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There is No Algorithm for Truth - with Tom Scott

The Royal Institution3 HN recommenders · 2019–2025
2.7M views · talk · evergreen · Uploaded 2019-10-24

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.

Scientific method & science communicationFuturism & technology and societyMedia, journalism & propaganda

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7 comments from Hacker News

@pdkl952019 · in “Algorithms were supposed to make VA judges fairer: it's far more complicated”

> 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: [VIDEO]

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@karmakaze2021 · in “The Beach Where Lego Keeps Washing Up – Tom Scott”

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] [VIDEO]

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@kleer0012022 · in “Ask HN: What dictionary do you use as your source of truth?”

"Source of truth"? What the heck does that mean? Truth for whom? [VIDEO] Dictionaries aren't for policing language. They describe how people use language, not the best and only way to use language. [LINK]

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@jasode2022 · in “Dunbar’s number and how speaking is 2.8x better than picking fleas”

> 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: [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.

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@codefreeordie2022 · in “Parasocial Relationships: Imaginary Friends of the Social Network Age”

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: [VIDEO] I swear it's also a short video on its own somewhere, but neither Google nor I can find it today.

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@nativeit2025 · in “Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think”

RIYL: Tom Scott's There Is No Algorithm For Truth [1] delivered to the Royal Society in October 2019. 1. [VIDEO]

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@zehaeva2025 · in “Claude says “You're absolutely right!” about everything”

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] [VIDEO]

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