Six Degrees : The Science of a Connected Age

by Watts, Duncan J.

• ISBN13: 9780393041422
• ISBN10: 0393041425
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

The pioneering young scientist whose work on the structure of small worlds has triggered an avalanche of interest in networks. In this remarkable book, Duncan Watts, one of the principal architects of network theory, sets out to explain the innovative research that he and other scientists are spearheading to create a blueprint of our connected planet. Whether they bind computers, economies, or terrorist organizations, networks are everywhere in the real world, yet only recently have scientists attempted to explain their mysterious workings. From epidemics of disease to outbreaks of market madness, from people searching for information to firms surviving crisis and change, from the structure of personal relationships to the technological and social choices of entire societies, Watts weaves together a network of discoveries across an array of disciplines to tell the story of an explosive new field of knowledge, the people who are building it, and his own peculiar path in forging this new science. 24 b/w illustrations.

Author Biography

Duncan J. Watts is associate professor of sociology at Columbia University.

Table of Contents

Preface	13	(6)
The Connected Age	19	(24)
Emergence	24	(3)
Networks	27	(3)
Synchrony	30	(5)
The Road Less Traveled	35	(2)
The Small-World Problem	37	(6)
The Origins of a ``New'' Science	43	(26)
The Theory of Random Graphs	43	(4)
Social Networks	47	(3)
The Dynamics Matters	50	(6)
Departing from Randomness	56	(5)
Here Come the Physicists ...	61	(8)
Small Worlds	69	(32)
With a Little Help from my Friends	70	(4)
From Cavemen to Solarians	74	(4)
Small Worlds	78	(5)
As Simple as Possible	83	(9)
The Real World	92	(9)
Beyond the Small World	101	(29)
Scale-Free Networks	104	(4)
The Rich Get Richer	108	(3)
Getting Rich can be Hard	111	(3)
Reintroducing Group Structure	114	(4)
Affiliation Networks	118	(3)
Directors and Scientists	121	(4)
Complications	125	(5)
Search in Networks	130	(32)
So What Did Milgram Really Show?	132	(3)
Is Six A Big or a Small Number?	135	(4)
The Small-World Search Problem	139	(7)
Sociology Strikes Back	146	(10)
Search in Peer-to-Peer Networks	156	(6)
Epidemics and Failures	162	(33)
The Hot Zone	162	(3)
Viruses in the Internet	165	(3)
The Mathematics of Epidemics	168	(6)
Epidemics in a Small World	174	(9)
Percolation Models of Disease	183	(4)
Networks, Viruses, and Microsoft	187	(2)
Failures and Robustness	189	(6)
Decisions, Delusions, and the Madness of Crowds	195	(25)
Tulip Economics	196	(2)
Fear, Greed, and Rationality	198	(3)
Collective Decisions	201	(3)
Information Cascades	204	(3)
Information Externalities	207	(5)
Coercive Externalities	212	(1)
Market Externalities	213	(2)
Coordination Externalities	215	(2)
Social Decision Making	217	(3)
Thresholds, Cascades, and Predictability	220	(33)
Threshold Models of Decisions	221	(5)
Capturing Differences	226	(3)
Cascades in Social Networks	229	(6)
Cascades and Percolation	235	(4)
Phase Transitions and Cascades	239	(2)
Crossing the Chasm	241	(3)
A Nonlinear View of History	244	(4)
Power to the People	248	(2)
Robustness Revisited	250	(3)
Innovation, Adaptation, and Recovery	253	(37)
The Toyota-Aisin Crisis	254	(6)
Markets and Hierarchies	260	(4)
Industrial Divides	264	(3)
Ambiguity	267	(3)
The Third Way	270	(3)
Coping with Ambiguity	273	(5)
Multiscale Networks	278	(6)
Recovering from Disaster	284	(6)
The End of the Beginning	290	(17)
September 11	292	(7)
Lessons for a Connected Age	299	(8)
Further Reading	307	(34)
Bibliography	341	(16)
Index	357