Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should be aware that Game of Thrones returns for its newest season this Sunday night. While anticipation is high in general, and predictions about the series’ sixth installment abound, one question seems to be on just about everyone’s tongues: Is Jon Snow really dead?
Well, a new computer program (or is it new magic?) might be able to answer this question, or at least questions like it. A Song of Ice and Data is a new algorithmic program designed to predict which of the series’ characters are most likely to die. Conceptualized and designed in a computer science class at the Technical University of Munich, the students have created something interactive for everyone to enjoy.
When speaking about the team’s motivations for the project, one of the students looked back to the numerous Wiki pages and “similar things” that have been created in tandem with Game of Thrones. “We analyzed [these sites] to see how the world of Game of Thrones would react, and what they would do, to find out who’s next to die, which of the houses are the most dangerous.”
As for the actual mathematical processes used, another student said, “We attempted to calculate 31 factors to see whether they were important or not to predict whether a character would live or die.” The factors included common things like age, parents, and whether or not the character had lived from one book to the next. Of the 31 factors, only 24 made the cut, and from there, they made the algorithm.
And the question on everyone’s mind: Well, who will die next?
According to the program, the next character to die is Tommen Baratheon.
Watch a video below, via The Guardian .