Marshall Brain's Blog

The title of this article alone is provocative:

Researchers Map The Sexual Network Of An Entire High School

From the article:

While many students were connected to much larger networks, they probably didn’t see it that way, Moody said. In fact, they probably had no idea of their connections to the network. “Many of the students only had one partner. They certainly weren’t being promiscuous. But they couldn’t see all the way down the chain.”

If you went to high school, you realize how complicated a high school's partnerships can be. It seems amazing that a map is possible. Having made the map, some of the findings are fascinating.

It makes you wonder if, one day, an entire city's population could be mapped, or the world's.

What if you did a world-wide map like this of every interaction that occurs between people. That is, if two people ever interact with one another, it is recorded and mapped. For example, you read this post. You and I have interacted at some level, and that is recorded and mapped. If we could make such a map, it would be interesting to know who is the most influential person on the planet. Who are the top-100 most influential people?

See also Smoking and sex.