What Does The Internet Look Like?

scubacuda writes "What does the Internet have to do with the network of sexual partners? More than you think, according to this Economist article on Albert-Laslo Barabasi's attempt to 'present a general framework for improving the accuracy of Internet models' by treating the net 'as though it were a natural phenomenom.' Dr. Barabasi's findings that the Internet is 'scale free' has a lot of interesting implications: resistance to human failures, as well as vulnerability to malicious attacks. Dr. Barabasi's goal is to create models that are 'statistically indistinguishable from the real Internet. When and if that is achieved, the models should have predictive, as well as descriptive, power.' (BBC and News Factor had stories on his work earlier)"

Comments

Uh huh

[Myriad]

What does the Internet have to do with the network of sexual partners?...present a general framework for improving the accuracy of Internet models' by treating the net 'as though it were a natural phenomenom.'

Uh huh.. I think we all know just what kind of 'Internet models' he's referring to! *wink wink* *nudge nudge*

I wonder which site, err section of the net, was his favorite?

bad research

[Raiford]

"That observation may have implications beyond the virtual world. Research has shown that the network of human sexual partners seems to be scale-free, too. In other words, some people have all the luck, while others have none."

This person calls himself a scientist. It's not luck. He obviously overlooks the power of a good pick-up line

Better links ...

[jetlag11235]

The linked article is very weak. His homepage is here:
nd.edu/~alb/

The specific article is here:

nd.edu/~networks/PDF/NatureImmunol%202002.pdf

Hopefully Notre Dame can handle the traffic.

-- jetlag --

Sexual Partners? On Slashdot?

[Jouster]

Wow, now it makes sense:

1. Geeks use Internet, which is like sex.
2. Geeks don't get sex, because they play on the Internet all day.
3. 
   
   And I thought it was because I was ugly....
   
   Jouster

well, it looks like this:

[Em Emalb]

[PC]
|
["The Internet"]
|
|
[porn]

See? It's simple. Why the need to do this? The people that get it, get it. Those that don't, probably don't need to, and you sure don't want to try to explain it to them.

So this means that . . .

[IndependentVik]

If the Internet is like a network of sexual partners, then a slashdotting must be like the most unmerciful gangbang ever.

Barabasi was interviewed on Radio 4

[wackybrit]

I recorded a bit of it. Enjoy. It's about 200k mp3.

http://www.boog.co.uk/media/barabasiinterview.mp3

Networks and models

[pieterh]

This research is very interesting because it applies to much more than the Internet. Many natural systems have the same type of topology, i.e. self-similar scale-free organisation. There is a whole science of self-organising critical systems (try googling for ZIPF'S LAW).

What interests me is how such models apply to human networks. The article mentions sexual relationships, and implies that effort in combating AIDS should be targetted at key individuals, not randomly throughout the population. This draws a parallel with the Internet, which is (the article says) resistant to random failure but vulnerable to targetted attacks.

Consider the implications for other kinds of human networks if this theory is true. E.g. to fight crime, it does not pay to incarcerate minor felons. One has to take out the most important 'hubs', being the bosses.

This may seem obvious, but I find it ironic that we are using knowledge taken from modeling one of our creations (the Internet) to understand ourselves.

The backbone of sex

[Jhan]

So, could anyone give me a few examples of the people who are the backbones of sex? I'd sure like to bone them right back, since they obviously handle a large percentage of all sex in the world.

Even if they won't be boned by me, maybe they could carry my requests to distant parts of the world to someone who might?

indeed

[Trepidity]

"Hey baby, you know research has shown that the network of human sexual partners seems to be scale-free."

What the internet does look like?

[__past__]

Well, it's mostly white with green with black text, also some parts of it have a grey background. Around it is a black border which on top contains a light-blue ad from Microsoft Small Business Solutions. Oh, and if you've been nice, it contains that neat moderation boxes.

Re:Yeah, but what about...

[pangloss]

Half the world's poulation still hasn't made a phone call

The current issue of Wired refutes this statistic.