- Paperback: 238 pages
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.; Reprint edition (20 May 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0393324427
- ISBN-13: 978-0393324426
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 15.5 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 214,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Synopsis
This work presents the fundamental principles of the emerging field of "small-worlds" theory, the idea that a hidden pattern is the key to how networks interact and exchange information, whether that network is the information highway or the firing of neurons in the brain. Highlighting groundbreaking research behind network theory, the text documents the mounting support amongst various disciplines for the small-worlds idea and demonstrates its practical applications to diverse problems - from the volatile global economy or the Human Genome Project to the spread of infectious disease or ecological damage.
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FORTY- ONE YEARS AGO, at the height of the Cold War, the philosopher Karl Popper published a short anti-Marxist volume entitled The Poverty of Historicisrn. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
FORTY- ONE YEARS AGO, at the height of the Cold War, the philosopher Karl Popper published a short anti-Marxist volume entitled The Poverty of Historicisrn. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book's primary goal is explaining the Small World phenomenon as a modern network theory.
Buchanan begins by explaining Stanley Milgram's social network experiment of the sixties which revealed that there are rarely more than six steps between any two people on the planet - now known as the principle of six degrees of separation - by which popular culture has forever attached to actor Kevin Bacon. He then goes on to explain the clustering tendency of connections in our social networks, in the web and in nature.
Loose connections bridge from one cluster to the next. The author moves beyond network modeling to show how small world theory can be used to understand a diverse range of phenomena from the numbers and location of tributaries to major rivers through to how the AIDS virus spread.
The ideas in the book are as powerful as chaos theory was a decade ago. explaining the Small World phenomenon in this readable and well balanced account of modern network theory.
Buchanan begins by explaining Stanley Milgram's social network experiment of the sixties which revealed that there are rarely more than six steps between any two people on the planet - now known as the principle of six degrees of separation - by which popular culture has forever attached to actor Kevin Bacon. He then goes on to explain the clustering tendency of connections in our social networks, in the web and in nature.
Loose connections bridge from one cluster to the next. The author moves beyond network modeling to show how small world theory can be used to understand a diverse range of phenomena from the numbers and location of tributaries to major rivers through to how the AIDS virus spread.
The ideas in the book are as powerful as chaos theory was a decade ago. explaining the Small World phenomenon in this readable and well balanced account of modern network theory.
25 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Mark Buchanan does an excellent job of explaining the Small World phenomenon in this readable and well balanced account of modern network theory.
He begins by explaining Stanley Milgram's social network experiment of the sixties which revelaed that there are rarely more than six steps between any two people on the planet - now known as the principle of six degrees of separation. He then goes on to explain the clustering tendency of connections in our social networks, in the web and in nature.
Loose connections step from one cluster to the next and highly connected people become the aristocrats of complex networks. Add in the economic principle of the rich getting richer, apply Pareto's 80:20 rule and the next thing you know you are heading for possible solutions to the world AIDS epidemic.
I found the ideas in this book utterly convincing and finished it optimistic and excited about the possibilities of this new area of understanding.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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42 reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Networks of sex partners and the Net-Are they really related
9 Dec 2003
Format:Hardcover
The surprising answer is yes. I picked this book up after reading Steven Strogatz's Sync which mentions a great deal about the science of networks. Buchanan explains how networks exist everywhere - the net, the web, the power grid, our circle of friends, our sex partners - and that they are in fact very similar to one another.
The phrase "six degrees of separation" comes from the fact that two randomly chosen people, A and B, will on average be connected by six social links. A knows C who knows D who knows E who knows F who knows G who finally knows B. Considering the world has over 6 billion people, an average separation of 6 seems unbelievable small, but the explanation of this incredible phenomenon lies in the makeup of our social network. Our close friends know each other but our cluster of friends has weak ties to other clusters through acquaintances, people we really don't know that well - that's why when one is looking for a job, it's better to tell an acquaintance rather than a friend so that our inquiry can jump to other clusters. Our social network is essentially highly clustered but enough links exist between these clusters to allow us to jump from ourselves to any other person through just an average of six links. Buchanan shows us how this kind of network exists everywhere as mentioned above although he distinguishes between egalitarian networks where clusters are roughly the same size and aristocratic networks such as the WWW where gigantic hubs like Amazon.com exist that link to millions of websites.
One of the most interesting chapters in the book deals with sexual networks. It turns out that in the network of sex partners, certain people have a great many more links than the average person in the network. Buchanan explains how the structure of the sexual network actually accounts for the rapid spread of HIV. The virus spread quickly because the hubs in the network spread it to their numerous partners. In fact, it turns out that a significant percentage of the inital HIV cases had a sexual relationship with one particular flight attendant.
As I wrote in my review for Strogatz's Sync, we are entering an era of science where disparate fields of study are being linked because many phenomena that we used to regard as unrelated now appear to have very similar underlying bases. It is exciting to read books like Nexus because it illustrates this point. You should definitely read this book if your are interested in the science of networks and want to know how so many different phenomena are being explained by the same underlying principles.
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
HIDDEN DESIGNS
6 Sep 2003
Format:Hardcover
Buchanan points out the hidden networks that tie together both the physical world and the world of consciousness, showing that amongst other things the Internet, electrical grids, the brain and the global economy are all systems with an underlying pattern that shares nature's design.
Physics, biology and other sciences have uncovered a multitude of unexpected connections between the operation of the human world and the functioning of other seemingly unrelated things. Many networks that seemed to be random are turning out to have a hidden order as revealed by the discipline of Complexity Theory.
The most interesting sections are those on the Internet, on the spread of AIDS and on economic systems. The author's conclusion is that many aspects of the world are indeed simpler than they appear on the surface and that there is a hidden and powerful design that binds everything together.
This fascinating book confirms many of the findings that I have encountered in other titles like Beyond Chaos by Mark Ward and Hidden Connections by Fritjof Capra. It concludes with a set of explanatory notes and a thorough index. Small World is a stimulating and thought provoking work.
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Six Degrees of seperation.
28 Aug 2002
Format:Hardcover
Actually, I bought this book with the intention of reading about genetics algorithms although I was pleasantly surprised with the out come of the book.
The book is about how our large world is small and what seems chaotic is actually an organized small network.
The author starts with how networks in nature relate to networks in technology. A very strong case for "6 degrees of separation" for our society and "19 degrees of (link) separation" for the Internet. The rest of the book explains with historical examples how scientists were able to prove the networking concepts through human decision and thought process.
I gave this book 4 star because I did not think that the conclusion had the continuity of the other chapters. I would recommend this book to all individuals who would be interested in reading and understanding the connections and influences of nature in our "connected" world.
Have fun understanding that you closer then you think to the person next door.
The book is about how our large world is small and what seems chaotic is actually an organized small network.
The author starts with how networks in nature relate to networks in technology. A very strong case for "6 degrees of separation" for our society and "19 degrees of (link) separation" for the Internet. The rest of the book explains with historical examples how scientists were able to prove the networking concepts through human decision and thought process.
I gave this book 4 star because I did not think that the conclusion had the continuity of the other chapters. I would recommend this book to all individuals who would be interested in reading and understanding the connections and influences of nature in our "connected" world.
Have fun understanding that you closer then you think to the person next door.
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