6 Degrees of Separation

I remember when i first encountered the theory that you were only 6 people away from being able to meet anyone on the planet,I thought it might have been less.

In this documentary mathamaticians step into the fray to try to establish equations of inter-connectivity in complex systems like cells, animals, humans and the internet.

The key is 'Hubs' where dense amounts of connectivity occur in clusters ,with outlieing individuals in the system with less connectivity of their own 'plugging' in.

While this is a subtle form of Reductionism by science to explain the organic nature of life, it is a step in the right direction, a step to the Buddhist notion of 'Interconnectivity' It forces scientists to overlap and become interdisciplinary and look for patterns in the data, and thats where systems thinking combined with computer models can show us things that ordinarily lie hidden.

They run a neat experiment in the doco selecting 6 people from around the world at random in different countries who are given a parcel to send to someone they don't know in Boston USA. They have to find a way to send it in 6 people of less who can deliver the package.

What started off as an urban myth about a Hollywood actor, a theatre play and then a feature film has become a new study of interconnectivity in human beings.It has the obvious implication for medicine in the way disease is spread around the planet, for technology in the way viruses impact the internet and perhaps more culturally important how we are all connected here on earth.