6 degrees of Separation?

During the COVID isolation phase there seemed to be a fashion of people issuing challenges to delve into personal histories for a number of days to follow a theme.  I’m not going to do a multi-day epic but instead will (after some preamble) write about links with 10 people with whom I have 1 or 2 degrees of separation.

The idea of this is that it has been proposed that by following links of personal connections everyone is no more than 6 links from any other person in the world.  There has been some research on this using Linkedln and Facebook suggesting that everyone on those systems is linked by chains averaging between 3 and 4 links.   So just add another 2 links to get people who are fortunate enough not to be on those systems.

Random individuals

I decided to try a small experiment of my own by generating random latitudes and longitudes (through EXCEL) and speculating on how I could link to a random person close to that point (as shown on Google Earth).

Lat -67 long 57 – somewhere in Antarctica.  Fairly easy to get links. My start would be to scientists I know who would have links to Australia’s Antarctic Division who would link to other Antarctic agencies.

Lat -29 long 136 – just West of Lake Eyre.  Not hard.  I’d go through two angles.  One would be through Indigenous people I have met, the other through cattle station owners/managers I have met

Lat 2 long 114 – The middle of the Pacific: closest inhabited place is the Galapagos.  I lnoe people who have led birding tours there and a couple of links from them should score everyone in the Galapagos.

Lat 22 long -32 – middle of the Atlantic, nearest inhabited place is Cape Verde Islands.  I have met statisticians from the Cape Verde Islands so 3 links from them should do the business.

Lat 75 long 84 – somewhere off the North coast of Russia.  It was a challenge to find an inhabited place here but eventually arrived at Dikson which looks like a mining camp (or possibly a gulag!)  This one is a challenge but would have to start with statisticians from countries in the former Soviet Union.  The Russian guy should have links to Raion (=region) leaders who would link to Oblast (= District) Leaders.  That leaves 3 more links to get to any random individual which seems possible (see discussion of Uighir goat herder below).

Famous People

This is sort of the opposite to the foregoing.  The starting point is more or less famous people within two links of me and I then speculate on what sort of population groups they might link into within 4 or 5 links.

Gough Whitlam:

I met and spoke (briefly) with Gough at an event at the National Gallery of Australia.  He’d have personal links to every world leader in the 1970s and 80s.  Possibly a little weak in the smaller countries in Africa and quite a few of his contacts would have died so relies on their heirs to start up a chain.

Patrick Mills

I refuse to call him “Patty” as he was always Patrick when I met him.  I met Patrick a few times through his uncle, who worked with me on the 1996 Census.  He links in to elite sports in the US which probably links down into most parts of US society.  Probably also gives links into quite a few areas in Latin America

The Queen

Resisting the impulse to use the name Betty Windsor.  She is 2 degrees off as the link is through a friend whose father looked after Phillip’s horses at Sandringham.  She met and spoke to the Queen around the grounds.  Obvious links into Britain and to current world leaders.

On the subject of “Queen” (without the definite article) I think they are 3 degrees, getting to them through Mr Jagger (see below)

Yasser Arafat

Again 2 degrees.  I met a Palestinian statistician who subsequently became Arafat’s Chief of Staff.  Gives good overage of the Middle East.

Mick Jagger

On a school trip (in the mid 1960s) we met a bunch of guys from a school at Richmond (UK) who used to hang out with the Rolling Stones on Eel Pie Island.  Mick links to the world of music and entertainment.  

Illustrating the issue of auto-correlation a second link to Mick is through a colleague of Frances.  The colleague worked in some capacity of the movie Ned Kelly which was filmed in Braidwood.  Somehow this led to her being photographed on the pillion of a motorbike being driven by Mick.

Jane Goodall

Friends in Tanzania know her well.  Links into science, animal welfare and general goodness.  I discount being at an event at the UN as I just saw her but didn’t speak to her.

Robert de Castella

I’ll claim a direct link as we have exchanged grunts when crossing paths on runs in Stromlo Forest.  If that isn’t good enough a friend used to run in his training group.  Links into all branches of athletic endeavour.

Ordinary anonymous folk

This sort of links back to my experiment above.  How could an indigenous Brazilian in the depths of the Amazon jungle or a Uighir in Western China connect to me in 6 links?

Brazilian

This could happen a couple of ways. 

The most obvious is the Census  route.  During my time with the UNSD I met a few people who worked in Brazil: some born and bred, others expatriates.  So it is quite possible that with 5 links available they could cover everyone.

The second route is through a Peruvian travel guide we travelled with several years ago.  He has also worked in Brazil and with his skills at networking could easily have several hundred contacts in the more natural areas of the country.

Uighir

This is a bit tricky.  Again the Census route could apply as some of the people in UNSD HQ would have links to the PRC Stats Office.  The question is could the remaining 4 links get through to any given goat herder in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoyuan_County?  I suspect a big ask but simple maths suggests that this only needs each person in the chain to have 193 non-overlapping linkages.

There could also be a link through various people I have met in Central Asia and Afghanistan.

Summary

Overall I think it is just about possible that I could be within 6 degrees of separation of every other person in the world. 

However in looking at my situation it would rely heavily on the contacts I made in the UN (and other Census work).  Perhaps I would be the vital link between the Uighir goat herder and the Brazilian indigenee: in that case I suspect it would take more than the 6 degrees to get the contact.