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Wikipedia:Getting to Philosophy

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 67.170.106.201 (talk) at 23:48, 6 June 2011 (→‎See also: ++Strange attractor). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The object of this game is to click on the first link in the main text of an article and repeat the process. As of May 26, 2011, 94.5% of all articles in the English Wikipedia lead eventually to the article Philosophy. The rest lead to a red link, or to an article with no wikilinks, or get stuck in loops.[1] Now, isn't that fascinating? The question of why everything goes to philosophy is an interesting one. Feel free to add to the top ten list below or to update the list as links change.

Rules

  • Chains are defined as ending either when Philosophy is reached or you get stuck in a loop.
  • Red links and links to Wiktionary don't count
  • Disambiguation headers etc. don't count; however, seemingly 'trivial' links such as people's date of birth and Latin definitions do.
  • See Gaming The System below if you are considering changing the first link of an articles in the chain yourself.

Gaming The System

Because Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that anyone can edit, it is trivially easy to edit pages so as to break loops or change the length of chains in order to "win" this game. Because of this, all editors are asked as a matter of honor and fairness to abide by the following rules:

Don't edit a page for the sole purpose of changing how it ranks in this game. You can edit a page if you honestly believe that your edits improve the article, even if your real motive is to change how it ranks in this game, but do not hurt Wikipedia just to win a game.

If you are checking a top ten page and find that the length of the chain has changed, carefully look at the edit(s) that caused the change. If it improves the page, go ahead and edit the top ten list. If it is an obvious attempt to game the system at the expense of the page, undo the edit. If it is a marginal case, discuss it on the talk page before deciding what to do.

You can brag about finding a particularly long chain on this article's talk page, but please do not list your name on the main page. Doing that tempts others to game the system by editing a link in your chain and knocking it off the list, or to edit pages so that their chains ranks higher.

As you search for chains you will encounter loops. Breaking the loops can be helpful to Wikipedia because it isn't ideal to have two words define each other, but again, only break the loop in a way that improves the article. Links to more general topics are often improvements.

Remember, improving Wikipedia comes first, playing the game second.

Top Ten Chains

Before adding a new entry, you may wish to first check the links on at least one existing entry and move it up or down as appropriate. It is especially important to check the lowest ranked chain before bumping it off the list..

1 (40) Indians In Moscow,Synthpop,Synthesizer,Electronic musical instrument,Musical Instrument,Sound, Sound,Mechanical wave, Transmission medium, Solid, State of Matter, Phase (matter), Outline of physical science, Natural Science, Science, Latin, italic languages, Indo-European Languages, Language family, Language, Human, Taxonomy, Ancient Greek, Greek Language, Greeks, Nation, Sovereign state, State (polity), Social sciences, List of academic disciplines, Academia, Community, Interaction, Causality, Result, Sequence, Mathematics, Quantity, Property (philosophy), Modern philosophy, Philosophy.

2 (34) Sapphire-rumped Parrotlet, Parrot, Bird, Class (biology), Biological classification, Biologist, Scientist, System, Latin, italic languages, Indo-European Languages, Language family, Language, Human, Taxonomy, Ancient Greek, Greek Language, Greeks, Nation, Sovereign state, State (polity), Social sciences, List of academic disciplines, Academia, Community, Interaction, Causality, Result, Sequence, Mathematics, Quantity, Property (philosophy), Modern philosophy, Philosophy.

3 (32) David Bowie, Arrangement, American Federation of Musicians, Trade union, British English, English language, West Germanic languages, Germanic languages, Indo-European languages, Language family, Language, Human, Taxonomy, Ancient Greek, Greek language, Greeks, Nation, Sovereign state, State (polity), Social sciences, List of academic disciplines, Academia, Community, Interaction, Causality, Result, Sequence, Mathematics, Quantity, Property (philosophy), Modern philosophy, Philosophy

4 (tie). (30) Orthodoxy in Moldova, Moldovan Orthodox Church, Autocephaly, Hierarchy, Ordinary, Western Christianity, Latin Church, Particular Church, Canon law (Catholic Church), Canon law, Ecclesiology, Christian theology, Gospel, Jesus, Christianity, Monotheism, Deity, Preternatural, Nature, Phenomenon, Observation, Knowledge, Fact, Information, Finite set, Mathematics, Quantity, Property (philosophy), Modern philosophy, Philosophy.

4 (tie). (30): Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario (series), Platform game, Video game genres, Video game, Game, Happiness, Emotion, Quality of life, Standard of living, Economic inequality, Economy, Economic system, Social organisation, Social position, Individual, Vernacular, First language, Sociolinguistics, Society, Group (sociology), Sociology, Latin, Indo-European languages, Language family, Language, Symbol, Object, Object (philosophy), Philosophy.

4 (tie). (30) Superabundance, Young Knives, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, Rock Music Popular Music, Musical genre, Genres, Literature, Fiction, Narrative, Latin, Italic language, Indo-European languages, Language family, Language, Human, Extant taxon, Biology, Natural Science, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Information, Sequence, Mathematics, Quantity, Property (philosophy), Modern Philosophy, Philosophy.

8. (28) Facial (sex act), Human sexual activity, Human sexuality, Sex, Biology, Natural science, Science, Latin, Italic languages, Indo-European languages, Language family, Language, Human, Taxonomy, Ancient Greek, Greek language, Greeks, Nation, Sovereign state, State (polity), Social sciences, List of academic disciplines, Academia, Community, Interaction, Causality, Event (philosophy), Philosophy.

9 (29) Jeffrey F. L. Partridge, American Book Awards, Before Columbus Foundation, Ishmael Reed, Poet, Poetry, Literature, Fiction, Narrative, Story, Bedtime Story, Storytelling, Word, Language, Human, Extant taxon, Biology, Natural Science, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Information, Sequence, Mathematics, Quantity, Property (philosophy), Modern Philosophy, Philosophy.

10 (18) Westboro Baptist Church, Baptists, Christian denomination, Christianity, Ancient Greek, Greek language, Greeks, Nation, Sovereign state, State (polity), Social sciences, List of academic disciplines, Academia, Community, Interaction, Causality, Event (philosophy), Philosophy.

Strategy

If a particular article quickly reaches an article on a general topic such as Mathematics, Religion, Science, Latin (through a link from a Latin definition) etc. Other articles which quickly reach the same general topic will have about the same number of total links, so you can save time by not following those chains all the way.

Any article about a person or a date will tend to get to Philosophy in about the same number of links because the first link in nearly everyone's biography is their birth date, which arrive shortly at Calendar and the first link in any article about a day will also which arrive shortly at Calendar.

Some closely related articles have wildly differing paths, so it is worthwhile to check variations.

You may wish to write a program to search for chains or to confirm chains found by others. If you do this, make sure the program follows the rules properly.

You can use the "random article" function as a first guess.

Variants

The 50th Wikipedia Weekly podcast discussion on this topic used a variant rule which excluded 'trivial' links at the beginning of articles such as the Latin definitions. Following this rule, fewer articles 'get to philosophy', but most still do, although by different routes. All the chains in the top ten list above use the original rules.

Variant rules may include:

  • Ignore template links, links to things outside of English wikipedia, superscript links, italic indented text at the top that is separated from the main article, links leading directly to audio files, and links that lead to a redirect that redirects to the page you just came from (but the links that redirect to a previous page must still be followed, causing a loop and therefore not leading to Philosophy).
  • Ignore links in parentheses towards the beginning of articles (which excludes things like Latin definitions).
  • If you end up in a loop, click on the next available link instead of the first one.

See also

References

  1. ^ Ilmari Karonen (June 2011). "First link". Wikipedia user page.
  • Cartoon at xkcd featuring the observation (see tooltip)
  • Web page displaying the chain for any given start article *(best to use this as a backup, occasional links in parenthesis have been counted by the tool)
  • YouTube video demonstrating this observation, which starts with random article and eventually end up in the article Philosophy
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