Responds to Questions of Barabasi: The Sixth Link pp. 25-35

1. What is the principle of six degrees of separation? What number of social links does any one person need to be connected to global society? p. 30

The principle of six degrees of separation is the idea that people live in a very dense web and they can easily interconnect from one person to another. In order to be connected to global society, it will require barely more than one social link per person.


2. How is the fabric of society today different from pre-internet society? p. 31

In the fabric of society today, people can get more information and get them quicker than that of pre-internet society because informational nodes are more densely than that of pre-internet society due to the Internet.


3. How many more links separate any pair of web pages compared to people in society? What can explain the difference? p. 34

Any pair of web pages is separated by approximately nineteen links, while people are separated by six social links. Thus, the separation of web pages needs thirteen links more than that of people.


4. So far, what ranges of separation have network scientists discovered in different kinds of networks? p. 34

Network scientists have discovered that species in food webs are two links away from each other, molecules in the cell are separated on three chemical reactions, scientists in different fields of science are separated by four to six links and the neurons in the brain of the C. elegans worm are separated by fourteen synapses.


5. What does research suggest about the fundamentals of networks? p.34-35

The Research suggests that the average separation of nodes in a network is so dense.


6. What is your estimate of your personal number of connections to society? What connections are your strongest?

My personal number of connections to society is perhaps about 40.
My strongest connection can be ICU (students).

Talk about our answers to questions on Barabasi, pp. 25 - 35

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