Last week when the Blackhawks beat the Ducks to reach the Stanley Cup finals, it sent a chill down my spine.  No… not because I’m a Blackhawks fan, but because I’ve been following the predictions made by “human swarms” and it’s getting downright scary…

Six weeks ago, a group of users were asked to predict the winner of the Stanley Cup. They didn’t take a vote, or complete a survey, or argue among themselves. They made the prediction as a collective intelligence, working together as a swarm.

As documented in prior posts, the swarm predicted the Blackhawks.  At the time the prediction was made, Vegas odds put the hawks as 7/1 long-shots.  And yet over the next six weeks and 17 games, we’ve watched Chicago beat Nashville, then Minnesota, then Anaheim, to reach the Stanley Cup Finals. Which is why last night’s win felt spooky.

Of course, it’s not just the NHL playoffs that has me spooked.  This year we’ve seen swarms out-predict the expects when forecasting the winners of 2015 Oscars, correctly picking 11 of the 15 top awards (the NYT blog only picked 9). We’ve also seen swarms pick Mayweather over Pacquiao, the Patriots over the Seahwawks, even predict the number of yards that Marshawn Lynch would run during the game to within 2%.  We’ve even seen swarms predict the price of Bitcoin with accuracy.

So, it was with great anticipation that we waited to see if the Blackhawks make it all the way.  And as we all know – they won the cup!  Crazy…

If you are interested in participating in future swarms as a beta-tester, sign up here.

SEE VIDEO OF SWARM BELOW:

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The amazing thing is that “swarming” is not just insightful, it’s really fun.

If you are interested in participating in future swarms as a beta-tester, sign up here.