Degrees of seperation

zuutroy

I was thinking how in Ireland most people you meet, know someone that you do. Say you knew a thousand people (down to the level of people you nod to in the street maybe). Then its quite possible that they know a thousand more folks that you dont. Reasonable? Thats 1/5th of the population in one degree of seperation from you. So extending it by another degree; Almost certainly, I know someone, who knows someone that knows you. Pointless: yes, interesting: maybe.

The Queen

oooooooo lets find out who it is that links us!!!!

zuutroy

well if my 2 people theory is right....you wont know the person closer to me and I wont know the person closer to you. Only they know we're linked.....wooooo....scaaaary!

danniemcq

you're 6 handshakes away from the presof the US is what everyone says. i remember reading about a test done in the 80's where a load of packages were sent out to random people and they had to send it to some dude in the far east and all they had was a name and what he done, so the people had to send the package to someone they thought would know more about the subject or person and so on and the average mount of people was 6 before it got to where it was going.

now seein that was worldwide in ireland i would assume you could probably take 2 people off that chain

Gordon

I've always wondered about the people that we see in general, and how much of a degree of seperation there would be to all the people other people see in the world. I mean, see someone across the street but not nod to them, just see them. A visual seperation if you will.

zuutroy

Gordon wrote:

I've always wondered about the people that we see in general, and how much of a degree of seperation there would be to all the people other people see in the world. I mean, see someone across the street but not nod to them, just see them. A visual seperation if you will.

Good one....How many people have you 'seen' though? I'm 27, so if I went from the time I was say 7, I'd guess I've seen a conservative 200 new people a day. That makes around 1.5 million people. If you assume everyone has the same experience then two degrees gives you 2000 Billion. Theres around 6 billion in the world so you'd think that that would do it, but I'm sure due to the existence of places like North Korea and remote tribes in Africa that there might be far more between me and those people.

The Queen

ok, everyone, list who ye know now!

JoeSchmoe

"you're 6 handshakes away from the presof the US is what everyone says."


this is true for me, I have a friend who studied political science in Washington DC, he worked as an intern for Teddy Kennedy, Teddy knows George. 3 degrees

also my girlfriend works with a guy who was the Queens personal optician three degrees (the queen of England that is, not the Queen of Boards)

and.... another friend's uncle studied in France with Jacques Chirac....three degrees

this is too easy

JoeSchmoe

plus, if i take the amount of world figures those three know/have met I'm four or five degrees away from pretty much any famous person you could name:D


likewise if you could get a link to Bertie or Mary Robinson/macaleese or any other prominent irish figure (not that hard i imagine) you would be too

The Queen

Actually, my uncles wifes cousin is Liam Neeson!!!!

Fajitas!

I'm 1 handshake away from the President of the United States and Bill Clinton, Doc Smurfit...Erm... The Queen of England, our own President...God only knows who else.

Lust4Life

Nah! It's supposed to be "Seven people away from knowing Kevin Bacon"!


My aunt's ex husband is the sister of a gal who lives in california who used to be flatmates with a guy who used to date the gal who used to do Kevin Bacon's laundry and delivered it to Kevin Bacon's maid who obviously knows Kevin Bacon.

That's how it goes!


Oh, and I DID shake George Bush Sr.'s hand! Does that count?

Capt'n Midnight

danniemcq wrote:

i remember reading about a test done in the 80's where a load of packages were sent out to random people and they had to send it to some dude in the far east and all they had was a name and what he done, so the people had to send the package to someone they thought would know more about the subject or person and so on and the average mount of people was 6 before it got to where it was going.

the odd thing was that there were a lot of convergence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point_%28book%29
Connectors: Those with wide social circles. They are the "hubs" of the human social network and responsible for the small world phenomenon.

The_B_Man

Lust4Life wrote:

My aunt's ex husband is the sister of a gal who lives in california who used to be flatmates with a guy who used to date the gal who used to do Kevin Bacon's laundry and delivered it to Kevin Bacon's maid who obviously knows Kevin Bacon.

I have ya bet! my best mates other best mates ma;s sisters sisters son is Colin Farrell!

Ye, I coulda jsut said me mates cousin is CF but that doesnt sound as crap!

OliviaM

that's how close we are to meeting each other:cool:

phantom_lord

off topic but....when u see some random stranger on the street, and then they turn a corner and are gone, how do u know they still exist?

hunnymonster

you take out your personal geiger counter and if there hasn't been a surge or radioactivity they and their pet cat are still alive (though heading off into the sunset.)



I'm one degree of separation and a set of balls away from a boards beers :-)

Exit

You can do your own experiment on this pretty easily. I went onto bebo last week for the first time ever. I was looking for people I went to college with to see what they were up to now. From looking through their friends list, I came across a guy who I knew a little and lived up the road from me. From him, I found people from my neighbourhood (some I knew a little, some I'd never spoken to but knew who they were) From there, I found people I'd gone to secondary school with, and from there I found people I'd gone to primary school with.

By the way, it's freaky coming across people you haven't seen in years and not only seeing what they're up to, but seeing what they look like now. If you haven't seen somebody since they were 18, then in your mind that person looks exactly like they did when they were 18 (even though time has obviously moved on) It's like the guy above asking "how do you know they exist after they leave your sight" because these people you knew only exist in your mind in a particular incarnation, when in the real world they continue to exist in a continually changing body. Ignore if you don't understand what I'm getting at. It is a little bull****ty.

hunnymonster

it's also early.... might make more sense to me when someone makes some coffee

ixoy

Should be fairly easy for some political figures - anyone who did An Gaisce, could have shook Mary Robinson's hand at the awards ceremony, which leads on to lots of political figures around the world.

Anyone able to try and link themselves to someone like the late Saddam Hussein? Rumsfeld is probably your best angle there.

DublinWriter

ixoy wrote:

Anyone able to try and link themselves to someone like the late Saddam Hussein? Rumsfeld is probably your best angle there.

That should be easy. Just before the first gulf war a bunch of Irish construction contractors were working on one of his many palaces. Saddam was so pleased with the work that he shook all of their hands and presented them with a gift of a watch with his face on it.

Black Swan

Lust4Life wrote:

Oh, and I DID shake George Bush Sr.'s hand! Does that count?

Did you wash it afterwords?

Terry

JoeSchmoe wrote:

plus, if i take the amount of world figures those three know/have met I'm four or five degrees away from pretty much any famous person you could name:D


likewise if you could get a link to Bertie or Mary Robinson/macaleese or any other prominent irish figure (not that hard i imagine) you would be too

i was going to mention the political angle myself.
All you need to do is get to know your local TD. they know their constituents and there is the link. bring in bertie for the worldwide connection.

Concannon7

I have often thought about this in the past. I always found it amazing that when I ever I meet someone new they always seem to know someone else that knows me.

On a similar note for those that have Bebo. I remember a few times when bored I'd go onto the home Bebo page and pick some randomer and starting with that person I'd see how long it would take to find my own home page. Each and everytime I have found my page.

ixoy

DublinWriter wrote:

That should be easy. Just before the first gulf war a bunch of Irish construction contractors were working on one of his many palaces. Saddam was so pleased with the work that he shook all of their hands and presented them with a gift of a watch with his face on it.

Interesting! Even some distant tribes in Africa could probably be linked in as they'd have been pestered by some journalist at some point, or met an aid worker which'd allow us to trace back to Ireland.

abetarrush

Was thinkin abt this last week

its actually rediculous the amount of my friends that know eachother

I have many small groups of friends and was shocked they knew eachother

its mad