Sometimes a theory is so obvious, so fundamentally ubiquitous, that it is overlooked in day to day operations.  Linked explores the networks and weave of inter-connections that connect everything from societal clusters of friends, to disease epidemics, to terrorist networks, to the Internet.

In every network there exists 'super nodes', which are responsible for connecting the many disjointed clusters of nodes that form the bulk of a networking mesh.  This supplants the previously held notion that many networks were filled with random interconnections, and by pure chance, all things are closely interconnected-- this is not entirely true.  Nodes in a strong network are closely connected, but rarely does that network model itself as a random mesh.  On the internet, hub sites connect people to disparate sections of the network, in the AIDS epidemic (and more recently with SARS), sexual supercarriers were ultimately responsible for the propagation and rapid growth of the virus, and so on.

In societal clusters, there also exist hubs, people who seem to know everyone else, thereby explaining the six degrees of separation theory.

Super hubs aren't the only interesting ideas to come of this theory.  The notion of 'weak links' are often responsible for transcending local experiences into a network-wide experience.  Placed in a more familiar context, a job-hunter rarely moves 'outward' from their current vocational position through their own means.  Usually it is a friend of a friend, or an acquaintance that facilitates the connection. These weak links connect the tightly knit social cliques that paradoxically constrict and support us at the same time.

Rating 7.5/10 stars

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