{"id":451,"date":"2010-07-28T22:05:06","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T02:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ombs\/?p=451"},"modified":"2010-07-28T22:05:06","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T02:05:06","slug":"down-the-rabbit-hole-alex-bellos-alex-in-numberland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/2010\/07\/28\/down-the-rabbit-hole-alex-bellos-alex-in-numberland\/","title":{"rendered":"Down the Rabbit Hole: Alex Bellos&#039; Alex in Numberland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.addthis.com\/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4bb6bcc8320e5dd9\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/static\/btn\/v2\/lg-share-en.gif\" alt=\"Bookmark and Share\" width=\"125\" height=\"16\" \/><\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4bb6bcc8320e5dd9\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- AddThis Button END --><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font: 13.0px Georgia\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.0px\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>I hereby request that you read the following excerpt from Alex Bellos\u2019 <em>Alex\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland<\/em>.\u00a0 However, I recognize that your choice to do so (or not to) is entirely up to you.\u00a0 You have one-hundred percent control.\u00a0 Either way, here it is:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font: 13.0px Georgia\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.0px\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font: 13.0px Georgia\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.0px\"><span> <\/span>\u201cThe human brain finds it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to fake randomness.\u00a0 And when we are presented with randomness, we often interpret it as non-randomness.\u00a0 For example, the shuffle feature on an iPod plays songs in a random order.\u00a0 But when Apple launched the feature, customers complained that it favoured certain bands because often tracks from the same band were played one after another.\u00a0 The listeners were guilty of the gambler\u2019s fallacy.\u00a0 If the iPod shuffle were truly random, then each new song choice is independent of the previous choice.\u00a0 As the coin-flipping experiment shows, counterintuitively long streaks are the norm.\u00a0 If songs are chosen randomly, it is very possible, if not entirely likely, that there will be a cluster of songs by the same artist.\u00a0 Apple CEO Steve Jobs was totally s<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.0px\">erious when he said, in response to the outcry: \u2018We\u2019re making [the shuffle] less random to make it feel more random.\u2019 <\/span>Why is the gambler\u2019s fallacy such strong human urge?\u00a0 It\u2019s all about control.\u00a0 We like to feel in control of our environments.\u00a0 If events occur randomly, we feel we have no control over them.\u00a0 Conversely, if we do have control over events, they are not random.\u00a0 This is why we prefer to see patterns when there are none.\u00a0 We are trying to salvage a feeling of control.\u00a0 The human need to be in control is a deep-rooted survival instinct.\u00a0 In the 1970\u2019s a fascinating (if brutal) experiment examined how important a sense of control was for elderly patients in a nursing home.\u00a0 Some patients were allowed to choose how their rooms were arranged and allowed to choose a plant to look after.\u00a0 The others were told how their rooms would be and had a plant chosen and tended for them.\u00a0 The result after 18 months was striking.\u00a0 The patients who had control over their rooms had a 15 percent death rate, but for those who had no control the rate was 30 percent.\u00a0 Feeling in control can keep us alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font: 13.0px Georgia\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.0px\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_452\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-452\" style=\"width: 342px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-452 \" src=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2010\/07\/Alice-in-Wonderland-Wallpaper-disney-7904779-1024-768.jpg\" alt=\"Alex in Numberland can leave a reader as overwhelmed as Alive\" width=\"332\" height=\"249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2010\/07\/Alice-in-Wonderland-Wallpaper-disney-7904779-1024-768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2010\/07\/Alice-in-Wonderland-Wallpaper-disney-7904779-1024-768-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 332px) 100vw, 332px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-452\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alex in Numberland possibly even more mad than Alice in Wonderland?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font: 13.0px Georgia\">\n<p>Bellos is a British writer and broadcaster who studied mathematics and philosophy as an undergraduate (so his sweeping conclusions might be a little dramatized with pretty flourishes for emphasis, but seem worth mulling over for a couple minutes on a long summer day).<\/p>\n<p>Bellos grazes over several points in these two short paragraphs:\u00a0 Our ability to find patterns where there are none, our comfort with patterns, our constant grasp at control through patterns, and the emotional support that control gives. Many neuroscientists would argue that any control we enjoy is all a mirage; every decision and thought is predetermined despite the turmoil we feel when making a decision.\u00a0 But if that is the case, why does picking the khaki shorts over the denim or \u201cone vente, skinny, extra hot, double shot frappawappacino with whip, please\u201d feel so right?\u00a0 If our decisions have all been made for us &#8211; and we are just speaking for the desires of our neurotransmitters -why would the illusion of control give us such comfort?\u00a0 Why would it double the survival rate of elderly patients?\u00a0 If my brain has carefully calculated all of my decisions from now until forever, why did we develop so that control feels so good?<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font: 13.0px Georgia\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.0px\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font: 13.0px Georgia\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.0px\">In any case, a gold star to Steve Jobs for making the shuffle option less shuffle-y. Gambler\u2019s fallacy, shmambler\u2019s fallacy &#8211; I know my iPod was starting to show a clear preference for Queen.<\/span><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"line-height: normal\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"line-height: normal\">(Disclaimer: \u00a0I have not read the entirety of <em>Alex in Numberland. <\/em>I\u00a0merely stumbled upon this excerpt and wanted to share.) <\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I hereby request that you read the following excerpt from Alex Bellos\u2019 Alex\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland.\u00a0 However, I recognize that your choice to do so (or not to) is entirely up to you.\u00a0 You have one-hundred percent control.\u00a0 Either way, here it is: \u201cThe human brain finds it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to fake [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4162,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}