Michael Smith wrote: > > I have never looked into it, and I haven't read the book, but I find > it very hard to believe that someone who lets say lived and died in > the hills of Kentucky without leaving a local geographical area (with > no phone or computer of course) would be 6 to 7 introductions away > from a nomad who lived and died in the mountains of Afghanistan in a > similar small geographic area. > > It sounds like one of those things which are based on certain > assumptions which may not be true (or the math is so exotic people > just assume ‘they’ must be correct). >
I am continually amazed how people can, in one and the same message, decry someone else for not being empirical enough on the basis of a feeling they happen to have. If you read the book, you will find that hubs and spokes are extremely important to naturally-forming social networks. The Kentucky hillbilly knows someone who knows someone who is much better travelled, and that someone knows someone else who is a few links from the Afghan nomad. What is more, the claim is that we are six or seven links *on average* from everyone else and, thus, it is perfectly consistent with two particularly remote and isolated people being nine or ten or eleven links from each other. Chris Green York U. Toronto ============== > --Mike > > --- On *Sun, 8/3/08, Christopher D. Green /<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>/* wrote: > > From: Christopher D. Green <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [tips] Microsoft prove there are just six degrees of > separation between us | Technology | The Observer > To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" > <[email protected]> > Date: Sunday, August 3, 2008, 7:36 AM > > > Allow me to recommend, once again, the book _Linked: How > Everything in Connected to Everything Else, and What It Means for > Business, Sciences, and Everyday Life_ by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. > Despite the somewhat new-agey, holistic title, it is actually > about mathematical network theory, and has all kinds of > applications to the "real world," especially in the internet age. > By the way, the "six degrees" idea did not originate with Milgram, > as many psychologists like to believe. It instead dates back to a > Hungarian author of the 1920s. > > Regards, > Chris > -- > > Christopher D. Green > Department of Psychology > York University > Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 > Canada > > > > 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ > > ========================= > > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
