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Marvel Universe Is Almost Like *Real Life* Society
TheMatt writes "Scientists at the University of the Balearic Isles have analyzed the Marvel Universe and found that it is almost
like real society. The team studied the statistical properties of each character, the books they were in, and who else appeared in them (through resources like the MCP).
While there were some similarities to real society, a close look revealed the artificiality. For example, the MU isn't very clustered, only 1.5x that of a random network; real life is about 10x more clustered. Of course, the realities of comics (the business) are why this occurs. Also, they found the most networked of all Marvel heroes was Steve Rogers, Captain America himself."
Now this is the kind of science that I can enjoy, especially after Book Reviews: The Skeptical Environmentalist
The only thing that we learn from history is that nobody learns anything from history.
While there were some similarities to real society, a close look revealed the artificiality
I'm wondering just how much exactly they spent on this study just to find out that comic books are in fact based on real society? I think the only reason this would even be important to the slashdot community is to see how foolishly Universities spend their money. I could have told them that comic books contain artificial societies for only $100 probably saving them thousands...
Any Universities needing useless information about comic books should make thier checks payable to aardWolf64, care of...
Breakfast served all day!
Also, they found the most networked of all Marvel heroes was Steve Rogers, Captain America himself.
Unfortunately, this research was responsible for the incredibly boring "Apocalypse Protection" series, when Captain America just tried to sell insurance to other superheroes for like 10 straight issues.
they looked at 11k comic books, and noted which characters apeared in each book. They then came to the conclusion, that comic books do not folow the same rules as real life. Their research also showed, that there was a corelation between the size of the group, and the chance of a specific character showing up.
------ Work is so much easier when you don't
Here's a translation:
Marvel Comic book characters are modelled after real world social interactions. Such as Person A has Friend B who has a Friend C, at a 3rd degree of seperation. Person A is more likely to know Friend C, because of social clustering.
All it is doing is showing a web of each characters connections and affiliations, similar to a six-degrees setup. Like Kevin Bacon.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
The book, "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" has a couple of pages about networking. It mentions that a study was done to determine the connectedness of random people. It determined that random people can be connected within 6 links. Thus, 6 degress of separation.
The Kevin Bacon stuff is just a game based upon the same principle. I don't remember his score exactly, but in Hollywood circles Kevin is like 665th on the list of connectors. He can be connected to other people in Hollywood within 4.x people. The most connected person is Rod Steiger, who can be connected in 2.1x.
All I see is that some bastards are paid to read tons of comics and do resume about them, which, to be scrupulously accurate, needs to be cross-checkes... by reading the comics again.
Bastards
"The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers." Bill Gates,
Maybe I don't quite understand the research, but it doesn't seem that surprising that the Marvel Universe does not follow real-world clustering patterns: many of the characters have dual identities, which I would think throw off the usual associative relationship of friends.
As an example, consider this scenario:
Jane Goodcitizen is friends with Peter Parker.
Spiderman is friends with Captain America.(?-don't know, but let's just say)
In the real world, there would be a high correlation of friendship between Jane and Captain America, while the whole secret identity thing puts a monkey-wrench in the comic universe.
The closest real-world model would probably be the network of say traveling salesmen or spies.
There is, of course, the Marvel First Meeting Corollary, which states that,
"No matter how many friends/associates they have in common, the first meeting between two heroes commonly results in them fighting."
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
- Marvel writers (and writers of other comics, book and television universes) begin clustering their characters more, instead of letting them encounter each other more or less randomly, to increase the subconscious sense of realism.
- Software developers creating "artificial universes" apply the study to increase the clustering, and hence the underlying realism, of their creations -- for instance, Non-Player Characters in EverQuest or The Sims.
- Practical implementation for Marvel: LAY OFF THE CROSSOVERS and let characters who know each other already keep in touch each other instead.
A closer look reveals the Marvel Universe's artificiality. For example, social networks have a property called clustering... the Marvel network is only very weakly clustered - about 1.5 times more than a random network.
Another example of the artificiality of the Marvel Universe is that there are a bunch of people with super powers in it, where as in reality, there are realitively few people who can shoot lasers out of there eyes or turn into a gigantic green monster when they are angry.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
Did they include issue #3 of Transformers?
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Future news:
Scientists at the University of the Balearic lose funding altogether
TheMatt writes "Scientists at the University of this place you've never heard of have analyzed Slashdot and found that it is almost like real society. The team studied the statistical properties of each user, the stories they posted in, and who else replied to their posts (through resources like the Slashdot archives). While there were some similarities to real society, a close look revealed the artificiality. For example, /. isn't very clustered, only 1.5x that of a random network; real life is about 10x more clustered. Of course, the realities of web boards (the interface) are why this occurs. Also, they found the most networked of all Slashdot users was CowboyNeal, the default poll choice."
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