There is No Algorithm for Truth - with Tom Scott
The Royal Institution3 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2019–2025
talk · general · evergreen · 2019–2025 on HN
Tom Scott's Royal Institution discourse on science communication in the age of social media, how recommendation algorithms shape popularity, and why view counts can matter more than truth. It includes a segment on parasocial relationships.
HN returns to it in discussions of algorithmic feeds, misinformation and parasocial relationships, as a clear and thoughtful talk.
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7 comments from Hacker News
RIYL: Tom Scott's There Is No Algorithm For Truth [1] delivered to the Royal Society in October 2019. 1. ▶ this video
Not without a certain amount of irony, everybody's parasocial internet friend Tom Scott did a really good segment on the parasocial relationship as part of his talk to the Royal Institution: ▶ this video I swear it's also a short video on its own somewhere, but neither Google nor I can find it today.
> Someone who can get pop-culture’s attention needs to do a fucking Ted Talk and explain why this is usually a bad idea. Tom Scott made a good attempt recently: ▶ this video
I'm more reminded of Tom Scott's talk at the Royal Institution "There is no Algorithm for Truth"[0]. A lot of what you're talking about is the ability to detect Truth, or even truth! [0] ▶ this video
> they share with a celebrity. That makes those people related [...] That phenomenon exists, whatever you decide to call it. Some call it this: link A deep link to a Tom Scott video about it: ▶ this video What gp (Retric) was trying to say is that the terminology of "social relationships" found in the wiki article : link ... is not talking about parasocial relationships. Yes "parasocial relationships" is a real phenomenon but that's not what Dunbar was referring to when correlating "# of maintained relationships" with the primate neocortex size in his research.
"Source of truth"? What the heck does that mean? Truth for whom? ▶ this video Dictionaries aren't for policing language. They describe how people use language, not the best and only way to use language. link
Weird seeing this guy talking about Lego's after recently watching him speak at The Royal Institute about "There is No Algorithm for Truth"[0]. [0] ▶ this video