So I'm passionate about technology
because I believe technology is an
extension of human creativity, Today our
host Jason Silva is giving a free talk
at a local university, Here's the amazing
thing about technology, but pay attention
because while these people think they're
here to see Jason give a presentation on
technology, Technology evolves
exponentially, they're actually the
subject of a social experiment and
you're about to see how far these people
will go just to fit in with a crowd, The
smartphone that you guys have in your
pocket is actually a million times
cheaper, a million times smaller, and a
thousand times more powerful than what
used to be sixty million dollars in half
a building forty years ago, So far the
crowd seems to be following the speech,
So I want to switch gears for a minute
and talk about something I think is
really mind-blowing as well, Have you guys
ever stop to think just about how a
thought is an idea caught in the fangs
of consciousness? Huh? Which is why you
can put cats in hats, but not hats in cats,
The soup is on so to speak, If it
now sounds like Jason is speaking
nonsense geometry, wisdom, tangerines, it
all becomes possible,
He is, So eat your soup, So how would you
react? Dreamers among us dream about tangerines,
Think this crowd will bail?
E equals elephant, not the lizard, Or will
conformity keep them in their seats? The
nervous system marinating like the
afterbirth, Let's just say the only thing
more surprising than Jason's speech does that
makes sense? Is seeing what these
people do next, It's time to celebrate,
Stick around, In essence, this is what
true thought is all about, It's the
disconnect it doesn't come from the
knowledge that your mind predates time,
That knowledge of time for days
tangerines, We're conducting an
experiment on conformity to see how this
audience will react to someone who's
clearly speaking complete gibberish,
Which is why you can put cats in hats
but not hats on cats so to speak, If you
know what I mean? Are you following any
of this? That is the elephant in the room, not
the lizard, the elephant,
It's reformadness, geometry, wisdom,
tangerines, it all becomes possible, Okay
this is getting weird,,,
How would you react if you were in the
audience? Silence? Would you get up and
leave? That is all the time I have for
today, thank you for listening you guys,
[Applause] Thank you, Thank you,
Polite applause is one thing, but these
people are giving Jason a standing
ovation for spewing complete nonsense, So
what's going on here? Okay I'm going to
let you in on a little secret, this my
friends was an experiment in conformity
to see if you'd give me a standing
ovation even though the second half of
my talk was complete gibberish and so
you guys actually proved the point,
Have you ever stood for an applause
simply because everyone else is? You know
he's talking about cats and hats and
stuff like that now it's just like did
what he really say merit a standing
ovation? And he's right,
but if Jason's speech didn't deserve
such an ovation what made this audience
stand up to applaud? It all started with
two very enthusiastic audience members
that we planted in the crowd for some
added peer pressure,
So I started seeing people standing
up so okay, I'll stand up, There was a
couple people that stood and were like
really really enthused about standing,
and everybody else started standing, so I
figured it was definitely my fault, A
standing ovation doesn't happen because
everyone in the audience had the idea to
stand up and applaud at the same time, it
happens because a few people decided to
stand and everyone else just went along
with it, so it's not to be judged as
uncaring or different, I felt like
everybody who is going to be like you
didn't get? It was so great, One
incredibly fascinating aspect of mob
mentality is how it only takes a few
leaders to get the whole mob to follow,
Well, almost the whole mob, Yeah they stood up, I was just like
oh, have fun doing you, I'm
gonna do me, I've always walked to the beat of
my own drum that's how you survive, As
you just witnessed, your brain tends to
go along to get along with the crowd,