quote:mathematics has begun to propose theories for why it should be true
Mathematicians have begun to study the patterns of links that make different distributions, nothing more and nothing less. Any connection to the "six degrees" phenomenon is just commentary on more general studies of the phenomena of social networks.
Posts: 4922 | From: Kyoto, Japan | Registered: Sep 2005
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Also, the scope of the original study was entirely within the U.S. (from Wichita to Cambridge.) So even if it were true, it wouldn't apply to "everyone on earth," it wouldn't have anything to do with the queen, and we wouldn't live in a "world of six degrees of separation." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_world_phenomenon
-------------------- "If God wrote it, the grammar must be infallible. Perhaps it is we who are mistaken." -MapleLeaf Posts: 977 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Oct 2005
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Obviously I have a very strange social network being five degrees (I think) removed from Napoleon Bonaparte and four degrees from Usama bin Laden.
-------------------- Små hönor skall inte lägga stora ägg för då blir de slarviga i ändan Posts: 1334 | From: Sweden | Registered: Feb 2000
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I heard about a woman a few years ago (I can't remember the cite, but it was either in a mag like National Geographic or on a news program) who wanted to test the 6 degrees thing by tracing her connection to a random tribesman in Nepal. It took her nine steps, and the study concluded, like Milgram's original wording, that six degrees is the average number of steps, not the maximum.
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who do not.
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" - The Brain Posts: 587 | From: Colorado | Registered: Jul 2000
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Also, you have to wonder what it means. I just calculated that I am four steps away from George W. Bush. So? It sure doesn't mean I can call him and give him my opinion. It doesn't make him any closer than if he were just three or a full nineteen steps away.
Posts: 142 | From: Netherlands | Registered: Aug 2005
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you know what's funny, my wife grew up overseas, and lived in Houston TX and Malta, most of her life, I lived in small town alberta. we recently did this degrees of separation to see how far we were 10 years before we met when I was in high school. in high school there were only 3 degrees of separation... me to my science teacher to her mom to her... of course I couldn't use that network to find her back then... wouldn't have been practical... unless I knew who she was... just kind of neat!
Posts: 153 | From: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada | Registered: Dec 2004
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