JOLLY DAYS

We Are The World

Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon is true for all of humankind. Scientists were precise in a very large sampling, determining how connected we are: “They found that the average length was 6.6 steps and that 78 percent of the pairs could be connected in seven hops or less.”

The database covered all of the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging network in June 2006, or roughly half the world's instant-messaging traffic at that time, researchers said…”To me, it was pretty shocking. What we're seeing suggests there may be a social connectivity constant for humanity,” said…a Microsoft researcher…”People have had this suspicion that we are really close. But we are showing on a very large scale that this idea goes beyond folklore.”

The researchers didn't explain how we could act on this affirmation of our common humanity.