The Science of Six Degrees of Separation
Are all people on Earth really connected through just six steps?
There's much more science in this than I initially expected. It turns out ordered networks with a small degree of randomness become small-work networks. This is why your acquaintances turn out to be more important in job searches and finding new opportunities than close friends.
DON'T SEND ME AN EMAIL anymore...
1. Do not send it directly to me unless you know me.
2. Send the email to someone you have met IN PERSON and know on a first name basis AND THEY KNOW YOU.
3. Make the subject line 'Six Degrees of Veritasium'
4. Explain that you're trying to get this email to me and ask them to forward it on to me (only if they know me IRL) or someone they know who might know me.
5. If your email reaches me by Sept. 1, 2015 I will email you back and ask for your address so I can send you a postcard.
Animations in this video by The Lyosacks: / thelyosacks
There are some great books on this topic:
Duncan Watts, Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age
Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Linkds: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else
And here are articles I referred to:
Milgram's small world experiment: www.uvm.edu/~pdodds/files/pape...
snap.stanford.edu/class/cs224w...
Granovetter, Strength of Weak Ties:
sociology.stanford.edu/sites/...
“Imagine you have 44 friends” Ah I see this video is dealing with science fiction
Imagine you have friends
Lol
I would Probably call it fantasy but I get the point
thats a lot of friends actually
Neil "smoke" de grasse tyson
"Imagine you have 44 friends" Look i'm going to have to stop you right there because that's just crazy talk
Imagine
Made my day
I try to imagine but its beyond me must be really popular person to have more than 40 friends
I'm dead! 😂 Thank you for that, that honestly made my day.
+Alia Link me?!
kinda funny how everyone in the crowd shots are staring at him
Cuz he's hot.
That’s the Philippines for ya
Because he's talking to a camera louder, and with more hand gestures than you would the average person on the street. IE he's acting weird in his surrounding. You know the saying "When in Rome"? Well he's acting California in the Philippines
its fun to see how people generally behaves in different countries, like in the Phillippines, South Africa, India, the onlookers/bystanders would interact with you, while in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia they would cover their faces or try to avoid you.
Can never watch shots like these and pay attention to what is being said because im too busy looking at how other people react and thinking about how the cameraman is walking backwards on a busy sidewalk.
"Try to get an email to me but you can't send it directly to me" Oh that looks fun "By 2015" Well then...
This
This
I was so pumped too :( they should do another one.
oh... 2015.... wonder how it turned out
*Invents time machine solely for this purpose*
I love the "why is this foreigner talking to himself in a market" looks everyone gave you.
they got the, "Is this an interview" look then "Oh, a camera" looks back.
judging from the guy that took a step back. he is using a camera man with a pretty obvious camera. the looks were closer to. what the hell is this guy filming in a market like this
Looks like a green screen
powerpc127 came to the comments to see if anyone else noticed that too 😂😂 every single One of them 💯😂
@@tonyivanov187 it’s not cause when he’s in Manila you can see the reflection of his footsteps on the puddles.
But that was an innocent code.... Should not have punished him that way. But rather make use of his expertise
I agree
You see government is usually never as smart as the citizens
@@skynet- Large structure, that can employ smartest people for its purposes? They already got intelligence services, that have specialists, that are on next tier compared to hacker mentioned in the video. - I am not saying state is good or evil, it's just a pretty powerful tool.
The code could have been turned malicious in one additional line which would steal the cookies of the user and send them to a server, instantly shattering the security of MySpace. So yeah, technically it had no malice but it could have destroyed MySpace.
no
My favorite small world moment occurred when I first moved to Australia for school (originally from the tristate area which is basically the area around NYC). Anyway I saw this random college girl walking in front of me and she was cute so I chatted her up. She was wearing a ring with a letter on it and I found it interesting so I asked her about it. Turns out that was her mom’s graduation ring which she got from the same high school I went to. The girl had never even visited my hometown since her mom moved before she had her. I just found it incredible that I moved to literally the opposite side of the world and the australian girl in front of me had a mom that came from the same town and went to the same school as me.
"And that is how i met your mother"
Used to run a retreat center/air bnb in the less populated side of Big Island Hawaii It was nearly a monthly occurance that 2 people who knew eachother had unknowingly ended up staying with us or nearby. Countless people who lived where i grew at some point in their life. My favorite was a lady who went to the nude beach nearby and decided to push her comfort zone and take her clothes off in public for the first time in her life. She was in her 40's. She turned around and realized her neighbor was sitting on the beach behind her!
A few years ago we stayed 9 months in Germany and got acquainted with a guy from South America, AI specialist, at a conjoined birthday party for my husband and his colleague (they had the same birthday). After that we moved to Japan, stayed there also 9 months, and when we were vacating a rental apartment, I was trying to get rid of all the furniture (people give away all their stuff for free on FB/craigslist when they leave because hard rubbish collection is very expensive, and almost all rentals are unfurnished, foreigners turnover in Japan is high, etc ). So I was happy to find a guy (originally from China, who has just moved to Japan) on FB Marketplace who was willing to take a lot of stuff at once, and we noticed we had a mutual friend - the guy from South America living in Germany! It turned out that they had worked together at some point, not sure in which country and when, but still it was pretty cool!
A few years ago I went from Australia to Canada to study for a few months. The very first person I met was from my home city, and a few weeks later we found out that we're second cousins. It was wild haha
@@zompired2998 That is actually nuts! What are the chances.
honestly id really love to see a short sequel to this tallying how many people actually sent that email successfully
Hey you reading this comment . I know you , you are friend's friend's friend's friend's friend. I hope to see you in the near future 🤗🤗
@@deadlytsg2792 i dont
@@Faroshkas but i know that you are
@@deadlytsg2792 Who read it, maybe yes. But a farmer's child in the countryside of North Korea probably not.
@@Zilahi-Branyi_Laszlo "Probably not " you can't deny that there's still a chance , and there's also a chance that Kim Jong Un is a relative to both of us
The looks you are getting from those people is like the highlight of the video
I do see aliens.
that and we're not actually used to seeing FOREIGN people film anywhere near us because.....well I mean, to us, why would they bother with a place like ours?
+johnnyXx4321 are you sure about that ? I personally just thought, they are looking to him and asking themself, why Veritasium is talking to himself out loudly. Cause after they look to him, often you see them realizing that there is a camera aswell.
+RuLeZ1988 it might be like that for some people from here but its usually as +cas aseoche said it is. "well I mean, to us, why would they bother with a place like ours?" is usually my first thought when I see foreigners living in our country. Also, it's a love/hate thing with cameras here, I think.
Yeah, and if they're with a girl from the Philippines it's a stereotype to assume they're with a Prostitute.
"Or did it?" *Vsauce music plays.*
Lmaoo I was searching for this after I heard that xD
😂😂😂
But I did not hear the music
See the video guns in space bro
It's even better because he did the Vsauce getting up into a shot in this take :P
I love when KZheadrs talk on the street & everyone looks at them as they pass him talking.
I mean, yeah... 6 handshakes connects you to everyone on the planet. That was kinda the problem.
The corona connection !
Cronected
Hey you reading this comment . I know you , you are friend's friend's friend's friend's friend. I hope to see you in the near future 🤗🤗
A hell of a revelation
Haha true
NOTE: you must email someone you know personally, that means someone you have met in person that you know and they know you.
+Veritasium E....mail? Seriously though, the only people I email are people I'm interviewing with. I don't even know my PARENTS' emails.
Veritasium Well there goes my plan of emailing Brady.
Veritasium But wouldn't this not give the full picture of how the degrees of separation are changing that Mr. deGrasse Tyson spoke of? It devalues the strength of online relationships, something; I should note, the youtube model 100% relies on. Not just the relationship between the viewer and the presented but the communities that spring up around the content creator(s) who interact on a daily basis through peripheral media like twitter, reddit, and tumblr. It also devalues the concept of weak ties. It would be an interesting way to see if there is a limit to the networking power of weak ties. What tie is weaker than an online relationship?
+Veritasium Nice argument :) It only works as a party trick or using Social Media "Friends" and/or connections. Real life does not work like that. Social media ties have no or little value in real life. How do you describe a friend? The: "I have a friend that know guy" works perhaps on paper. In real life you have to take into account behavior, personality type (anti-social), location, education and social status. If based on my perception I consider you my friend and all your friends my acquaintance, we can reduce the equation to 2, maybe 3 degrees of separation. In "real" life, people have 4-6 friends and that number increases once you get married (if you do, not to mention what happens to your circles if you choose or belong to a certain ethnicity or sexual orientation) and then your spouses family join in with their connections. So where we stand in 6 degrees of separation? Maybe in the same place a small factory stands with their 6 Sigma when they will only get to produce 300000 products in their lifetime. For any degree of separation formula to be proven we need to reach a conjunction, where both social and technical capabilities and standards meet and create the possibility to measure to some degree.
Veritasium Hope you told you friends in advance to expect some increase of mails might coming their way...
I have exactly 44 less than 44 friends
I think i know why
Well you are a calculator. I could hook you up with my TI-84 though lol
go orange
that's a lot
AC 計算機 AC Calculator same😆
I follow two KZheadrs, who couldn't be further different in interest. One is an artist and one reviews mideval weapons. They happen to both be Australian, but that's wasn't a significant connection between them. Turns out (I found out after watching them for over a year) that they are brothers... What are the odds? (Shadaversity and Jazza, if anyone is curious)
Hhm, started watching them again a month ago.
whys that strange? im pretty confident in saying there will be plenty more streamers on the platform who are related? and you have probs watched more that are related without knowing it.
But only one of them will build a castle.
@@dannythorpe1425 rare is different from strange you derp
@@madkirk7431 so what is the rarity of it... YOU DERP
Been watching youtube for like 15+ years... This channel is the most informative and most diverse by far. Natural educator the narrator is.
Ever heard of Vsauce?
I read your final sentence in Yoda's voice 😂
Well he has a degree in physics education.
@@organicfarm5524 vsauce is nowhere near as good as Veritasium 😅
I love watching all the confused people in the background
+Phantom Foofy whatsgoinonwhatsgoinonwhatsgoinon...
Ikr, some parents were trying to hide their kids
It is so distracting because they are all so confused and interested
+Phantom Foofy It might be one of those countries where people take videos and pictures on the streets to seek kids to abduct, so the parents hide their kids from all cameras for safety reasons. I know somewhere in South America had the same issue.
CrazedsHideout might just be that they see somebody walking in the street talking to nobody but clearly looking a distinct direction.. it's like those business people who talk on their phone via headphones.. just talking to nobody you can see.. except he is also looking at something
Now how would I have 44 friends? That's just crazy talk.
qqq1701 I'm super anti-social and I have a super anti-social friend. We both are the only friends we have. But, we "know" people, which is enough for the theory to be true. I know a person that knows a person that knows a person that knows a person... that knows Kevin Bacon. Of course I don't know that yet, I would have to move my butt and ask people about at least 44 people that they know, and they would then have to ask those 44 people about 44 people each of those people know etc. to find out which connection would actually lead me to the person that knows Kevin Bacon. So even through in theory it seems probable, it's really impractical and I don't even know who Kevin Bacon is. I'm more into books than movies... But hey, if he's some important guy at least I can brag that I, at least in theory, could get in touch with Kevin Bacon if I only wanted to. But that would mean I would have to befriend the friend of my friend's (...) friend to actually have them ask Kevin Bacon if he could spare a few moments to talk with me in one way or another. But I'm not insane and would never speak with someone I don't know. Now that's just a silly idea. After all, I'm anti-social! #Kappa
***** We're all a little worried about him.
+qqq1701 I can be your friend!
***** That's fun...i work in transportation...i know a lot of people. I just don't like most of them.
ChainReaction! Sure! In which form? I would suggest ayahuasca, it may not have the best taste but the effect takes place in a really short amount of time and last for a good good while. Just be sure you're in a good mood in a safe place with a "sober" friend, and I would also recommend smoking/eating some weed beforehand, so that you won't be "too active" during your trip. Of course it would be much cheaper to just get some DMT and activate it in the poor student way (anti-depressants) but that gives much worse effects (not all of DMT gets activated) but hey, it's a "pocket friendly" option. #Kappa
How does the government enforce "don't touch a computer for 3 years" Also, good luck with that nowadays. That's basically a jail sentence for most careers. *software developer panic*
If i'm the boss of that guy, I'd promote him instantly to management position. He doesn't need to touch a computer, but he'd be very good at giving out lectures and insightful ideas to the rest of us who can use the computer 😁👍
@@sylpisophia5612 Not quite. All management positions require the use of a computer. Also not having access to a computer, their knowledge and skill will quickly become outdated and rusty. Moreover If your job was strictly dependent on the use of a computer, odds are the 3 years forbidden will result in even more years lost as you try to catch up again. In this case I'm talking about careers like software engineers, secOps, devOps.. etc Still wondering how'd they'd enforce it. If something like that happened to me, worst case scenario I'd move to another country for 3 years and then come back (unless I found better)
@@Metruzanca umm, you can't tell me how to run my company without presenting me a full analysis with sources. As I mentioned on my comment, I'd move him to management, and that's because I have my own reasons, and that includes not needing to use a computer to do their job. Also, the sanction doesn't include restrictions from attending conferences and seminars, he could still get new knowledge from those and then share those new knowledge back with us.
@@sylpisophia5612 Do as you please. Given two experts of the same caliber. Give one pen and paper and a flipphone and give the other all the bleeding edge technology he wants. Sorry, but theres not contest here. Again though, my comment was mainly towards jobs that REQUIRE use of computers. A software engineer that isn't developing for 3 months is already rusty. Even with 30+ years of experience, no access to internet or a computer is a career ending thing. No amount of conferences will help as you don't learn by watching, you learn by doing. If your job involves excel, you're fucked. You could potentially train people, but you can't really learn anything new at a reasonable pace.
@@Metruzanca Still not conviced. You made it sound like computer is the solution to every problem in the world.
Really makes you think about how true the butterfly effect might be. If there was around 4 to 5 degrees of separation in 2015 I can imagine it's dropped a bit more. Which makes sense because nowadays LDR are more frequent, online friends in video games etc as well, events in their location now becomes more personal and can effect your mood and decisions based on that mood. In just one dimension you can see a bigger change in peoples behaviors based on events happening across the globe. Those decisions and actions they make of course having physical consequences. This paired with the video where you explain chaos and how a decimal place massively changes weather predictions and renders them entirely random after a week makes total sense to me. That randomness isn't so much a thing but that we won't be able to ever accurately enough measure variables in the present to predict the future for a very very long time.
And this is how a virus spreads
exactly
@catfish4975 yah, maybe he would've done something like ban travel from china if he knew about this. Maybe build a wall and tighten our borders.
nathaniel cowan The EU does not contain border walls, or even border security, and yet Germany has only far less cases per million than the USA.
@@thatssofetch3481 men with guns line the roads and will kill you if you fail to follow instructions.
@catfish4975 you should take a history class while you're there. Maybe a biology class while you're at it. If staying six feet away and wearing a mask helps, why wouldn't staying 600? Don't let TDS diminish your logic.
You guys can stop emailing me now. EDIT: Actually... you can keep on emailing me with the correct "Six Degrees of Veritasium" subject line. IF you personally know me of course (wink). I spent an hour figuring out how to reclaim my inbox and forward your message along to Derek. Of course I'm only speaking to those of you who personally know me. (wink wink)
Maybe it was not such a good idea to publish a video next to him, just before Derek publish this one. Greetings from chile :)
SmarterEveryDay I was thinking..."hey. I know someone that knows Destin". It wouldnt be emailing you directly, it would be an actual chain of people. Then I realized you would be swarmed with emails. Looking forward to more great content!
No
SmarterEveryDay It's pronounced 'air-dish'.
SmarterEveryDay it's because Derek hates you and doesn't want to be your friend.....Wow. That was kinda harsh Destin...
Six degrees of information? More like "Keep giving us great inspiration!" Your videos are just wonderful, and I'm always fascinated when I watch them. I think each one of them is a shining example of just how amazing content on KZhead can be.
A personal story : when I was a university student in the 50's I became acquainted with Albert Finney. He went on to become an internationally known actor. I've often wondered how this would place me on the Kevin Bacon chain, since if Finney and Bacon knew each other then I would have an impressively low Bacon rating. This leads to a conjecture - does knowing an actor who is know internationally lead to low Bacon ratings, since actors have a greater chance of knowing one another than say medical practitioners. Also, does knowing a famous actor lead to a short connect path to a randomly chosen individual Joe Blow.
A second thought on what we can think of as the connectivity conjecture : It's legitimate to think of these linkages as lines of communication. This poses the question - what is a quick way to obtain good information on any subject. A possible solution is to ask a taxi driver in a big city. These individuals are in continual communication with many diverse people - a classic case of multiple random connectivity.
@@crustyoldfart great just fantastic points of conjecture! I really have an itch now to find definitive proof that knowing a famous actor would indeed shorten the path to any rando..I absolutely imagine you’d be correct tho. Thanks for the food for thought Harold! 👌🏼
Albert Finney wasn't in any movies with Kevin Bacon, there's one degree of separation through Helena Bonham Carter
@@Justin-tp1mx Thanks for that. I've never done any digging respecting which actors have worked with whom. The Bonham Carters are a big and influential family, so I now assume I'm better connected than I'd supposed !
Amazingly , I my self have two separate Bacon #'s of 4. My best friend growing up is Soliel Moon Frye's (Punky Brewster) cousin, she has a 2 Bacon # The other is Andy Griffith was my mother's "uncle" growing up.. (Weren't all friends of our parents called Uncle/Aunt back in the day...?) Andy Griffith also has a 2 Bacon #
Imagine you have 44 friends Just imagine
Imagine you have friends T_T
That would be fun
Bahaha
Imagine you have 5 friends
“vietnam flashbacks”
Those people in the Philippines think you're insane. Just saying...
Peter Brown Hey Peter, do you know Derek? Can I email you? ;-) ;-) ;-) not that I've met you in person... :-(
wordsnwood I wonder if Derek was ever at Vidcon...
Peter Brown I think the "and they know you" caveat would pretty much eliminate all fanboy interaction at conventions. :-)
+Peter Brown Nah, they're just curious.
+Peter Brown white skinned people, and cameras are common head-turners in the streets of Manila.
hey ! I just started watching your channel so I am looking back at some of your older stuff. This one just came up. 7 years later, you should do a follow up video to this one if you haven’t already. I would love to see a follow up video to this one. What happened? How many people found you via email steps and received a postcard? Also, with people actively trying to reach people doesn’t this close the gap even more? Because once someone has connected with someone they didn’t connect with before, even by one step, the whole world is now closer together.
Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!
I hope Brady is ready for the wave of people asking him to forward their email to Derk.
+KingFredrickVI that should only be people that know him personally.
+KingFredrickVI Dirk from Veristablium? Dog from Veryhappyium? Drake from Vanadium?
HI fans unite!
+KingFredrickVI Good idea, I haven't thought of that! Plus, it'll give Brady another chance to talk about that sort of thing.
+TheJoshinils if you know someone from the university of Nottingham then you've pretty much got it
This six degrees of separation becomes even more interesting when you add an element of time to it. Say for example, how many degrees are there between you and a historical figure? Obviously the further back in time the figure you are wanting to connect with the greater the number of degrees of separation. This can make it really interesting to know old people who have themselves known old people in their younger days. You may not get to experience history first hand but even so second and third hand may provide a greater degree of insight than you would get from newspapers or even history books. In my case, perhaps two decades ago now I spent some time with a man in his eighties who as a child had spent time with an older figure, allowing me to time travel a century and a half.
brilliant comment, so glade u pointed that out for everyone
my great grandfather's grandpa was alive in the civil war. My kin folk live well into there 90's. I never knew how lucky I was to interact with them as a young boy but now I do as a grown man. One thing I learned from them is how much better life was back in the day.
Very true. Another way to do this, ask your Grandparents about their Grandparents. You pretty much instantly can hear some personal stories about people who were born in the 1800's.
Read a book. You might get to travel thousands of years, depending on the author and topic. Additional perk, you not just get to connect with that single person, but those who copied, edited, printed, read and studied that book through time.
Real humans can be surprisingly interactive.
4:36 Shout-out to the guy in the background who saw that he was recording and got out of frame
thats a public space you shpuldnt grt out just because someone is recording
@@amgm1996 I guess he just don't want so be in the Video 🤷🏼♂️ poor guy
I worked for the British Army as an LEC whilst living in Germany. When you start you have a period of intense training. Whilst in training I met a guy who I would later work with. He asked where I was from And told him, he asked to be more specific, so I told him where I was from. He asked did I know any lifeguards (because my past employment had come up) and I said yes. He said a name I knew through a friend who worked with him (I had met him but didn’t know him too well) and he said his sister was married to him. That was a mind blowing moment… It was proper mind blowing. It’s crazy how these things work. I am also six degrees separated from Gordon Ramsey but that’s another story.
UPDATE THE DESCRIPTION AND LET US KNOW IF IT WORKED DAMN IT!
Less damn it and more thank you.
BillyViBritannia stop yelling and showing your immaturity. Don't type in all caps.
Don't reply to a two year old comment, it makes you appear even more immature (Even though someone's manner of casual internet speaking isn't indicative of their intelligence in any way, shape, or form.).
I would also like to known of it worked. Thanks.
I was wondering this too!
You reminded me of vsauce at 3:03
Pwned Lol wow, exactly like him :D
Pwned or did it?
Pwned He just needs that bong sound.
and a longer, slightly excited and at the same time slightly intimidating stare down the camera
+Pwned HEY! Clear Instructions here! Wait...what is clear? (Chudnow's music starts)
I think my favorite is that I had a friend in rehab in Hawaii who was from the city that my mom is from in California. That’s not remarkable, it’s a huge city. But out of every neighborhood in this huge city this guy was born and raised across the street from my grandparents house. He and I probably passed by each other at the supermarket or the mall a dozen times in our lives before meeting in rehab of all places.
I still love the fact that you are just walking around melbourne my local part of the world. wish you came back here sometime I would love to meet you
I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows... You! :o
Me too!
+Struan Taylor Better call Soul!:D
+C Murvay Saul*
... a guy's UNCLE
+Patrick Star - On youtube, look up "TISM - I rooted a girl". Much the same thing. ;)
I remember my dad telling me about this. He even made an example: I know my grandfather, who worked in the swedish goverment and knows a ton of high politicians there and several of those politicians have met and talked to Barak Obama. So in in three steps I know Barak Obama
+Anju Maaka but do those politicians know your grandfather? thats included in the rules :/
L4Vo5 I believe the rules is that you must have been introduced and spent some time talking. It depends on who you ask though
Anju Maaka i mean in this video's rules
The rules included that the two people in one link have to know each other on a first name basis. So the high politicians would have to know your grandfather's name
kaitlyn lawson Well, some of them I think does but maybe not since he retired over 25 years ago. He's got a lot of friends from his worklife though so some might be still active politicians, I don't know.
I recognize the place. Its in divisoria in the heart of manila. He is in a mall. Wow. I view your videos whenever i can. I like to share your channel to my son so he can learn from you as well. Thank you much!
I love your videos, that in my opinion is quality content and I want to thank you for that. Peace!
its 2019 now and i would like to know how did your experiment went ?
Same
Leaving this comment just in case of an update
kzhead.info/sun/mtmjist8mHimZo0/bejne.html
He got 350 emails.
@@nalexverghese Thanks for the update
4:37 - "...you're just as likely to be connected to someone here in Manila, as you are to someone in your own town." Literally true for me, since I'm from Manila. As a longtime Veritasium viewer, it felt weirdly pleasant to recognize the orange building beside/behind you as you were filming, and I guess this further shows how much of a small world we live in.
that's totally stupid, i can prove this wrong with a very simple thought. Okay so take a small town of 10 where everyone is related. now see if they are as likely to be connected to each other ( 100% chance) to someone in north korea.... Hey he said it, not me, look how stupid it sounds now.... The only way for this statement "you're as likely to be connected in your town to someone across the world", to be true, would mean you are 100% connected to everyone in north korea in my example case. Doesn't take a genius to figure this is a bunch of hogwash
@@seawaterjohnmiller7118 he never said that assumption was true, and in fact he showed that 6 degrees works even when it is not true.
Same feeling here in Melbourne
Putangina?
@@seawaterjohnmiller7118 6 degrees is just an average. But even then, look at it this way : all it takes is for you to be the student of a uni professor, to be on a 2nd degree connection to a lot of people around the world, due to said professor attending conferences and international seminars. On the other hand, it you may be equally connected to a barman across the city because you've never been to his bar, but one of your friends did. North Korea makes it even more easy because everyone's the child/wife/father/mother of a soldier, or a soldier themselves. You can easily go up the chain of command (knowing you can skip parts of it, there's no reason a sgt wouldn't be connected directly to a colonel due to some special assignment) all the way to kim jong un or any official that went abroad.
This type of stuff is pretty cool. For example, growing up I use to love watching old re runs of dukes of Hazzard tv show. I also liked watching the TV show jackass with Johnny Knoxville. Then come to find out my step dad use to go to fishing tournaments. And one of his fishing partners was James Best, the actor that played as Rosco P. Coltrane, the cop on dukes of Hazzard that was always chasing the brothers. Who in turn of course knew the writer and director of the show, who in turn knew the people making the remake dukes of Hazzard movie which Johnny Knoxville was playing in. So in less then 6 steps i was able to directly connect myself to not only 1 of my favorite shows, but Two. And as a note, James Best died in 2015 in Hickory, NC (about 15 mins from where I currently live) from complications due to pneumonia. He was a nice guy and believe it or not, he actually did that silly laugh from the show. Anytime he'd get a big fish on his line he'd start doing that Rosco P. Coltrane laugh....lol.
I'm glad I stumbled onto this today. I used to play 6 degrees of kevin bacon quite often in collage. great stuff.
My email is sent out. Since I'm from Iceland I decided that my first step should be to send it to a friend in the english speaking world to increase the chances of it getting to you. I hit him up on facebook to make sure it would atleast get through to the next step. Hope this works :)
I have friends in Iceland ;)
+Xovius You hear that? He has friends in Iceland. You just lost like two degrees.
+majorevangelism Of course! He's in iceland! it is cold! *runs away*
Veritasium Aww, I think I could probably get to you in about 2-3 degrees then if I knew who they were.
+Mercure250 That was beautiful and amazing.
I wonder how many late emails he gets now
Millions i would guess
This video completely left out family and those connections
Thanks for including Karinthy Frigyes!! Big thumbs up!
"imagine you have 44 friends" god dammit
yeah... wow
That's a lot of -damage- friends!
Too powerful imagination for mind
Do imaginary friends count?
...and they need to borrow some cash and your car...
The seventh degree is me and my dad
whoa
Stream walls
Okay Frasier!
Underrated
the 8th degree is me and the screw i dropped
3:46 "he didn't have any info on the structure of real social networks" Damn dude, same.
Thank you for the post card! Unbelievable!!!
More like Neil De-6 degrees of seper-yson
I'm connected to you all. Hi friends. Right?
watching this on August 31st, challenge accepted
+Cheezit034 i wish you luck!
+Veritasium Is it too late? It's still 1 Sept here (in Basel, Switzerland)!
+Pete Ryland Home of the great Roger Federer! I want to conect with him through this experiment! I am e-mailing you!
+Pete Ryland I'm sure he accounted for people watching the video later and not realising it and also it just taking a lot of the chains longer than others
+Johndilio HM me too!!😊
I have no clue whats going on but its fun watching you play with buttons and the story at the beginning was funny af
Amazing video!! Studied about this in Social Network Analysis!
The only way this works if a persons asks *everyone* they know if they can contact you. If they can't, they must ask everyone *they* know, and so on. In other words, you contact 44 people. Each of those also contact 44 people, so after two steps, 1,900 people have been contacted. After 6 steps, over 7 billion people have been contact, one of which must be you, therefore it's successful. If it is just you contacting 1 person, who contacts 1 person, who contacts 1 person, and so.... Well congrats, 6 people have been contacted, big whoop!
Ryan Johnson ^ This
this way it is guaranteed that it will work. if you only contact 1 person it might still work and thats why its fun - a challenge
This only works if everyone k knows 44 new people that haven't previously been contacted
Ryan Johnson No the idea is that you contact one person out of your 44 people, the one which you think will know someone accompanied closer with them.
+Tyler Morgan I know. I'm replying to Ryan's comment.
That fully explains the thing on steam: If you click on the highest level friend on your friends list and the highest on their list, you'll eventually get to Palm Desert, the highest leveled person on steam. (Sometimes this doesn't work, but those are very rare cases of high levelers with barely any friends).
Haha thats crazy! It just took me 5 clicks to get to Palm Desert.
Wow it works! 6 clicks
St4ck is higher steam level. PalmDesert is level 1111 St4ck is level 1113 But St4ck can't be reached by doing the method you said unless one of your friends was a friend of St4ck.
Ellie Johnson nope probably marked as spam by youtube. it happens often.
yperz Ahh. I think i've restored them so :D
This clustering and networking is behaveing like a fractals small group is connected with another and from higher perspective those small groups become a sort of individuals connected in bigger group connected with another group so .... Mandelbrot behave. Like vortex in water tornado, solar system, galaxy... And Derek thank you for a great presentation as always.
I always wanted to know about this. Thank you!
Two Swedish tv personalities called Filip and Fredrik have made a series about this topic, where they start off with just some random person in like the middle of nowhere and try to connect them with a famous person in only six steps. They usually manage it too, although in a couple episodes needing 7 steps. In one episode they managed to connect like an 80 year old lady living in a rusty old shack in the middle of the Namibian desert, and who has never been further than 20 km from her village, with Michael Bolton in only six steps. Fascinating stuff!
Wtf
looks like fun
The sad thing: I don't have 44 friends.
same
i giggled. but sadly it is true for me too.. but the bright side is we can be secret agents and other cannot. nobody knows us.
+wasd2333 You must have met in person 44 people, and I think we have all done that, unless you're a baby.
+SHREK No, you don't. You have more.
+wasd2333 Jesus only had 12 and one was a traitor.
So I watch this ep, look up the V FB page, and immediately see how many of my friends also like it. Synchronicity field is strong today.
Great video. Hilarious how ppl looked then sped up walking by xD lol didnt notice that till the end
Oh lmao you got the friend who shut down Myspace. Saw that story on KZhead.
So when you see a stranger in public, treat them with kindness, because you just never know..
***** And he knew a person that knew a person that knew a person (...) that knew you! Wow, how scary! It's almost like you were friends :O That means he knew you and you didn't even greet him! And that's probably why you WORKED at a Walmart and you don't anymore... See, you should've tipped your fedora at him... :( #Kappa
+jrjubach or just treat them with kidness because ... you know ... to treat them with kidness
+Christian Hoffmann Hahah, very good point. :)
My experiences over a 50 year work experience agree with the observations at 6:30. No close friends/family ever got me a job. All of my new opportunities came from "associated" acquaintances.
Shout out from Manila! Really love your channel. Btw, in the first few videos of veritasium that i saw i actually thought you were part Filipino 😁
"Just 6 handshakes will connect you to anyone else on the planet" 2015: Oh that's nice 2020: Don't even think of touching my hand
*ultimate spreadout: pandemic breakout*
fear sells
six handshakes won't only get you to anyone on the planet, it'll also get you coronavirus.
so tru hahaha
Bow
There are a number of isolated indigenous tribes in some parts of the world that would not be connected to us through any degree of separation. There are also isolated countries like North Korea which have the same phenomena.
Eugene Khutoryansky North Korea isn't a good example. Did you watch the illustration with the buttons? All it takes is one thread to make connections. NK has defectors, diplomats, South Korean relatives, etc. So while there are less possible connections, that doesn't matter as long as there isn't zero. Now a totally isolated tribe cut-off from the rest of the world entirely and unvisited by outsiders (ie. "undiscovered") is a valid example.
Eugene Khutoryansky there are no connections to anyone on north sentinel island
+Eugene Khutoryansky It just takes one person knowing someone from the outside to get a link.
Eugene is a brilliant person, and I'm sure he is aware of what you are all saying. The point was that there are societies on this planet that are not _as_ connected as the rest of us youtube-commenting-smartypantses.
+Eugene Khutoryansky I feel that the experiment is conditionally stochastic in nature. Derek says in the end to send the mail to someone I would know who would have a higher probability of reaching him. The cases that you mentioned forms a null set,as the probability of the event happening is very less. I am pretty sure there must be some stochastic model to the experiment that I am not aware of. Thumbs up to your channel Eugene. Would be a pleasure to meet you Derek ! Cheers !
Hi. It's been 6 years since this video but I am so fascinated by it that I wanna try it. Hope that Email finds you well.
I actually walked right by you during my lunch break in Melbourne at around the time you shot this video. I guess this doesn’t count in the six degrees since I don’t know you and haven’t met you, but close.
Sad fact: Six degrees of separation won't work on me. Cuz I got only 2 friends.
***** The point is i only know my two friends who's all the way in Reno NV, i know NOBODY in Miami FL( where I live).
***** How do you define people i know, does it include my classmates who i only talked a few times in the class and added each other on facebook then never talked again once the class is done? If you count this in then i have 44 ppl.
***** I am a quiet and introvert person( with strangers only, i'm absolutely insane when with close friends, and i only have 2 of them), i never talk to my hair cutter cuz he's too gangster for my taste, i live in an apt so i never get to met the mail person, and i drive a car so no bus driver too. But yea about 44 persons that i have access to. And i've been here in Miami for 5 yrs now. I do have more than 200 hookup person(one time thing) though if that counts.
RealMasterChief117 200 is a normal number for gay men.
Commander Erik yea but who do they know? what if each of them have the full 5,000 facebook freinds.
They say the Universe isn't like it is..... but it do. -Science Man
Ethan Miller correction "some say that the universe don't be like it is, but it do. - Black Science Man"
I got a chuckle on this.
Racist.
+God Honestly, I love, no adore, Neil DeGrasse Tyson. (I think i got that spelling right) Cosmos was amazing. I also watch Nova as much as possible, though im pretty sure Tyson isn't directly related to Nova. I saw that quote on iFunny i think. I know you're probably kidding considering you said it in quotes. The actual quote is "Black Science Man", but i figured i would get to much flak for that so.... sorry for the essay btw
+God Stop beating yourself up. Everyone makes mistakes, even God.
Wel-l-l-l... It looks like Imma gonna hav-ta cross off one of my bucket list items... Living off-grid as a hermit. I was sooooo looking forward to the peace and quiet. 🤫
Thrice time watching... beautiful workz
This reminds me of that guy who started with a red pen and via trading he ended up with a house
JoyFerret that sounds amazing 😂
yeah it was a red paperclip
I started with a red pen and ended up with ligma
Devil's Advocate, whats bofa?
I feel bad for the guy who started with a house and ended up with a paperclip.
Anyone here during the COVID-19 outbreak, realizing that shaking hands basically means that I shook hands with everyone
Yup.
I thought of that too. Well i thought of how this 6 degrees theory can by applied by epidemiologists
Well we're all staying inside until every boomer dies then.
Pretty much every hand you've ever shook had a dick in it
covid is an STD ... socially transmitted disease ;)
So you did a piece on Hungarians, nice! You did good job pronouncing Karinthy Frigyes! Erdős Pál not so much, but I still appriciate the effort.
Erdos name is pronounced 'Air-dish'. he was a fallible genius, he failed the gameshow 3 door / 2 door challenge first time around. Mathematicians have an Erdos number. Love your vids man - keep making them please!!
7:15 wait, wait, hold on... You did not adequately prepare me for Neil Degrasse Tyson. His voice is so smooth.
My brother's classmate's dad is Niels deGrasse Tyson :)
Cool. So does he teach you physics?
@Kevin Chen My friend was in that same MUN committee lol
Only 3 degrees :)
So sorry for him.
You are now connected to veritasium
Everyone commenting on the people in the market, yet fail to realize how embarrassing it must be to do something of that sort and still not break. What a great shot. I thought a lot of them were paid extras till they started staring directly in the camera and gave you funny looks! Great job!
especially these days we are all closely connected to each other. for example: I am from germany and my girlfriend works as k-pop idol in south korea, she talked with a girl (jennie) who talked with elons musks girlfriend who talked with elon musk who talked with joe rogan who talked with david sinclair who appears in one of veritasiums videos. or another example: i talked with a guy here in germany who talked with former german chancelor gerhard schröder who has a korean girlfriend who is friends with the friend of my girlfriends aunt. a completely different route but again connected. and i think its really important that we are connected like this because if i ever need to talk with someone and that person is not directly available to me i will just ask friends of friends of friends and that bridge helps us to communicate.
I'm going to send a looser pair of jeans to someone I know and see if they make it to you. Your cellphone and wallet look like they are struggling to breathe haha
+Visual Burrito Hahah seriously here is an example from the video of his cell and wallet suffocating :) kzhead.info/sun/h8exirelsYKta6M/bejne.htmlm33s
+Visual Burrito I needed a laugh. Thank you!
LMAO
Came here for this
He had me at "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"
He had me at Bacon
LMAO
I actually have a Bacon Number of 4, as I have filmed with someone who worked with Joe Spano, who had previously worked with Kevin Bacon
I almost agree. Its not hard to know EVERYONE. Ive left my country. And meet others(in the other country) who knew friends i ride at my local skatepark with
Cool to think about how making a random new friend opens an entire new part of the world
when you one of the 5 buttons left behind
What?
4:28
@@Mgl1206, what about it?
Das me right there
In English, please
I'm just as likely to be connected to anyone here in the comment section. Don't look down on this, one of the commentors could be your wife / hubby.
heyy 😍😍
hey I know you, you are the friend of the friend of the father of the friend of my friend
@@klemo2529 🤣🤣
Is that you dad?
No, I'm lonely. I have no wife/hubby (or anyone else for that matter).
That intro looks to be Melbourne. And it's ironic you say "How connected we are..." out the front of the Telstra shop, as their motto is "Its how we connect". Six degrees of separation?
The random shot in manila was fancy ..great planning
Under 301...going on my resume
301 no longer exists 😢
+Mitchell Durand Correct, the number 301 no longer exists
+Mitchell Durand stop limiting others and yourself, bro. 301 will only cease to exist when the last man who remember it dies.
orangemanatee39 You can still be under 301, he didn't say 301+ they fixed that feature. Like I could be the 243th view or the 42.0 view; these numbers as you expect are under 301.
+Jonny lol420
lol all those people just walking through your shot and looking at you like wtf is he doing, wheres the camera
+auchucknorris It's not an invisible camera...
Man I wish I was there when he filmed.
Its true. Thats a large part of how i have always done things. Its very easy to test by marking money and tracking it. It works the same way with words. Also Thoughts…. Etc
I could listen to vetri.... vetiri.... vevirit..... vertisas..... aah..... I could listen to this man for the whole day
To the singles, you're only 5 steps away from your future wife/husband!
And six steps to your divorce 🤟🏻
Weird anecdote to start with: "You're too good at something; you can't do it for 3 years." Meanwhile, with bankers that crashed the global economy: "you're a bad banker and a bad person; please be careful in your next banking job."
The difference is: they are rich.
thanks Sammy, very cool.
My sister moved from RI to AZ for college. She went on a date with a guy in AZ who she found out was also from RI. She checked his Facebook and discovered he was friends with our cousin's husband. Although, to be fair, we have 13 aunts and uncles (just on one side of the family), and something like 80 first and second cousins, not counting in-laws, exes, step-siblings, etc, so we start with a pretty big footprint.