falvarez's blog

    Milgram’s Six Degrees experiment presented a unique and provocative insight into the world as a whole.  The idea that six billion people might all be more closely connected than we originally believed is fascinating – it has the possibility to change both the ways we think about information, approach organizational infrastructures, and our relations to each other.
    Watts approaches Milgram’s experiment as a way into what he calls the “science of networks,” the study of the interconnectedness in our world.  To help elucidate matters, he first refers to the massive West Coast power outage from the 90’s.  The massive failure of this particular system was caused as a result of the safety precautions taken.  These supposed precautions led to a series of interactions that were entirely unpredicted and unexpected, and that brought down power to a massive area of the nation.  The idea that a system can contain within it characteristics that lead to unexpected results on a massive scale is the key to the science of networks.