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In 1929 a Hungarian author named Frigyes Karinthy published a series of short stories called "Everything Is Different". One of the stories was titled "Chains" and used the premise that because of increasing technology, people would in effect start to become "closer" to each other to the point where one person would be "related" or connected to another within 5 levels of acquaintances.
In the play "Six Degrees of Separation" there's a well-known monologue -
So, do you believe that this theory still holds up today? Do you think you could claim a connection with anyone in the world with at most only 6 people in between?
being connected is a vague term. I can say for certain that there are far more than 6 people between myself and say, George W. Bush or Angelina Jolie - but if you start counting things like "my sisters' step father's aunt's mother-in-law once picked up a dirty diaper that belonged to Angelina Jolie's daughter" then I supposed something like that would qualify as "connected", depending on how you define it.
There are lots and lots and LOTS of people that I have no connection, whatsoever with. Millions, I would say.
It's a nice thought, but does not hold water in my book.
I think that is very interesting...but where would you start? I guess i'm the blonde girl again, because I have no idea where to begin...lol.
I've heard of it, just wondering how it works.
Not quite sure of how they did it in the original studies besides using statistics and mathematical sorcery. For us mere mortals, I guess we'd need a computer program to trace our first acquaintance through 6 levels of connection. It would probably be something like-
(First Level)(First acquaintance) - knows 75 people
(Second Level) - each of the 75 people knows 75 = 5,625 people connected
(Third Level) - each of the 5,625 knows 75 = 421,875 people connected
(Fourth Level) - each of the 421,875 knows 75 = 31,640,550 people connected
(Fifth Level) 31,640,550 x 75 = 2,373,046,875 (almost half the world population already)
(Sixth Level) 2,373,046,875 x 75 = 178 billion
Could you please be considerate to those of us who studied ART and NOT physics! Jeez!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SifuPhil
Not quite sure of how they did it in the original studies besides using statistics and mathematical sorcery. For us mere mortals, I guess we'd need a computer program to trace our first acquaintance through 6 levels of connection. It would probably be something like-
(First Level)(First acquaintance) - knows 75 people
(Second Level) - each of the 75 people knows 75 = 5,625 people connected
(Third Level) - each of the 5,625 knows 75 = 421,875 people connected
(Fourth Level) - each of the 421,875 knows 75 = 31,640,550 people connected
(Fifth Level) 31,640,550 x 75 = 2,373,046,875 (almost half the world population already)
(Sixth Level) 2,373,046,875 x 75 = 178 billion
Not quite sure of how they did it in the original studies besides using statistics and mathematical sorcery. For us mere mortals, I guess we'd need a computer program to trace our first acquaintance through 6 levels of connection. It would probably be something like-
(First Level)(First acquaintance) - knows 75 people
(Second Level) - each of the 75 people knows 75 = 5,625 people connected
(Third Level) - each of the 5,625 knows 75 = 421,875 people connected
(Fourth Level) - each of the 421,875 knows 75 = 31,640,550 people connected
(Fifth Level) 31,640,550 x 75 = 2,373,046,875 (almost half the world population already)
(Sixth Level) 2,373,046,875 x 75 = 178 billion
You built yourself a sweet MLM pyramid scheme! Only that the key is to be among the first shrewd ones to make a fortune out of the rest of the sheeple.
You built yourself a sweet MLM pyramid scheme! Only that the key is to be among the first shrewd ones to make a fortune out of the rest of the sheeple.
I AM...
...the First Acquaintance! None may know others without going through me.
If one Cubist knows 75 Abstract artists, and THEY each know 75 Expressionists, and THEY each know 75 Postimpressionists...
All I see is "blah, blah, blah"...numbers drown me!!
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