There is No Algorithm for Truth - with Tom Scott
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN returns to it in discussions of algorithmic feeds, misinformation and parasocial relationships, as a clear and thoughtful talk.
What it is
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.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2019 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends pdkl95 · 2019-11 · on “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: [this video]
Recommends codefreeordie · 2022-05 · on “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: [this video] I swear it's also a short video on its own somewhere, but neither Google nor I can find it today.
Recommends nativeit · 2025-03 · on “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. [this video]
Cites karmakaze · 2021-05 · on “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] [this video]
Cites kleer001 · 2022-03 · on “Ask HN: What dictionary do you use as your source of truth?”
"Source of truth"? What the heck does that mean? Truth for whom? [this video] Dictionaries aren't for policing language. They describe how people use language, not the best and only way to use language. [LINK]
Cites jasode · 2022-04 · on “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: [this 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.
Cites zehaeva · 2025-08 · on “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] [this video]