Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age - Hardcover

Watts, Duncan J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393041425 ISBN 13: 9780393041422

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2003

Synopsis

An architect of network theory summarizes his team's endeavor to create a blueprint of the world's networks, citing the scientific elements of the internet, economies, terrorist organizations, and other knowledge-based groups. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Duncan J. Watts is assistant professor of sociology at Columbia University. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

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.

In the dubious sociological conjecture that a chain of no more than six social links joins every person to every other person on the globe, Watts finds a paradigmatic illustration of the phenomenon that he and other new-breed scientists are probing for answers to a wide range of questions--biological, cybernetic, sociological, and economic. In surprising ways, these pioneers are demonstrating how the spread of natural and computer viruses, the collapse of financial markets, and the outbreak of forest fires all manifest the behavior of networked systems. Each breakthrough in unraveling the formulas governing such diversity advances new possibilities for predicting when a tiny ripple in biological or social events will swell into a tidal wave and for anticipating when the shock of natural or human catastrophe will dissipate. Because he is describing a science still under construction, Watts can sketch out only provisional models. But because these models cut across many disciplines and because Watts explains them all in accessible terms, a great many readers will accept his invitation to explore the frontiers of a new intellectual enterprise. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Columbia sociology professor Watts sums up his groundbreaking work on the networks, from computers to terrorist cells, that shape contemporary life.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0393041425
• ISBN 13: 9780393041422
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368