Actually, I think everyone should be skeptical of claims whether it comes from science, or math, or psychology, etc. I believe my reaction to this kind of thing to be healthy (and normal) and not in the least amazing.
Ignoring the factioid of 'an average of 6 links' so that people go "Wow, really?" as the piece of scientific trivia that it is, perhaps the book explains how they went about actually collecting the data and demonstrating the verified empirical results in several test cases (maybe 10 or 20 cases?) such as the hillbilly and the nomad. I guess I will have to read it to find out. Of course if they didn't, and it's just a model, well... --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, 1:19 PM 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 #yiv1814606980 #yiv622258729 p.p1 {margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:16.0px Times New Roman;} #yiv1814606980 #yiv622258729 p.p2 {margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:16.0px Times New Roman;min-height:18.0px;} #yiv1814606980 #yiv622258729 p.p3 {margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:12.0px Helvetica;} #yiv1814606980 #yiv622258729 span.s1 {font:16.0px Lucida Grande;} 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]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
