69. CHAINS

In 1929, there was a Hungarian writer who published a volume of short stories, being one of them "Chains" or "Chain-Links." The story dealt with the problems for future generations within the field of network. It described a theory about people on Earth being closer. According to Karinthy´s theory, there was a random interconnection, and highly caotic, because technological advances in communication and increased and expanded density of humans resulted in an increased and expanded network of friends or acquaintances, making the current social distance smaller.Thus, anyone, anywhere, using the network of acquaintances, could contact any selected person using no more than five individuals.

After Karinthy´s short story became popular, his theory served as inspiration for other productions. One of them was John Guare, who wrote a play, and later a film, in which the phrase "six degrees of separation" became popular. Moreover, varieties of films and TV series like J.J.Abrams´,"Six Degrees," the TV series that describes the life of six New Yorkers who are not aware about how their decisions affect each one until they meet one another. Let me admit that this TV series was how I knew about this theory for the first time.

In addition to the productions mentioned above, two scientists from the Microsoft Company, Eric Horvitz and Jure Leskovec, developed a study where any two people are connected for not more than 6,6 degrees of separation.

Furthermore, in the early nineties, college students in the U.S.A. developed a game called, "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," where the challenge was to link celebrities to Kevin Bacon, and later, to link themselves to him through an acquaintance of the actor or someone who had worked with him. In fact, in the year 2007, Kevin Bacon himself, launched a web site, "sixdegrees,org," to inspire people to give charity online, connecting people to accomplish something good.

I would like to highlight the concept of all being connected to accomplish something good, hoping that we learn from this theory and from Kevin Bacon. That is why I invite you to watch the video, "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon, CBS."