Has anyone else noticed that roughly *everyone* in the American libertarian-o-sphere has fewer than three degrees of separation from everyone else?
It's hard for me to think that there exists a person in the greater libertarianosphere who I don't share a mutual personal friend with. And that includes the futurist-sphere, the rationalists, and an awful lot of silicon valley.
This as I sat in Austin last week with a friend I hadn't seen in 10 years...noting that all the people in the American libertarianosphere are either friends, acquanitances, or 2 degrees of separation.
Observation #2: Good friends you haven't seen in a while are wonderful. One of the most exquisite pleasures of my life has been meeting, or re-meeting folks who have independently reached many of the same conclusions...who feel to be travelers on the same intellectual road. When we start from the same place, don't talk for 2,5, or 10 years, and then later find still massive concurrence, and even better, co-evolution. I'm usually dizzy after a rare meeting of the type I had last Tuesday.
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Maybe there's a process that has similar affect on people over a period of years - something like 'growing older'.
Or maybe there's a mutual desire to focus on areas of agreement. Like when they start talking about their newfound belief in Shinto you move the discussion on to something you do agree on, like a love of sushi.
Still, it is a shock when something like that happens. We had a visitor out on the farm the other day, a guy I hadn't seen in ten years, who shared that he thinks the main cause of the obesity rise is Borlaug's mutant dwarf wheat. That can't be too common a thought, yet we shared it.
You are including virtual acquaintance? Well, then I would agree with this. But not if virtual doesn't count, which is what you seem to be saying. Taking myself as an example, I know only a handful of meatspace libertarians, none of whom are anyone important or well-connected, in any circles, libertarian or not.
I have no friends---does this mean I have zero degrees of separation, or infinite degrees?
RSF,
Zero degrees equals 360 degrees if I remember correctly...
drpat, I believe degrees has a different meaning in this context. Zero degrees means you know everyone directly. Infinite degrees would mean you know no one. I think.
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