NOVA: PREDICTION BY THE NUMBERS

Predictions underlie nearly every aspect of our lives, from sports, politics, and medical decisions to the morning commute. With the explosion of digital technology, the Internet, and "big data," the science of forecasting is flourishing. But why do some predictions succeed spectacularly while others fail abysmally? And how can we find meaningful patterns amidst chaos and uncertainty? In a fascinating, fast-paced investigation, this program takes viewers from the glitz of casinos and TV game shows to the life-and-death stakes of storm forecasts and the flaws of opinion polls that can swing an election. PREDICTION BY THE NUMBERS explores compelling success stories of statistics in action, such as how baseball legend Billy Beane developed the recruiting techniques made famous by "Moneyball" to transform the fortunes of major league teams. Yet advances in machine learning and "big data" models that increasingly rule our lives are also posing big, disturbing questions. How much should we trust "black box" predictions made by computers when we don't understand how they arrive at them? And how far can we really forecast how our future world will turn out?

“NOVA: PREDICTION BY THE NUMBERS” will be available on DVD May 15, 2018. The run time of the program is approximately 60 minutes on 1 disc and the SRP is $24.99. The program is also available for digital download.   

My Thoughts 

Prediction By Numbers is an exciting documentary that gives us a look behind the scenes at the process of making predictions. It's done by examining patterns, and this documentary shows us how those patterns are studied. We get to see some real success stories, learn why sometimes the predictions fail, and learn tricks on how to make predictions work for us in the real world.

I really enjoyed this documentary. I used to work in insurance, which has a lot to do with statistics. I also live forty minutes from Atlantic City. So it's exciting to see how the world of science can give me the tools we need to make accurate predictions about so many areas of our lives. Their explanations of why it sometimes works and sometimes fails really make a lot of sense. Overall, the documentary gives you a lot to think about and will have you doing some amateur predicting of your own.