Beam Me Up, Scotty

This is the most spectacular news I have read in a long, long time:


Study revives six degrees theory

A US study of instant messaging suggests the theory that it takes only six steps to link everyone may be right – though seven seems more accurate.

Microsoft researchers studied the addresses of 30bn instant messages sent during a single month in 2006.

Any two people on average are linked by seven or fewer acquaintances, they say.

The theory of six degrees of separation has long captured people’s imagination – notably inspiring a popular 1993 film – but had recently seemed discredited.

One of the researchers on the Microsoft Messenger project, Eric Horvitz, said he had been shocked by the results.

“What we’re seeing suggests there may be a social connectivity constant for humanity,” he was quoted as saying by the Washington Post newspaper.

“People have had this suspicion that we are really close. But we are showing on a very large scale that this idea goes beyond folklore.”

And it’s true. It is true because I have found out that I am way too close to people I did not want to be close to via a channel of random acquaintances. The world is really small because we’re only humans, and this idea disturbs me in general because I don’t like it when people who know people end up knowing me when I am eager to come across as fresh as possible. Cyberspace is a replica of the real world, that’s how you end up knowing bloggers you have never met.

And now, I would like to know which one of you knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Craig Ferguson. Please leave a comment stating your degree of separation from the late-night talk show host. Beam me up, Scotty.