Have you seen this article yet by John Markoff? Six degrees of separation has been knocked off its pedestal. We're down to 4.74 links between any two people on the planet, according to researchers at Facebook and the University of Milan:
Adding a new chapter to the research that cemented the phrase “six degrees of separation” into the language, scientists at Facebook and the University of Milan reported on Monday that the average number of acquaintances separating any two people in the world was not six but 4.74.
The original “six degrees” finding, published in 1967 by the psychologist Stanley Milgram, was drawn from 296 volunteers who were asked to send a message by postcard, through friends and then friends of friends, to a specific person in a Boston suburb.
The new research used a slightly bigger cohort: 721 million Facebook users, more than one-tenth of the world’s population. The findings were posted on Facebook’s site Monday night.
Eventually this number will tend toward 2, I am certain. It's just a matter of pattern recognition, key skill for the 21st century.
