♫La, la, la, la, la, la, la
♫La, la, la, la, la, la♫
- Can you, can you be random?
Can you, can you be random?
Can you be random?
No, seriously, can you be random?
(light jazz beat)
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 Weisman,
we're gonna start on the green box,
so put your finger there.
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.
Alright, ready?
Move one.
So you're either here now, or you're here.
So we can get rid of that guy right there.
Are you ready for the rest?
And move.
Move.
And move.
Cool.
We can get 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.
Poof.
Pink square.
You're touching the pink square, aren't ya?
You are.
I told you.
You were 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.
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?