Six Degrees of Separation

Yesterday I got a great joke in my email from a colleague. Then I was talking to Patricia and she said she got the same joke, but from a different source. I have thought about these occurences more and more with the advent of email. I believe that we are connected closer than we think.

My theory: That we are connected via the Internet in within six degrees of someone.
My findings so far: Many times have I received the same joke from two different sources that I don’t feel are connected (other than knowing myself). So where does the connection between them lie?
My experiment: I want to develop some kind of email to go out and see if it comes back to me. For example, I would send it out to all my contacts. It would have my information on it. It would ask that if you know me AND you didn’t get this email from me personally, to send it back to me, and send it out to everyone you know. I haven’t ironed out the details of what could be flawed with this logic (and of course, the lack of willing participants to forward on this email for this silly little experiment). I would assume that in the second degree, I woudl receive many emails. Such as friends and family members that have met me but I don’t have their email information. What would be interesting is once it gets past the third degree. I want to see how far of a connection can be linked to me. Come full circle.

On a side note, I have a great story from Christiane. Christiane appeared in a news segment when she was a child. They were just interviewing random kids about some topic. So, one day this video comes out of the closet for the family to watch as well as her new husband (or husband to be…I can’t recall when this story actually takes place.) So they are watching this video and lo and behold, Christiane appears and everyone has a good laugh. They keep watching and all of sudden Christiane’s husband says “Hey! That’s me on the video!”. Sure enough, he also appeared on the video on a separate interview at the same event. Please note that Christiane and him did not meet until quite a while later than when they were elementary school. They did not even go to the same school. This event was something going on that all the Ottawa area elementary schools visited. Bizarre.

So they bring the video to Christiane’s sisters place to show her and they are thinking this is the craziest thing ever. Until Christiane’s sister’s husband walks into the room and says “Hey, that’s me on the video!”. Sure enough, he pops out of nowhere, makes a funny face on the camera and walks on.

Three totally unrelated chidren living 50 kms away from each other, going to separate elementary schools, attend an event and all end up on a news segment…later on in life, they are all connected.

Whoa.

update: This post was split into shorter posts so the comments may refer to some wonkiness.