As we have begun discussing in lecture, networks can be viewed as the positive and negative relations between various individuals or groups. What happens when everyone in a network teams up against another group and forms a mass plan of destruction? You get a network of terrorists. The most studied terrorist network is that […]

In The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, the idea that there are certain people can be the central point of the “outbreak” (if you would call it that) of trends. These so-called “influentials” make it so that companies need not spend money on advertising to popularize their product(s), granted that these “influentials” use the […]

How many people have made friends from a common interest? Whether it is a common sports team, the same class schedule, or even neighbors, friendships form from close contact and common interest. But most recently, massive multiplayer online games have risen with a vastly increasing fan-base. It is becoming easier and easier to meet people […]

Social networks are constantly in flux between balanced and unbalanced states. At the most basic level, a social network involves three individuals (or nodes) and the positive/negative relationships between them. The friend of my friend is my friend; the friend of my enemy is my enemy; the enemy of my enemy is my friend. These […]

This morning I was having brunch with Paul Hyams, a few guests and some other students, a weekly event at Cornell. At one point during the conversation, Paul made a comment referencing the six degrees of separation, and I couldn’t help but interject in protest.
The 6 degrees of separation concept is probably the most […]

Just from the two beginning weeks in class and the wide range of blog posts, it is clearly evident that networks play a dominant role in all of our lives. Referencing the latest post about research in the neural field, we could say that networks are “hard-wired” into our systems. Merely cataloguing some of my […]

In class, we’ve recently discussed various types of global networks containing giant components: social networks, computer networks, and economic networks. But one of the largest and most effective giant components is sitting right behind your eyes. The brain is the most connected network your body, and consequently the most complex. It’s estimated […]