is there such a theory that everyone in the world is linked?

Question

ie, you are a friend/relative of xxx, who happens to be a friend/relative of yyy, who's linked to zzz, and so on until it reachs everyone. could this be true or is it proven?

while i seriously believe its possible everyone's linked by someone else, i doubt its only 6 degrees away. very impossible.

Answer 1

Milgram (the guy who did the obedience to authority experiments) did a set of experiments known as the "small world experiments:"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_world_experiment

He had people pass a letter, and it took an average of 5.5 steps to get to the intended target.

This is the basis for the 6 degrees of separation concept.

There is arguement amongst mathematicians of the quality of this concept and these experiments:

http://www.uaf.edu/northern/big_world.html
The paper above is completely available free (you don't need jstor or anything) and even if you don't agree with the guy's findings, he does discuss the research about the small world/6 degrees theory in detail, giving citations to all sides of the debate.

Answer 2

We are all related since we all started from a common ancestor in Africa - Australopithecus africanus.

But if you're talking about the Six Degrees of Separation (often called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon) that's an interesting subject. Milgram's Small World Experiment tested this and found that within the study it is true the we can all be connected wtihin 6 degrees. Idon't know how they did the study, but it's pretty interesting to think about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_world_experiment

Answer 3

Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one "step" away from each person he or she knows and two "steps" away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is no more than six "steps" away from each person on Earth. Several studies, such as Milgram's small world experiment have been conducted to empirically measure this connectedness. While the exact number of links between people differs depending on the population measured, it is generally found to be relatively small. Hence, six degrees of separation is somewhat synonymous with the idea of the "small world" phenomenon.

Answer 4

It is called the nine degrees of seperation. It says that you could get a letter to any person in the world by giving in to a person who knew a person ect.

Answer 5

I think it's called the 6 degrees of separation, i saw a programme on it once

Answer 6

yes
its called the 6 degrees of separation
i says that any one (in theory)
is linked to any one within six people
for example
if i knew you and you knew your best friend, i would be two degrees from your friend

Answer 7

Uh...Yeah...They were called ADAM and EVE!!!!!
Don't you remember hearing about those people who lived a really long time ago, like when they were the first man and woman to ever exist. ADAM and EVE!!! Seriously, did you forget? They go back a really long way. Come on it's ADAM...and EVE!!! (lol)

Answer 8

Well, there is such a theory, in fact, there was some results in this area... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve

Answer 9

Lots of nonsense theories floating around.