Can Someone Explain The Game "Six Degrees Of" To Me...

[The Great Escape]

I guess it's a game. What is it, where did it come from?

[flygal]

1. From the idea that Kevin Bacon has been in so many movies

that you can link him to ANY other movie actor in six movies:

Example:
Kevin Bacon to Kevin Costner

Kevin Bacon was in JFK which also starred.. shit, Kevin Costner.

See the problem is EVERYONE was in JFK!!

Ok, Kevin Bacon to Michael Douglas
Kevin BAcon was in JFK which also starred Kevin Costner who was in Silverado which also starred Kevin Kline who was in Big Chill with Glenn Close who was also in Fatal Attraction with Michael Douglas

4 degrees of seperation

[arwalden]

2. The Theory Goes...

... that everyone on earth is only six-degrees separated from anyone else on earth. The "degrees" would be more accurately described as human "links" in a chain.

There was even a play/movie that had this as an underlying theme. Eventually, a popular variation on the concept of "six degrees" was made it into a game by using Kevin Bacon as the final target and claiming that all actors can be linked to Kevin Bacon within 6 links.

For example: I'm 2 degrees from Bill Clinton based on people I know personally and the people that those people know personally and so on, up the chain until we reach the "target" person of Bill Clinton.

Allen --> My Mom --> Katherine Way --> Bill Clinton

But I wonder... does the origination or target person count as a degree? Or do we only count "degrees" by the number of people IN BETWEEN the origin and the destination?

[Flaxbee]

8. I always wondered that, too...

are the end-pieces, so to speak, counted as members of the link, or are they on the outside so there are really max. 8 links? Or are there only four links in between?

Help!

[Longgrain]

9. I can link myself to Bill Clinton easily...

Hadasah (I think I spelled that right) Lieberman (Holy Joe's wife)grew up in my home town and used to work for my dad...

Me--> my dad--> Hadasah--> Joe/ Al Gore--> Big Dog

See, it's that easy!

[Patiod]

3. I'm only two degrees from Kevin Bacon myself

but I can cheat, since I'm from his hometown. His father and I were subscribers to the same theater company, which probably doesn't count for the game.

As far as movies go, my SO (like every other actor in Philadelphia)was in "Hack" with David Morse, who was in "The Green Mile" with Tom Hanks, who was in "Apollo 13" with Kevin Bacon. So my SO is three degrees of separation....

[unblock]

6. for the kevin bacon game you have to actually appear in a movie

but i similarly have two degrees of separation, since beverly d'angelo was my baby-sitter many years ago (obviously before she was famous).

i don't know if she and kevin were in a movie together, but i can't believe they've never met.

[Patiod]

10. Beverly D'Angelo is only one away

She was in Lightening Jack with Cuba Gooding Jr, who was in A Few Good Men with KB!

And since it has to be movies, SO was also in Eddie & the Cruisers, which featured Ellen Barkin, who was in Diner with KB

[unblock]

4. it originated from an experiment in 1967

a bunch of people in one town were each given a document intended for a random person in another town on the other side of the country.

they were told to forward it to that person IF they knew them on a first-name basis; or, if not, to forward it to someone they DID know on a first-name basis who they thought might have better luck.

the average turned out to be 5 intermediate people, or 6 degrees of separation.

it gained considerable fame when nixon opened china, and the popular theory was that with that contact, now the entire world was similarly separated by only 6 degrees of separation.

there are also variants, as well. if you're a mathematician, your "erdos number" is the number of published collaborators you have to go through to connect to erdos, a well-known and highly prolific mathematician. for actors, links are formed by appearing in the same movie, and kevin bacon's name is usually in the list somewhere due to his appearing in many movies with large and varied casts.

[SheilaT]

11. A year or so ago

there was an internet version of this. You signed up to be given the name and location of someone and needed to use email to get in touch. I got the name of a math professor at Cornell University, sent it on to a friend who's a math professor at Georgia Tech. Not sure who my friend sent it to, but it probably only took one or two more forwards to reach the guy.

I have a friend here in Kansas who seems to know everyone I know. It's quite bizarre.

[Beware the Beast Man]

5. Also based on the film/play "Six Degrees of Separation"

Haven't seen it myself, but I believe the main character claims he is related to Sidney Poitier (by six degrees, of course).

On edit, the character's rationale is that everybody in the world is related by six degrees of separation.

[DELUSIONAL]

7. This is a fun game -- 1 deg from Whoopie Goldberg, 1 deg > Beatles

A friend of mine is a good friend of Whoopie Goldberg -- Whoopie was at my friend's going away party and I've seen photos of the two together.

I've met Sir Martin -- producer of the Beatles, last year on the Beach we were watching a sail boat and discussing what the heck the guy was attempting to do, anchor or come about? I realized later that I was talking to Sir Martin and his wife.

2 or 3 degs from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis -- she visited a house and my friend bought that house from the person who owned house when Jackie O. made her visit.

I think if we knew the history of all of our friends and even the history of their houses we are within a few degrees of separation from a whole lot of well know people.

Heck -- probably people at DU are "famous" in their own right -- and if we respond to one of their threads does this put us in one degree of separation from that person?