Steven Strogatz: How things in nature tend to sync up

www.ted.com Mathematician Steven Strogatz shows how flocks of creatures (like birds, fireflies and fish) manage to synchronize and act as a unit -- when no one's giving orders. The powerful tendency extends into the realm of objects, too.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

[@Karmakameleeon]

This guy wrote my math textbook. WHAT A LEGEND

[@davidharris4923]

That's Magraw Hill?

[@suryaputra1376]

I read his book on non linear dynamics.....After watching this video I am inspired to work on this field 🤗

[@JimHaroldson]

So that you understand what he's talking about, check out the book "Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos" by Steven Strogatz. It has become the standard introductory text on nonlinear dynamics. All you need to work through it is introductory linear algebra and basic ordinary differential equations.

[@victorrodriguez9412]

Strogatz's Sync book is pretty good too. It's a popular science book written for a general audience. If you do want to work through Strogatz's graduate course, there are lectures online: kzbin.info/aero/PLbN57C5Zdl6j_qJA-pARJnKsmROzPnO9V

[@vishnuvaid7465]

Amazing book indeed

[@ImOnTheTube]

This is really quite interesting because it sums up to the notion that the universe has a way of working things out. There is a relationship between everything; an interconnectingness. It is also exciting that mathematics and science are discovering such patterns and will enable our civilization to be more harmonious through technology and understanding. One day we will reap the full benefits of what the universe has to offer.

[@azsxdcfvgb766]

This video explained me most things I needed to know about how the markets function

[@zackwolk]

one of the greatest TED talks, top 5 for sure.

[@georgesadler7830]

DR. Steven Strogatz , thank you for an excellent lecture on How things in nature tends to sycn up.

[@MsGnor]

awesome dude ... wish my eyeballs would sync up with 240p

[@SharpSh00ter3712]

Say's the privileged kid who doesn't realize this was filmed back in 2008

[@danielmcneary3947]

@@SharpSh00ter3712 actually, this was filmed in 2004

[@cmingo85]

Cmon dude give TED a break, it was 2004

[@grenzfootage7471]

Who cares. Just listen and sync up

[@dojawiththecat]

LOL

[@ahmedamr5265]

So much curiosity, creativity and beauty!

[@OPTIMISTICWINNIE]

Synchronization is powerful 🔥🔥

[@samala51]

The clip of he birds and fish in synchrony was beautiful.

[@Footnotes2Plato]

"What's observed is the effect that emerges from the behavior of the individuals." My understanding of the scientific significance of emergent phenomena is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Individual animals band together to avoid predators because they have evolved together. The behavior of groups of related organisms is a factor that nature can select for.

[@xtrashed]

Thank you, I wish you all the best on your enduring spiritual journey too! God Bless :D

[@ArbitraryMind]

That was a good reference to Rowan Atkinson skit at the end - Ministry of Silly Walks!

[@matthavens6638]

I have studied starling murmurations (synchronized swarming) and a flaw I see alot is that they have been witnessed to murmurate when flocking, landing, as well as roosting. so, if they sync swarm also outside of predators, does't that flaw their model immensely? what's the evolutionary benefit to perform such incredible task if predation avoidance is only a partial reason for their actions?

[@stephendelacruzone]

Beautifully entrancing! 😊

[@jonabirdd]

Excellent speaker! I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of his book

[@leandradenise7556]

Jon Chuang fbh

[@Vegas3S]

I'm so glad there are so many voices of reason in this little mini-debate going on.

[@proatheism]

Very interesting. Thanks for the video.

[@fgeng3828]

breathtaking

[@lizjaymit]

Mesmerizing

[@loganator2688]

Very interesting 🧐

[@raijr413]

Adorei. Muito bom

[@siasabora]

Steven made me love Calculus...smile in a maths class hahahaha!

[@sujaysukumar123]

Amazing!!!!!

[@RandomMichael]

During a weekly ham radio Morse code conversation from VA to NC around sunrise at times of the year, I have noticed the semi-free running electromagnetic radiated interference frequency of a solar power inverter in my house stop wandering around the 2-6mhz frequency area, and sync to the exact transmit frequency (about 3520khz) I am using. It takes transmitting at this frequency at the right time of the year for the solar inverter to start operating, and with (I suppose) enough of my transmitting power going into the free running inverter, to sync it up. For more t (sun hitting solar panels feeding current to the inverter) han a year I thought this was almost supernaturally coincidental, but after reading SYNC the idea gradually came to me. The interference locating to my Morse communication frequency was very loud and interferred with my reception of the other signal. A couple times I would change frequency in order to hear the other station, and the interference followed. Took me a long time to figure this out and I'm still not positive scientifically, but I think this is probably true.

[@Flyborg]

Emergence is cool.

[@SecretEyeSpot]

i wish he had thought of swarms in relation to their geodesic structures.. if the motion trajectory of each bird/fish can be quantified based on its initial point and direction-speed.. one can form a differential equation that averages the flow.. .what makes it effective to think in this way is that when we factor in the "points" where predators strike the swarm, we can predict the trajectory and shape of the swarm based on its impact.

[@SecretEyeSpot]

Especially if he thought of the bridge incident as the consequences of stable points in any dynamical system relative to another.

[@ericcajigas3731]

The metronomes conform to the movement of the bottles and book but before he out them on the bottles you seen. On the desk they were turned on out of sync and then synced up I wanna know why and how it does that when the table isnt moving

[@robertschlesinger1342]

Excellent video. Very interesting, informative and worthwhile video.

[@tribalmastermind4404]

Fantastic

[@lenaabukaraki1965]

Wow !!!

[@ericcajigas3731]

This is fantastic this is the stuff that makes me think we are living in a simulation when two metronomes Wich have no brains and supposed to keep a steady robotic tempo will sync

[@Pareshbpatel]

I recall, reading or hearing somewhere, that Soldiers of the British Empire had to break step when marching over a suspended bridge! - In order to stop the bridge from swaying. For the very reason, illustrated to us by the eloquent Professor!. :-)

[@philldonn705]

I don't want to break your thought just trying to straighten it. The phenomenon that you explained is called resonance. The soldiers, when marching, start walking with the same frequency in unison which is roughly the same as the natural frequency of the bridge. This causes the bridge oscillations to amplify due to resonance between the soldiers' marching and the bridge. In the milenium bridge resonance does not exist in the begining. All of the people are walking in their own pace(frequency). The problem is that they all cause small perturbations to the bridge that make it oscillate in its natural frequency. Because this natural frequency is very close to the walking pace of humans, the people tend to adapt to the bridge in order to stay stable. As they adapt they start walking with the same natural frequency of the bridge, which is called synchronization. As soon as all the people become synchronized with the bridge, it can be said that resonance is present as well. The main difference is that the soldiers cause resonance because they all march with the same frequency as the natural frequency of the bridge. On the other hand the people on the milenium bridge do not walk with the same frequency at start, hence resonance does not exit. Resonance appears only after they all synchronize with the bridge. If resonance exists it does not mean that synchronization exists as well. If synchronization appears then it is also likely that resonance is present as well. I hope i clarified it :D

[@Footnotes2Plato]

I think the sciences of complexity (like DST) have reintroduced formal and final causes into our understanding of nature, whereas standard materialism assumes a priori that only material and efficient causes are real. I say we conform our account of nature to the phenomena as observed, rather than assume from the beginning that nature is mechanical and so try to account for everything in those terms and ignore whatever can't be.

[@kaushaltimilsina7727]

I can not help but notice that when you burn some wood and small pieces of red burning 'coal like' wood remains, they sort of blink around in a symphony that you could probably play a good music to and would look amazing. The light from these pieces seems to move around, slowing down over time but if you blow some air (oxygen) it goes up again. What does the mathematical description of this phenomenon look like? The energy is being swirled around in the system of woods, and the light emitted makes some pattern. The mathematical model of the system probably has some connection to ocean-atmosphere dynamics.

[@mbutler1218]

FYI Steven, There are Synchronous Fireflies in North America. We have them here in my backyard in the Allegheny National Forest of NW Pennsylvania. They are also known to exist in the Great Smoky Mountains. You should come to our PA Firefly Festival on June 28 and see the for yourself.

[@bistdushejn]

+Peggy Butler I was a little disappointed that he didn't mention the ones in North America. Apparently the light shows aren't as intense as those in Indonesia, but they're still very beautiful and enough to get tons of people out to the festivals each year.

[@whalingwithishmael7751]

I could be mistaken, but I think that when he was talking about how the western world hadn't seen them, he was talking about pre-colonial times. He does mention in his book Sync that is at least one species in North America that synchronizes; however, it is far less numerous and thus less renown than the Asian species.

[@Icix1]

awesome

[@4theloveofgrace]

I've noticed especially after being one of 100s walking down 7th Avenue near Times Square today on a sunny very pleasant day and then one of thousands at rock concert, that individuals tend to enjoy being in masses as long as the collective energy is unified and free of visible predators.

[@MaestroAlvis]

This is so fucking cool. My family catches bait fish, which hang out in large swarms. My dad was always sure that there must be some kind of hierarchy, with senior bait fish coordinating smaller bait fish. We would argue about this once a week or so and I never thought it had to be so complicated. Those three rules don't sound too hard to implement in a program. Find your nearest neighbors with a Voronoi diagram, and model distances and orientation as springs. Then it's just finding constants.

[@KatelynAnn710]

so cool

[@paulo.andreola]

Muito bom.

[@Footnotes2Plato]

I do not think we can gain any understanding of what is 'now' without deeply appreciating where it has already been and where it has the potential to go. What is an atom? We cannot say until we trace its emergence back to the big bang and then see it in light of its participation in the bodies of living, conscious beings (and who knows what atoms may do tomorrow). How would you explain matter's move toward deeper feeling and higher consciousness if not in teleological terms?

[@dreamdimensions]

Rupert Sheldrake has done some interesting work on this using a model of a subtle energy field that is to do with consciousness that each member in a group puts into and becomes a part of.

[@rigbi889]

Minute 8:08 “like so many North American things...” an elegant punch under the belt :)

[@bobojr456]

man what a beautiful rolex...oh yea the lecture was good too

[@fretbug]

Kuramoto model for Synchronization !!

[@bert14u]

Behold! Low definition in all its glory! Time to redo this talk with technology from this century

[@user-zz3sz3rw1f]

Основные условия синхронизации: похожесть друг на друга, один частотно-волновой диапазон как для неживых так и биологических организмов. Синхронизация по запахам, возрасту, совпадению движений, цвет, оперение, принадлежность одному роду, семейству... все это притягивает друг друга. В этом должен быть ответ в вопросе о гравитации

[@JimHaroldson]

Sweet! :D I'm a grad student in math too.

[@Vegas3S]

Woah! I just had pizza for lunch too and it was also delicious! Looks like we're syncing up!

[@HuckleberrySlim]

I like that fourth rule, its simple. easy to remember

[@rapskallion]

Disneyland in Anaheim has/had a bridge designed to do this on Tom Sawyer Island. It was a known phenomenom when they opened 1957 so I don't know why these people seemed surprised.

[@chrisg3030]

That clapping experiment right at the beginning. Steven said he was expecting it to synchronise but not to speed up. But in my admittedly limited experience of synchronised clapping it usually does speed up involuntarily (unless it's the slow handclap, a deliberate expression of collective displeasure). Why? Why doesn't it slow down? My opinion: one by one people fall out of phase as the tempo becomes more demanding, disorder supervenes, at which point it's OK to stop. Slowing down wouldn't provide this excuse, so clapping would be excruciatingly prolonged. Maybe that's why clapping is usually unsynchronised in the first place. I wonder if this difference in synchrony between gradually stepped up and stepped down tempo would also occur if incorporated into those famous spontaneously synchronised metronome experiments.

[@michaellundquist403]

sync p. 272

[@chrisg3030]

Please sync with me and explain what you mean.

[@michaellundquist403]

He wrote a book called sync and he talks about clapping on that page

[@james2529]

haha i remember that on the news. this lecure didnt really have a conclusion tho, which annoyed me

[@kakashi76767]

to continue the anaology, the only predators people need to worry about are germs and other people. life, even in america right now, is cut throat. people want to cooperate and help each other, we have an instinct to do so. but most people learn to bypass this instinct. i watched a flock of birds out my window as i watched this... amazing...

[@Lucas-vd2gx]

Who's here because of 9GAG? Hands up! o/

[@Lucas-vd2gx]

@@LostEldritch Run good sir! Here is a potato 🥔

[@spicyvOHMitsnack]

i like the watch commercial as well.

[@Trendlines_mc]

I'm with the Duomo Method people, not a maths or science person but yeah this was very interesting

[@user-ed7gm7ol8k]

thats science under oddly satisfiying

[@AdamAmbrus]

so what happened with the bridge? was it something that needed structural fixing? or has it just become a case of 'don't let too many people on the bridge at once' ?

[@MaxWyght]

It wasn't about the number, but the resonation frequency of the bridge. Mythbusters did a show on this bridge in their very first season, and I recall they said something about changing some of the cables so that different sections of the bridge would resonate in different frequencies, essentially cancelling out and preventing the strong resonance required to achieve something of that caliber. They then proceeded to build a cellphone sized device that could be calibrated to resonate with any metallic structure to such a degree that said tiny device could be felt vibrating 100 feet away.

[@markus310773]

Nice video. However, I am very surprised about the story with the London bridge. Effects like this have been experienced long before. The Golden Gate Bridge e.g. had exactly the same problem when it opened to the public. I just do not understand, that bridge builders did not consider this fact in the year 2000.

[@user-qx6pc8fk4h]

Saying "metronomes can communicate through mechanical forces", is the same as saying: А hammer can communicate with a nail. In fact, the metronomes CONTROL! each other.

[@Slabbers]

Anyway, this isn't the place for this discussion, I agree with ingsocof1984. This video is another spectacular demonstration of how beauty and apparent complexity can emerge from very simple rules.

[@PMeekums]

@oathme420 no energy can't be created or destroyed, but matter can be made from energy and when destroyed it gives off energy, none is lost in the creation or destruction hence energy can't be created or destroyed

[@xtrashed]

Asking questions in life is important. To investigate our faith is very important. I once heard a great quote, 'If you go to Church it doesn't make you a Christian' , and this is very true. Being religious,or believing in God is has nothing to do with credulity or superstition. Like science, it is based on evidence, reasoning, and judgment. But its object (God) is not a being in the world; therefore, its methods cannot be those of the ordinary empirical sciences.

[@miklevideo]

La sincronía tiene que ver con sensibilidad. Para la sincronización espontánea que se necesita, estar vivo y ser inteligente y tener conciencia de los otros. La sincronización pertenece a lo Micro y a lo macro. Ocurre en lo subatómico mínimo y en la región más lejana del cosmos, como la belleza y la vida entonces no solo nosotros seres humanos somos los que estamos vivos y somos inteligentes. Es como si hubiera una inteligencia superior y no me refiero a un monito controlando todo (Derbez de diablito) sino a algo a lo que comúnmente no le nombraríamos inteligencia. Intelecto es leer adentro, es como si todo se estuviera o “se tuviera” leyendo hacia dentro. Y hay un orden inscrito (escrito adentro o escrito desde dentro y si escribir es grabar, todo está grabado adentro)

[@Slabbers]

Not a bad idea andrewf. Sorry for the off-topic stuff! I just find it irritating when people say things in public that are completely unjustifiable and can't help myself pointing it out...

[@hancho17]

lmao, i know i'll remember that one when i'm in a flock.

[@Parasome]

You right, it is the false pretense that we are all individuals. (Selfishness in a way) If we look on a grand scale we are all but one organism under one heaven. And one heaven under one universe.

[@nothing_in_the_darkness]

Watcing this in 2021, and all the coughing in the crowd is making me nervous.

[@billyjoehoyt6716]

Tips Rocks Boats Sync

[@KarlBonner1982]

I wonder how the phenomenon of spontaneous synchronization applies to a DJ rocking the crowd on a dance floor? Are there similar positive feedback loops to what happened when people started walking funny on the Millennium Bridge?

[@kalpahazarika1251]

wow

[@slLLyhumans]

interesting

[@premed2]

Yetnicko & jungenbum, get in synch!

[@Vegas3S]

I think the only question that you've called anyone to ask is "How on earth can these people still exist?" and "I wonder how long it will take until we live in a more logical, reasoning, and intelligent society; one that encourages questioning ideas rather than blindly following them just because someone else says that they're true?" It's better to have doubt to the extraordinary in the presence of what we do not understand than to believe in something where there is most likely nothing.

[@winmine0327]

3:15 gave me a splitting headache

[@christiansmith-of7dt]

Its never going to be ready

[@BlackMetalSwan]

I think he showed THAT things in nature tend to sync up, but he didn't go into how too much (with the exception of the bridge, but that isn't really related too much to groups of birds).

[@FFWorldHD]

Starts with complex mathematical relations, swarm mechanics in nature, metronomes causing oscillations in inanimate objects, ends with a Mr. Bean episode

[@abyssquick]

morphic resonance theory is interesting.

[@xtrashed]

The books that were not included in the Bible because some of them are apocrypha, some are Gnostic writings, and some (such as 3 Maccabees) are accepted by the Orthodox Church. These books are useful for historic purposes, to see how people lived and taught during the time period they cover. They tell a lot about the people that wrote them, either orthodox Christians and Jews, or heretical groups.

[@xtrashed]

What Darwin didn't realize (and what we know now) is just how machine-like even a single cell is, how delicately and intricately interdependent its elements are. That this construction was not, in some sense, designed or directed by a higher intelligence seems counter-indicated.

[@Saddamuel]

I agree that flocking birds are flocking interesting but as you said it was the way he presented this as some amazing new discovery which surprised me. Plate Tectonics is interesting but if someone presented nothing new then I wouldn't be that impressed. It seems natural that birds would act as a group simply by following those around them. All it takes is for a disturbance somewhere to ripple through the whole. Emergent behaviour.

[@user-kt5mb3pc8u]

so in a nut shell. why is it the way it is?

[@Vegas3S]

Good, I'm glad we agree. I probably should have just said that atheism rejects "theism and all that it implies" in order to blanket the thought more completely. Circular logic is fun. "Did you know that the water that I drink keeps elephants away? Do you see any elephants around? No, then it must be true."

[@victorburnett6329]

Certainly seen a lot of synchrony at grocery stores in panic buying.

[@Footnotes2Plato]

When I speak of neo-Darwinism, I am thinking specifically of the perspective of philosophers of biology like Dawkins, Dennett, Pinker, and others who think the whole process can be reduced without interesting remainder to genetic mechanisms. I contrast them with thinkers like Gould, Lewontin, Margulis, Varela, Kauffman, Goodwin, etc., who recognize the emergent significance of all the other complexity of the biosphere and who reject the idea it can be accounted for from the bottom up.

[@ngugitwc6380]

Of course they put all the Red Shirts on the platform

[@Footnotes2Plato]

A top down description doesn't necessarily involve anything supernatural, but it does stand in opposition to the strict materialist ontology assumed by the neo-Darwinists. (we do both agree that DNA is highly significant, but I see it as a passive means of memory storage. there are active elements to the organization of life that understanding just this passive molecule tells us nothing about).

[@Kevitivity]

Climate scientists should pay attention to this.

[@jungenbum]

aw damn, you got there first! gj ;o

[@xtrashed]

ake a look at the recent work of Antony Flew and the texts of John Polkinghorne, both of whom argue from the complex intelligibility of the world to a creative intelligence. All of science rests upon the assumption that finite being is intelligible. Some creative intelligence must ground that intelligibility.

[@gregnix]

Great, so why do things synch up?

[@adolthitler]

Synchronised watches?

[@l1hao]

But what happens if someone falls down on the bridge? The interviewer was not very good at keeping balance. If people fall down, then the chaos is released in small bits rather than building up towards explosion in the end.

[@Vegas3S]

Just because you cant see the answer behind the mystery doesn't mean the answer automatically points to an intelligent source. We used to think that there was an intelligent source behind lighting but it turns out that wasn't true either.

[@Parasome]

Synchronicity occurs in all wakes of life. People follow others around them, and in a collective manner move as one order. We can infer that atoms and electrons work in the same way. So is the electron orbit random? If on a grand scale order is reached by a collective of conscious individuals? OMG! I am losing my MIND!

[@keeelane]

i kind of like to think flocks and such are subconscious "archetypal" behavior