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From Amazon
You may be only six degrees away from Kevin Bacon, but would he let you borrow his car? It depends on the structures within the network that links you. When the power goes out, when we find that a stranger knows someone we know, when dot-com stocks soar in price, networks are evident. In Six Degrees, sociologist Duncan Watts examines networks like these: what they are, how they're being studied, and what we can use them for. To illustrate the often complicated mathematics that describe such structures, Watts uses plenty of examples from life, without which this book would quickly move beyond a general science readership. Small chapters make each thought-provoking conclusion easy to swallow, though some are hard to digest. For instance, in a short bit on "coercive externalities," Watts sums up sociological research showing that:
"Conversations concerning politics displayed a consistent pattern .... On election day, the strongest predictor of electoral success was not which party an individual privately supported but which party he or she expected would win."Six Degrees attempts to help readers understand the new and exciting field of networks and complexity. While considerably more demanding than a general book like The Tipping Point, it offers readers a snapshot of a riveting moment in science, when understanding things like disease epidemics and the stock market seems almost within our reach. --Therese Littleton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Watts, a Columbia University sociology professor, combines his own research in network theory with summaries of the work of others who he says are "collectively solving problems which cannot be solved by any single individual or even any single discipline." The result is a dizzyingly complex blend of mathematics, computer science, biology and social theory that, despite the best efforts at clarification, often remains opaque, buried in scientific language and graphs. The book also assumes a high level of unfamiliarity on the reader's part with the subject, treating phenomena like the 17th-century tulip craze or the "Kevin Bacon game" as fresh news. Even more surprising, however, are the significant omissions- there is not a single mention of "tipping points," for example, the subject of a recent bestselling book. The parts of the book dealing with the author's own research are strong on science, but frustratingly vague on the social network of scientists with whom Watts has worked. There are intermittent highlights in the scientific account, such as an explanation of why casual acquaintances are more likely to provide life-changing opportunities than best friends, or a look at how New York City's reaction to September 11 illustrates current thinking on network connectivity and disruption, but, despite an admirable effort to syncretize discoveries in several fields, the book as a whole is too dry to compete effectively with the popularized accounts that exist for each separate field. Illus.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
THE SUMMER OF 1996 WAS A SIZZLER. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
THE SUMMER OF 1996 WAS A SIZZLER. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Networks explained,
By
This review is from: Six Degrees (Paperback)
The author calls the science of networks a science of real people, where stuff like friendships, rumours, diseases, fashion and music trends, commerce and finance are all involved. He explains how this science fits into the larger scheme of scientific progress and what it tells us about the world in our connected age. The book really covers two narratives: The history and development of the science of networks itself, plus the manifestation of network phenomena in the real world.Chapters 2 to 5 investigate real world networks, chapters 3 to 5 consider the creation and implication of various models of networked systems, whilst chapters six (Epidemics and Failures), seven (Decisions, Delusions and the Madness of Crowds), eight (Thresholds, Cascades and Predictability) and nine (Innovation, Adaptation and Recovery) explore the spread of diseases, recovery, fads, politics, finance and organizational strength. Some of the lessons of this thought-provoking book are that distance is deceptive and that in connected systems, cause and effect are related in complicated and sometimes misleading ways. In the latter regard, Watts discusses the many initial rejections that Kerouac's later very popular classic On The Road had to endure and the similar case of Rowling's first Harry Potter book. The Further Reading section is arranged by chapter and provides recommendations of websites and books on that particular topic. The text contains tables, figures and some black and white illustrations and the book concludes with a bibliography and index. The Hidden Connections by Fritjof Capra and Small World by Mark Buchanan are similar books that I have found to be interesting and informative in this regard
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best written books of the year,
By
This review is from: Six Degrees (Hardcover)
This was one of the most fascinating books I've read recently. Although I had heard of the concept of at most six links between any two people on the earth and the connection with Kevin Bacon as well as a famous mathematician whose name I forget right now, I was not aware of the origin of this concept. Watts tells a fascinating tale of statisticians, social workers, mathematicians, physicists, network engineers, and several other disciplines whose work derives from or adds to the whole science of networks and connectedness. The networking and connectedness of people studying connectedness is as fascinating as any topic in the book. It almost makes me want to go back to college and choose some aspect of network theory as a thesis. Exciting book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
six degrees?,
By James Chu (Taipei, Taiwan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Six Degrees (Hardcover)
Six Degrees has been the only book that I¡ve been reading lately. It was the description of this book to me by a friend that caught my attention. Can I possibly be just 6 people away from any other person on the other side or the world? After I started reading it, the book sucked me right in, and I found this book quite different from other books in the same genera. Duncan J. Watts, the author of this book, unlike other specialists in their area who often take an absolute and definite view in their opinions, instead adapted a more humble attitude in his own works. He open questioned the possible flaws and mistakes in his own theories and opinions, in which I think granted the readers some space to think, and to better digest the contents of this book. Duncan J. Watts gathered opinions and research results from different areas to develop his theories. Network, as Duncan himself had mentioned, is an area of science with much more yet to be discovered. I got to say, this is some hard science that this book is discussing. It covers materials all the way from the study of social structures, advanced math, to advanced physics, and much more. Also according to Duncan, the science of network could actually be more closely to our lives then we imagined. Diseases, social structure, and economy are all under the fields of network. There¡s no way that a regular high school student like me could get a complete hold of such a complex structure of materials. Yet, Duncan¡s explanations and thoughtful examples successfully illustrated a number of clear pictures in my minds and really helped me a lot in the understanding of his concepts. I suggest everyone to read this book, even though one might not fully understand the book, it does give inspirations and provide new perspectives. I am glad that I read this book, it had an great impact upon my view of the world, and reminded how closely things could be related unexpectedly.
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