We have a few stress balls left.
And we could perhaps do this
a little dramatically maybe
with eight volunteers, if you will.
OK, that's a plan.
OK, so 1, about 2, 3, if we could, OK, 4
in the middle there, 5, 6, 7, and let's
see--
and let's see, [INAUDIBLE]
can come up here.
Can we do it after?
OK, thanks.
And how about-- wait, I
saw a hand in the middle.
How about eight,
volunteered by your friends.
Come on up.
So come on up, if you would.
And Brian, if we could
go ahead and equip
our volunteers each with a number.
We're going to go ahead and
see if we can't solve together
the idea of finding an algorithm
for sorting the numbers at hand.
So in just a moment, each of
you will be handed a number.
In the meantime, let's go ahead
and just say a quick introduction,
who you are, and perhaps your house.
AUDIENCE: [? Crus, ?]
Dudley House, from Germany.
AUDIENCE: Curtis, just here visiting.
SPEAKER 1: Wonderful.
AUDIENCE: Ali, freshman,
[INAUDIBLE],, from Turkey.
AUDIENCE: Farah
[? Foho, ?] from Detroit.
SPEAKER 1: Nice.
AUDIENCE: Allison, Hollis because
I'm first year, from Cleveland.
AUDIENCE: I'm Claude.
I'm in Mauer.
And I'm from Virginia.
AUDIENCE: I'm [? Rohil. ?]
I'm in Wigglesworth.
And I'm from Atlanta.
AUDIENCE: I'm [? Yowell. ?]
I'm also from Wigglesworth.
And I'm from New York.
AUDIENCE: I'm Bonnie.
I'm in Lowell.
I'm from Beijing and
[? Ann ?] [? Arbor. ?]
SPEAKER 1: Wonderful.
And I'm noticing now, as you might be
too, we have nine volunteers on stage.
So we're going to go
ahead and solve this.
That's OK.
What's your name again?
AUDIENCE: Bonnie.
SPEAKER 1: Bonnie, come on over here.
You're going to be maybe
my assistant, if you could,
as we sought these elements.
Let's go ahead and
give you the mic here.
Each of you has been
handed a number that
happens to match with this, which
is just an unsorted list of numbers.
And let me just ask that our eight
volunteers here sort yourselves.
Go.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
SPEAKER 1: And I'll have
you direct them after this.
Excellent.
Very well done.
[APPLAUSE]
OK.
So let me ask any of
you, and we'll hand you
the mic, if need be, what was the
algorithm you used to sort yourselves?
AUDIENCE: Human intuition.
SPEAKER 1: Human intuition, OK.
[LAUGHTER]
Nice.
[APPLAUSE]
Nice.
Other formulations?
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: I just checked
if the person who's left
me, who is supposed to be larger
than me is larger than me.
And if he was larger than
me, then I stayed there.
And if I was larger than him, I
just switched places with him.
SPEAKER 1: OK, I like that.
It's sort [? of a ?]
locally optimum approach,
where you just kind of look to
the left and right and sort of
fix any transpositions or mismatches.
And in fact, let's go ahead and
try and apply that same idea.
Can all eight of you reorder
yourselves, just like that,
so that you're standing
below your number
so that we're undoing the human
intuition that we just executed.
And now let's go ahead and
say, all right, so, Bonnie,
if you don't mind
helping direct us there--
direct us here, we clearly have
now an unsorted list of numbers.
Let's just bite off this
problem one bit at a time.
So for instance, you
two, your names again?
AUDIENCE: Tris.
SPEAKER 1: Tris.
AUDIENCE: Curtis.
SPEAKER 1: And Curtis.
So you guys are clearly out of order.
So what would be the locally
optimal solution here.
AUDIENCE: They would switch orders.
SPEAKER 1: OK, please do that.
All right, now let's consider 6 and 8.
AUDIENCE: They're fine.
SPEAKER 1: OK, 8 and 5?
AUDIENCE: Let's switch again.
SPEAKER 1: Please switch again.
8 and 2?
AUDIENCE: Switch.
SPEAKER 1: OK.
8 and 7?
AUDIENCE: Switch.
SPEAKER 1: 8 and 4?
AUDIENCE: Switch.
SPEAKER 1: 8 and--
AUDIENCE: 1.
SPEAKER 1: --1?
AUDIENCE: Switch.
SPEAKER 1: All right.
So have we solved the problem?
AUDIENCE: No.
SPEAKER 1: OK, no, obviously
not, but is it better?
Are we closer to the solution?
I'd argue we are closer because,
right, like 8 somehow made its way all
the way to the correct destination,
even though we still have kind of a mess
here to fix.
But notice that the solution got better
in this direction and a little better
this direction.
But we're going to do this again.
So Bonnie, can you direct us once more?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
So if you would proceed from
this order, you two would switch.
SPEAKER 1: 5 and 6?
AUDIENCE: Let's switch again.
SPEAKER 1: 6 and 2?
AUDIENCE: Remain, and
then the next person--
SPEAKER 1: 7 and 4?
AUDIENCE: 7 and 4 switch.
SPEAKER 1: Nice.
7 and 1?
AUDIENCE: 1 and 7 switch.
And then--
SPEAKER 1: So now are we done?
AUDIENCE: No.
SPEAKER 1: So no, but look,
the problem is getting better.
It's closer to solution because now
we have 8 in place and 7 in place.
So we've taken a bite out of
the problem, if you would.
Now, we can do this a little more rapid.
So if you want to tell everyone
what to do pairwise, pretty quickly.
Go.
AUDIENCE: So everyone, just if you're--
[LAUGHTER]
SPEAKER 1: Human
intuition, if you would.
But let's do it pairwise.
AUDIENCE: OK.
Sure.
Could everyone if the person on
your right is smaller than you,
switch with them and then do that again.
SPEAKER 1: Good.
AUDIENCE: Do that again, again.
SPEAKER 1: Good.
AUDIENCE: Again.
And then one last time.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah.
So even though we allowed it to get
a little organic there at the end,
now is the list sorted?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: [LAUGHS] Yes.
So maybe a round of applause
for our volunteers here.
And thank you to Bonnie, especially.
Thank you.
