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six degree's of seperation


casekonly

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kind of cool:

 

This is a question with rather a long history. As early as 1929, the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy speculated that anyone in the world could be connected to anyone else through a chain consisting of no more than five intermediaries. Because the last person in the chain, who we call the target, does not count as an intermediary, five intermediaries is equivalent to six degrees of separation. The first scientific exploration of what was to become known as the "small world problem" came almost three decades later in the work of Manfred Kochen (a mathematician) and Ithiel de Sola Pool (a political scientist), who proposed a mathematical explanation of the problem. Assuming that individuals choose 1,000 friends at random from a population as large as 100 million, Kochen and Pool showed that no more than two or three intermediaries (hence three or four degrees of separation) would be required to connect any two people. People, however, do not choose friends at random, which implies that the real answer should be higher. Kochen and Pool realized this, but were unable to solve the more difficult problem.

 

Stimulated by Pool and Kochen’s work, the great social psychologist Stanley Milgram devised an ingenious experiment in the late 1960s to test the hypothesis. Milgram and his graduate student, Jeffrey Travers, gave 300 letters to subjects in Boston and Omaha, with instructions to deliver them to a single target person (a stockbroker from Sharon, Massachusetts) by mailing the letter to an acquaintance who the subject deemed closer to the target. The acquaintance then got the same set of instructions, thus setting up a chain of intermediaries. Milgram found that the average length of the chains that completed (64 of them) was about six--quite remarkable in light of Karinthy’s prediction 40 years earlier. Since Milgram, the small-world problem has become a cultural phenomenon, especially after the playwright John Guare chose the catchy term "six degrees of separation" as the title of his 1990 play. But until recently, very little empirical work had been done aside from Milgram’s initial experiment, and no one could explain why it worked.

 

Some recent theoretical work suggests that the answer may or may not be six, but it is certainly small--not 100 for example. A very large scale e-mail version of Milgram’s experiment, currently being conducted at Columbia University (see link above) might settle the matter once and for all. But for now, it remains a mystery.

 

from http://66.183.107.55:81/cul1/homeworlds/jo...ves/000174.html

 

 

i'm seperated by two degree's from jeri ryan. my aunt and uncle know her. that's the only example i have that directly apply's

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This is mildly interesting.

There's no real mystery to solve, or a magic number that works for every example. I wouldn't be surprised if the average were six, but the absolute max should be higher. You could certainly come up with a seven or higher if you work from both ends - just pick hermits from two different continents. Hermit Mbutu of the Congo knows less than half the people in his village, and none of the villagers who trade with Mombasa, who brings stuff from the nearest small city. That's three already: two villagers and Mombasa. The closest dude Mombasa knows with ties to the US (where our target hermit lives) is Dan the Peace Corps volunteer, who worked in that small city. That's four. Now we're trying to get to Idaho, and the biggest coincidence we can find is that Dan's father (intermediary #5) has an old hunting buddy (#6) who went to highschool with our target hermit, Randy Weaver, who holed up in northern Idaho, shot at FBI agents, and generally scowled at anybody with skin as dark as Mbutu's.

That's six intermediaries and seven degrees of separation. If you want to get more scientific you'd have to nail down what constitutes one degree: friend, relative, guy who came within a mile of you once? Etc.

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i think you can go as high as maybe 10...what constitutes a degree? well, i'd say a friend, relative, or even an aquaintance. definitely not a guy who came within a mile of you.

what makes it weird is that guys book, the electronic "revolution" has made this seperation even closer, rather than further apart.

take seeking for example, we have all posted reply's to seeking or seeking has replied to us on this board, and he claims that he is within one degree of seperation from any celebrity or music star that we can name. some people on this board know seeking, others, like myself are just aquainted with him from 12oz. so that's two degree's for us.

i may be wrong. i suck at math, but logic...that's another thing. anyway, i just thought that was a really cool article. thanks for that example cracked ass.

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well, i used to do shows with eminem, so by virtue of that right there, i'm 'connected' to a ridiculous number of people. now, realisticly speaking, i havent seen him in a couple years, so its not like i could just dial him up and say, 'hey, lemme get elton johns number'. so it really depends on how 'related' the degrees have to be.

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you could probably get in touch with him. a side note: my cousin set up a show for him at the hard rock in atl, he said eminem was the nicest guy he'd ever met, said every time someone asked him something he'd say "yes, ma'am (sir), no ma'am(sir)" how odd...

anyway, that kind of makes sense, seeking, you are connected. it's like me, though, my aunt and uncle had their wedding reception at jeri ryan's house and i was there, they went to her new house in l.a. this past summer to visit, but it's not like i could call her up and go "hang out"

somethign related to this site, from personal experience:

i used to email Giant back and forth, i had an aquaintance on the eat coast (where i am) that went to school with him and one of his friends in new mexico, and i just started talking to Joker, and he's friends with Giant. that seems to be a great example, actually. less than six degree's for both examples i gave.

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i went to school with a guy named kurt who's dads name is rich. rich helped design the propulsion system on the 'patriot' missles we all knew and loved during desert storm. along with missle engines, they also make airplane engines. when i flew up to portland on an airplane, joker picked me up at the airport.

 

crazy!

:D

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Guest ctrl+alt+del
Originally posted by seeking

im about 2 degrees away from just about every musician or celebrity you could come up with.

which says very little about me, and a whole lot about one or two people i know.

 

the kevin bacon game

 

...

 

SALLY FIELD!!

 

i dont think theres anyway you can link yourself to sally field, but if so... you really are the man.

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my sister dates...

http://www.anticon.com/molly/meganben.jpg'>

damian marley, who worked with ....

http://www.pressomatic.com/MusicFarm/upload/damian-jr-gong-marley.jpg'>

lauryn hill, who was in sister act 2 with...

http://www.slash.com.ch/no64/images/musique/lauryn-hill.jpg'>

james coburn, who was in 'the muppet movie' with...

http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Events/0830-osc/coburnja.mes'>

dom delouise, who was in 'smokey and the bandit 2' with....

http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Natural_Phenomenon_Ocean/images/sm-101716.jpg'> (seen here with 'super greg)

 

da, da, da, daaaaaa!

 

sally field

http://www.ificouldmovie.com/images/filmmakers/music_voice_pix/sally_field.jpg'>

 

i could have done it in 3 steps if i'd gone with eminem, but i wanted to make it more fun.

 

anyone else?

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Guest ctrl+alt+del

seeking is the man.

im gonna find some really obscure actor thats only been in one movie

 

Patricia DeCou

 

thats going to be hard, shes only been in one movie, albeit a pretty big movie.

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Guest imported_El Mamerro
Originally posted by ctrl+alt+del

seeking is the man.

im gonna find some really obscure actor thats only been in one movie

 

Patricia DeCou

 

thats going to be hard, shes only been in one movie, albeit a pretty big movie.

 

Patricia DeCou was in the Blair Witch Project, which was written/directed by Eduardo Sancjez and Daniel Myrick, who also wrote Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, where Kurt Loder starred as himself... and dude, Kurt Loder knows everyone.

 

He probably fucked Sally Field even.

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Originally posted by ctrl+alt+del

seeking is the man.

im gonna find some really obscure actor thats only been in one movie

 

Patricia DeCou.

 

i wanted to stay away from the eminem connection, cause its a bit too easy, but since she was so obscure, i felt it permissable.

 

 

i did shows with..

eminem, who was in 'the wash' with...

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/gallery/2001/02/27/eminem.gif'>

 

tommy chong, who was in 'yellowbeard' with...

http://www.canadians.ca/celebs/tommy_chong-slide.jpg'>

 

john cleese, who as in 'scorched' with...

http://www.jamesbond.com/bond20/international/italian/media/newswrap/12/nw_01.jpg'>

 

joshua leonard, who was in 'blair witch project' with...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/405000/images/_409800_joshua_leonard150.jpg'>

 

da, da da, daaaaaa

 

patricia decou

http://www.ravecentral.com/blairwitch99.jpg'>

 

:D

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Originally posted by casekonly

ok, that was really cool, seeking....how about mr. rogers (r.i.p.)?

 

i've met and hung out with kid rock, who was in 'osmosis jones' with...

kid%20rock.JPG

ben stein, who was in 'casper' with...

stein_lg.jpg

 

da, da, da, daaaaaa

 

mister fred rogers

rogers.jpg

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Ding-ding, seeking locks it down again......and to be honest, i now have a new found respect for you (and that aint even the giggle bush speaking)

 

but enough with the old and ugly........roll out the six degrees to

 

 

 

Shannon Sossamon

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i know my ex-probation officer

who knew my judge

who knows the mayor

who knows some senate guys

who knows george bush

 

 

 

 

back when, i remember there used to be a website "www.sixdegrees.com" that you signed up with and your friends signed up with and then it should how everyone was linked up with everyone else. crazy shit. someone with extra cash should start that site back up.

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Originally posted by dignan

Shannon Sossamon

 

 

my dad used to work security for....

ted nugent, who was in 'private parts' with...

http://www.yaf.org/speakers/nugent_300.jpg'>

jenna jameson, who was in 'pornstar: the legend of ron jeremy' with....

http://www.deansplanet.com/celebs_smoking/jenna.jpg'>

ron jeremy, who was in 'rules of attraction' with....

http://www.k9care.com/fga/Ron_Jeremy3.jpg'>

 

da, da, da, daaaaaaaa.....

 

shannyn sossamon, who i cant believe ive never seen before, because shes hot as fuck!

http://www.ciudadfutura.com/elcriticon/shanny9.jpg'>

 

and eminem, scheminem, ive used someone different for each one :)

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