- And that was just last Tuesday.
(laughing)
- Hey Brandon,
how was that restaurant you went to the other night?
- Oh, it was pretty good.
But the menu was kinda random.
- Ooh, sorry to interrupt here but,
the menu probably wasn't random.
It was probably based on a lot of methods
and predictabilities that you don't even know about.
- Yeah, but I mean,
they only had corndogs and oysters, so...
- Well, that just sounds like a bad restaurant, Brandon.
Oh, hey!
Welcome to It's Personal.
A show about what makes you, you.
Today, we're talking about randomness.
And how or if it affects your life.
(glass clinks)
("Mrs Rossas Smile" by Peter Koobs)
Is there any such thing as true randomness?
I don't know. I'm not an expert.
But it has been shown that computers
have a hard time generating a random string of numbers.
So is randomness even real?
And if it is, does it control our lives?
- Well,
you know some things that we think are random,
are maybe just patterns.
Watch this video where my friend Jamie
guesses your random choice.
♫ Can you, can you be random
♫ Can you, can you, be random
♫ Can you be random ♫
- No, seriously.
Can you be random?
I mean, randomness means
you have no aim, you have no direction,
there's no rule, there's no method.
Sounds like a college student, whatever.
But seriously, can you be random?
I mean, 'cause sometimes you think you're being random
when in reality, there's actually a pattern
that you don't realize is going on.
Let me show you.
I have six boxes.
And in this game inspired by Richard Weitzman,
we're gonna start on the green box.
So put your finger there,
and when I say move,
you can go right,
you can go down,
you can go up,
and you can go left.
You just can't go diagonal.
And...
No matter how random you think you're being,
you're always gonna end up back on the pink square.
Don't believe me?
Let's test this out.
All right, ready?
Move one.
So, you're either here now
or you're here.
So we can get rid of that guy right there.
You're ready for the rest?
And move.
Move.
And move.
Cool.
Then rid of that guy.
Round two!
And move.
Move.
That guy's gone, huh?
Move.
That guy, right?
Gone.
Now just move one more time.
(makes poof noise)
Pink square.
Touching the pink square, aren't you?
You are.
I told you.
You're gonna touch the pink square.
I told you this at the beginning.
We had this conversation.
Sorry.
Am I a mind reader?
Eh...
Not so much.
I just gave you the illusion of choice.
But, in reality,
I limited your options so you'd pick what I wanted.
Let me show you what I mean.
Okay, let's go back to the beginning of the trick
which is actually a math problem.
So we started out here
and your first move was either here
or here.
And then I asked you to move eight times.
But, from either this space or this space,
it's actually impossible for you to move eight times
and get to this space.
Don't believe me?
Try it yourself.
In fact,
four moves won't get you there.
And an even larger number like 16?
That won't get you there either.
Wait a minute...
What does this mean about life?
What the heck, man?
I'm gonna have a crisis now!
Like, what does this mean?
Seriously, I wonder how much of life is actually like this.
I mean, I think I'm being random,
I think I'm being unpredictable,
and really, I'm just following a pattern.
Seriously?
- Oh man, I wonder if every decision I make
is just based on a pattern of decisions.
- Whoa, hold on, Kate.
Patterns aren't the only things that affect your life.
- It's not?
- No.
I mean,
maybe everything you think
and you choose and decide
is actually influenced by your environment.
- Yeah.
- Actually, check this out.
How often do you have a random thought and think,
"Where did that come from?"
Chances are it's not as random as you might think.
Your thoughts are influenced by information
that is obtained from the world around you.
And filtered through all of your past memories.
Sometimes thoughts that may seem completely random
could actually be your mind unconsciously recalling
information that is closely linked in your memory.
For example,
if your friend asks you to name a random fruit,
while at the same time, they're talking about
their brand new yellow card
and their matching yellow driving cap,
your brain is primed with the word yellow.
So even though there's a wide variety of fruits,
you're more likely to jump to the word banana.
- Hang on a second, Brandon.
You've never primed us, have you?
- Here.
Check out this video of me priming people in the office.
- Answer the question!
(light playful music)
- Okay.
Go?
- She held the...
Feather.
- Number one:
He ate the banana.
- She held the feather.
- The dog loves benches.
- She has webbed feet.
- Crumbs are never left.
- The kids were swimming.
- The sun is hot.
- Saphia.
- An animal?
Ducks?
- Duck?
- Ducks?
- Duck.
- Hippo.
- [Man] Oh, okay.
- What?
- [Man] It didn't work.
- I was gonna say duck.
Was my first instinct.
- What just happened?
He ate the banana, yellow.
She held the feather, feathers.
The dog loves benches?
I don't get that one.
She has webbed feet.
Okay, a duck.
Only crumbs are left.
Feeding the ducks.
The kids were swimming in a pond.
The sun is hot at the pond where the duck's swimming.
- You know what it was?
In my mind duck was one of the words that I used.
And I was like, oh, I don't wanna use the word
that's on here.
Whoa!
(bleep) mind games!
This is a hippo duck.
- Oh man.
I wonder if anything I've ever done has been original.
Does originality even exist?
Who am I?
- Oh, Brandon.
Settle down, all right?
You're original, I promise.
There's only one you
and there's probably only gonna ever be one you.
- [Brandon] Okay, cool.
- But it is fun to think about all the
weird chance encounters and hook-ups,
and maybe even luck
that went into you being you.
From your parents meeting.
- [Brandon] Aw. - [Kate] Aw.
- Yeah.
To them having sex.
To that one steadfast sperm beating out all the rest.
So what are the odds of all these weird, random factors
culminating in your very existence?
Observe.
Let's talk about you.
You could've been anybody, you know.
But very luckily,
you ended up being the very specific, wonderful you
that you uniquely are.
So, how'd that happen?
What are the odds?
Well, there's a countless multitude of factors
that contributed to you being you
in all your spectacular wonder.
But let's take a very hypothetical look
at a mere three of them.
Your parents meeting,
your parents sticking together,
and your parents having a child that is the
specific combination of reproductive cells
that resulted in your magnificent residency on this planet.
So let's look at your parents.
For the purposes of this scenario,
let's give your dad the benefit of the doubt
and say that between the ages of 18 and 40,
he at least interacted with one new woman everyday
in some small way.
That means he'd have socialized with roughly 8,000 women.
What a popular guy.
And let's say, assuming he's not a hermit in the woods,
that he very well could have potentially met anyone from
say, oh, a tenth of the world's female population,
which would be about 360 million.
The odds that your mother was in that tiny group of people
that he met, are about one in 45,000.
Now, there's no guarantee that they'll get along.
So let's say that your father was engaged
in a quality conversation with, oh,
one out of every 10 women he met.
From there, let's assume that out of those women,
he went out on a date with one of every 10.
And let's say out of those women,
he settled down with one,
and there was a one in 10 chance of those two crazy kids
deciding to stick it out.
And let's give them a 50/50 chance of sticking together
and deciding to have kids.
That's one out of 10 times one out of 10
times one out of 10 times one out of two,
which equals one in 2,000.
Alright, apologies in advance,
but let's talk about your parents having sex.
The average male produces about 525 billion
sperm cells in his lifetime.
The average female has about 300,000 eggs at puberty,
but releases around 400 in her reproductive lifetime.
So, out of all those cells,
there was one unique sperm and one unique egg
that needed to match up perfectly
to make you specifically.
And the odds of that happening are kind of staggering.
One in 210 trillion.
So if you wanna factor in your parents meeting,
sticking together, and having sex to make you specifically,
the odds are about 1 in 45,000 times 1 in 2,000
times 1 in 210 trillion,
which comes out to about 1 in 18.9 sextillion,
which is a whole lotta zeros.
So let's just say that you are pretty lucky to be here
and frankly, we're all pretty glad it worked out for you.
- So, does randomness control our lives?
Maybe.
But it seems like the opposite of randomness
totally shapes us.
We're creatures of habit, predictability,
and systems.
But you can walk away knowing that you being you
is nothing short of a miracle.
So be your best you.
Thank you.
And we'll see you next time on It's Personal.
- Bye.
- Oh, bye.
- Bye!
- [Kate] What game are we playing?
- [Brandon] Hey, check out this random hand I have.
- [Kate] Yeah? Diverse.
- [Brandon] I'm aware of that.
- [Kate] Hmm?
- [Brandon] Seven.