Six Degrees of Separation, Hubs and Mathematics

Every once in a while I come across something that is monumental in how I view things in life, tonight is one of those nights. I watched a documentary on the science channel which was based on the game Six Degrees of Separation (the one of Kevin Bacon fame) and it went through the mathematicians who came up with a formula describing the system and network.

Sometimes, when you look at things in a different light, things just completely fall into place, and this is one of those times. There appears to be a mathematical formula which we have all been living under yet we really had no idea about either why things were this way, or studied it. It is the nature of networks, and how they communicate with each other. The beauty of this is that ALL networks in society and in life follow this same mathematical pattern. The internet, your brain, airlines, cells, highways, terrorist networks, everything in life follows this pattern.

I remember reading Tipping Point by Gladwell, and he hinted on this phenomenon without understanding there was a mathematical formula that controlled everything. He talked about people that were hubs in life, the ones who know hundreds of people, and have connections all over the world. I believe he called them "communicators". I remember telling someone that I once knew that she was one of those people, one who keeps in touch with everyone in her past, and has connections all over the world. Everyone of us knows someone like that, it is a natural property of life, and one that makes the networks of society work. Who knew there was a mathematical formula that states how everything interacts in life? I find it amazing that we have been following this formula, and nature has been using it, yet it has not been discovered or seen until now. Especially with modern networking and data gathering techniques, we have used it, but never crossed it with other disciplines to understand how different things interact with each other.

Why is this so groundbreaking, or mind altering to me? I mean seriously, what does this have to do with anything in life and how can it be used? Well, this completely changes how we look at things like cancer, disease, or how genetic mutations talk to each other. It will be able to tell us how disease spreads, and how best to cope with it. It gives us so many different models to study it can't be stated enough. Network science is going to be a new science where we start to examine the nature of society, the interactions and use the information gained to help society grow and technologically improve in the future.

This is an early science, and it is basically in its infancy right now, but I really think it will be ground breaking and cross all realms of science as it matures. My god I love technology, I would be a miserable bastard if I grew up in the middle ages, that is for sure!