The Oracle of Kevin Bacon
You’ve probably heard of the concept that we’re all separated by only six-degrees-of-separation? Scary I know. Especially when you consider who you’re separated from by only six degrees (everybody actually) You can thank Stanley Milgram for the discovery. He ran an experiment in the US to learn about the structure of our social networks. Let me not bore you with Milgram’s experiment, but rather give you a URL to entertain yourselves.
The Oracle of Kevin Bacon! (click here) Developed by 2 students, Glenn Wasson and Brett Tjaden, at the University of Virginia. A Milgram small world experiment around actors and actresses in the International Movie Data Base and how many degrees of separation between any of them and Kevin Bacon. Apparently not many. Everyone is linked to Kevin Bacon. The most by 10 degrees and the average just under 3. And not because Kevin Bacon has played in so many movies for so long. But because it really is a small world after all.
Don’t believe me, go see for yourself.
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Be a little weary of Stanley’s study, however. Only a very small percentage of messages made it to their destination and many of his other studies have questionable ethics (fake electrocutions were a hoot back in the 60s I guess).
There are many mediating factors that make search, navigation, awareness, etc. difficult past 1 or 2 degrees. Other great resources include Albert Barabasi’s Linked, Duncan Watts’ Six Degrees and Small Worlds and lighter material like Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point.