Albert-Laszlo Barabasi’s Linked: The New Science of Networks is about how everything connects and about the importance of those connections in this world. He uses the spread of Christianity to introduce the strong effects that networks can have by emphasizing how Paul was able to master the network and spread word about Christianity. Obviously, there was not any technology in earlier times to make communication as easy as it is today; however, Paul was still able to make Christianity the biggest religion. This was made possible because of the strength of networks. Sometimes, we may not even be aware of how we are connected to certain people – even those who we are unaware of the existence of. For example, my first day at Bryn Mawr – my family friends came to drop me off and as we were meeting the international students and their families, talks led to how one of my current classmate’s mom is from the same hometown as my family friends and then they were able to figure out that they are distant cousins. Wow, the world really is small. They had never met each other before, never heard any mention of them, but nevertheless, they are related. As I started to read Linked, it made me wonder if it is possible that there are fundamental laws of networks that describe how the sum of relationships cause people to meet.
