[LINK] Wikipedia links lead to philosophy

[Jan Whitaker]

I liked this article:

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/the-philosophy-of-wikipedia-20110712-1hbbl.html
The philosophy of Wikipedia
  James Ball
July 12, 2011 - 10:09AM


Proof that the road to enlightenment can begin with the most trivial 
subject arrived this month via Wikipedia. Start at any Wikipedia 
page, then click the first link (ignoring any that are italicised or 
nestled in brackets), then repeat. For more than 93 per cent of 
articles, you will end up at philosophy.

The path from Wikipedia's articles on Wombles to philosophy, for 
instance takes 19 steps, via categories for fiction, narrative, 
Latin, local government, scholarship and mathematics. The route from 
housing is somewhat longer, at 25 steps.

But which articles offer up the quickest routes to philosophy? There 
are some unlikely contenders. It takes only 12 clicks to travel from 
"Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories" through the US 
constitution, supreme law, nation states and the social sciences to 
our ultimate destination. [UK TV show] The Only Way is Essex, 
naturally, provides us with a route that's not only quicker, but more 
thoughtful: 11 clicks through violence, manipulation, chivalry, 
conformity, the unconscious mind and German philosophy.
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Some senior editors at Wikipedia have theories about why this 
happens. On a discussion page, they point out that the site suggests 
users put an article in context by building an early link to a wider 
category containing the article's subject. As the categories, 
theoretically at least, grow ever-wider, eventually the user ends up 
at the widest category of all: philosophy.

This elegant philosophy-at-the-root-of-everything theory has one 
flaw, though: it works far less well in foreign-language Wikis. As 
one frustrated Dutch contributor remarked, perhaps it shows that his 
countrymen "might just think in circles". Alas, it seems not everyone 
can be as deep as the Essex crew.


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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