaman683]

Now they have proved that Twitter successfully predicts the most successful new movies better than any othe known method.

[shaman683]

Now they have proved that Twitter successfully predicts the most successful new movies better than any othe known method.

[twothlesswonder]

Of course! This is just another way we can take advantage of the concept of the super-organism. Collectively, we operate on so many parallels with ants and termites...

[tyrone199]

It all depends on how well the guessers guess.

[cjellwood]

nice video! now where do i find 1000 people to work on tonights lotto?

[BBoyWhizz]

awesome...just watched derren brown...either way its an excellent theory..

[lonogugeadult]

wait how is it the median not mean

[rlseii]

The mean of a normal distribution is also the median.

Imagine a bell curve, the mean is in the middle right? , and also the median is the middle value in a set of numbers.

[RogerOnTheRight]

The median is the midpoint of data, so half the points are below this value, half are above.

The mean is the average.

In a "normal" distribution, the two will coincide. In a skewed distribution, they will differ.

[Eldxale]

In democracy, they use the mode, not the average. Besides, the choices given are not the right one, like if I asked, "What's two plus two, fish or squirrel?"

[RogerOnTheRight]

Still, in free markets, group behaviour is amazingly powerful. Markets are intelligent.

[lax4ever1]

ha. that was pretty awesome to watch

[vageliszks]

aristotle said that in ''politics''

[jtyranus]

part of the reason it worked is because the people were not particularly biased towards the cow.

they had no vested interest in the cow or its weight and i suspect that is why they could produce an accurate result.

[squee222]

but they did have a vested interest in guessing the correct weight. they had to pay a small fee to enter the contest, and there was a prize if they could guess correctly

[WWEinvadesTNA8]

i like NOVA scienceNOW. doesnt make you have to think so much.

[mcdavis55]

Here's the problem, the winner of the presidential election is not the statistical average, it is the side that is the furthest from the average. In the cow example from this film, whichever side, those guessing high or those guessing low, was the most off would win the election.

[czorbin]

his discovery is an amazing one even though the experiment had no relativity to the point he was trying to prove. it has complete relativity to economics and predicting marketing. its why they test tv shows with focus groups instead of letting only higher ups decide if it airs.

politics in democracy is just about popularity, everyones knows that from the time that we're 12 and we hold our first class elections, the most popular kid wins.

[nobodydobo]

Nobody was attempting to manipulate the crowd's perception of the cow.

[MazeleyFanClub]

@nobodydobo Well said. If the cow had been a candidate for election, half the crowd would have believed it was satan and the other half would have believed it was jesus.

[derbiracerx]

and people are forced to choose from TWO answers not from whatever they might believe is correct. We can't average the complex decision making capabilities of the two candidates into the "correct" candidate let alone say that whatever our direct democratic vote would be is expressed in whatever the president chooses. This analogy WORKS for DIRECT DEMOCRACY. Representative democracy is complex and non-voting entities (corporations etc) are given a disproportionate $ based voice.

[girlsaidwhat]

/Amazing/ show.

Totally wish I was helping to write it! I love trying to say a lot in a small space, in just the right way that teaches. What ...amazing potential to move the whole world. Very smartly done...sometimes maybe a little /too/. Depends on your target audience.

Mostly, I think it's brilliant. Thank you.

[mitchikaboola]

I see now why these people call themselves 'gurus'...it's because they do not know how to spell 'charlatans'

[trianglechoke7]

Sorry, Dr. Tyson, but there are many many differences between democracy and guessing a weight. For example, when you're guessing the weight of a cow you are only trying to determine one variable, but in an election you have to vote for the conjunction of a candidates positions.

Furthermore, take a proposition like, "a higher power exists." Most people believe this proposition but would Dr. Tyson concede the wisdom of the crowd? I doubt it, he would probably start foaming at the mouth.

[23GrandMasterK]

anomaly.

[SailorBarsoom]

@trianglechoke7

Did you watch it past the part about the ox? The audience gets it right over 90% of the time.

[marjan15]

This is clearly false. Crowds tries to eliminate smarter individuals. Crowds tends to have large bias.

[MichalMason]

Agreed, but any information is still information guys :P (to the two below me)

[captainspirou]

I agree with drew. I thought the information was very interesting. But trivializing the "experts" and trying to make science interesting in goofy song form does not appeal to me or I believe anyone else that you're trying to watch the show.

[Drewd776]

yo nova wtf, is this a kids show or something. I don't appreciate the cartoon like quality to this supposed "science" show, how 'bout some real information next time