Six Degrees Of Separation

There is a well known theory that everyone on Earth is connected to another person through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. This theory is known as Six Degrees Of Separation (I will abbreviate to SDOS), with the actor Kevin Bacon used in a game that requires you to connect any other actor to him using this SDOS.

So why am I writing about this, well I'm starting to believe in this SDOS, it happened to me yesterday night. Yesterday night I went ice skating and then bowling afterwards. Below are some pictures of us bowling. From left to right, top row: Dennis and Kevin bowling, middle row: me (in a not so flattering shot of my backside) and Paul (who didn't wear any socks that night even though he knew we were going ice skating and bowling, activities that are known to give blisters), last row: scoreboards with Dennis scoring 10 in one game and 300 in the next. Hehehe, rigged of course.

I digress, back to the main story. So my friend Harinder had asked me to go ice skating. When I got there I bumped into Britnie, a friend from high school. I had only found out from Harinder last week that we both knew Britnie. Picture below of Britnie and the ice rink.

Ok so thats quite a conincidence already. Then while lining up in the queue to pay, I bump into Nga, a friend from uni. This is again quite a coincidence as I hardly ever go ice skating and to even bump into anyone you know is strange. However, even more weird is that the last time I saw Nga was when I bumped into her while I was in the city learning to take photos with my friend Clayford, who went to uni with Nga and I. Ok the story gets better. So about a month ago, I'm talking to my friend Justin A on MSN and he says that the photo I use for my profile is great. So I tell him that a friend taught me to take it. He asks who it is, and I said "You don't know him", but Justin said "Who is it anyway". I say I was taught by a uni friend called Clayford. Justin then says "Not M******", and I go "How did you know that". He then says "A short Phillipino guy right" and I say "Yeah". Well it turns out that Justin and Clayford went to high school together. Finally to tie it all together, Justin A also plays indoor soccer with me and Harinder.

So to recap

I know Harinder
Harinder knows Britnie from work
I also know Britnie from high school
I bump into Nga at ice skating
Last time I saw Nga was when I bumped into her while taking photos with Clayford in the city
Clayford is friends with Justin A
I am friend with Justin A
Harinder, Justin A and I all play indoor soccer together

Phew that was complex. So I now believe that people are probably separated by SDOS. Also with the internet nowadays, geographical barriers are broken down and there's an even greater chance that everyone in the world knows each other through SDOS.