Curly Posted January 16, 2004 After watching the film Six degrees of separation I’ve suddenly become very interested in the whole concept. This concept being that an "ideal" person in society would have just about as many friends in the rest of the county as in the neighbourhood, just as many in the rest of the country as in the county, just as many in the whole nation as in the country, and so on, as you might find in a highly mobile society. Therefore it is assumed that there is up to 6 degrees of separation in society, which means that you can virtually make a connection with anyone, whether they’re on the other side of the street or the other side of the world, which ultimately means that the world is a much smaller space than you think. You can test this theory by playing a game; this game demonstrates in a dramatically clear way why it makes sense to spend some time thinking about highly correlated systems with many degrees of freedom. There are several variations of the game but the basic theme is always the same. The idea comes originally from Stanley Milgram, who conducted the following social experiment: He addressed a number of letters to a stockbroker acquaintance of his, who lived in Boston. He then gave the letters to randomly chosen people in Nebraska, who had to pass them on to people they knew on a first-name basis, and who they considered socially closer to the Boston stockbroker. When the letters arrived and their path was traced back, it turned out that - on average - each letter had taken only 6 steps to get to the specified person in Boston. Milgram concluded that 6 was the degree of separation between two randomly chosen people on earth. Whether 6 actually is the correct number is at least arguable but it has been confirmed that only very few steps are necessary to connect any two people in today's social network. So without breaking any SOL rules, I thought that it would be an interesting game to play ourselves. (You don’t have to give out any personal information. ) I thought maybe we could try this with someone famous and see how many of us know the same person and through how many degrees, so I’ll start off with someone Somali who’s famous. Rageh Omar Oh and what do you make of this poster? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Curly Posted January 18, 2004 Okay I get the point you lot aren't interested in my game. Well you're the ones loosing out...lol Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
J.Lee Posted January 18, 2004 LooooooL That is my favorite movie. It's a weird process though but aight so Rageh omar: A somali news report I don't know if that is helpful. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LuCkY Posted January 20, 2004 LoL, Now Ms Sue How is this suppose to go again? :confused: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Reality Check Posted January 20, 2004 Who's rageh? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Medley of extemporanea Posted January 20, 2004 i don't know if this would count but I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a girl who knows a guy who knows a guy who's neighbor went to school with a lady who’s cat was once attacked by a dog that appeared in the background of a BBC news clip that featured Rageh Omar... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Changed Posted January 20, 2004 all i know is he is a war correspondent for BBC. i used to love the simpson i dont care for then any more. two more people to go and we will see if this hypothesis works haniif......lol funny Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Curly Posted March 5, 2004 looooool I didn't know any body replied back to this. Really Haniif you?re nuts! Was any of that even remotely true? Because I honestly don?t think so, anyways I think I should have explained it a little better but Haniif had the right Idea. Like if I tried to connect myself to Rageh Omar, I?d say my mum is related to Rageh Omar?s Brother?s Wife who live in London ?lol I know it seems so lame now but you can try it with anybody and it?s so weird! Another one only us Uk people would know is Ashley Cole, like my brother was in the same class as Ashley Cole the England football player. I hope you get it now! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Instinct.Poet Posted March 6, 2004 lol..I know what your talking about.. We did some what of this kind..In my high school Psychology class.back in 5 or 6 yrs ago.We came to find out my teacher was 4degrees from Hitler..I was six degrees from kevin bacon.. O.k six degrees from rageh omar? basicly i'm gonna close the chain. My brothers wife's brother's wife is a first cuzzin to rageh omar.. simple right..lol 5 degrees from rageh omar.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Curly Posted March 9, 2004 Finally someone here understands! Cheers the poet!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
