8.5

reading 1: barabasi 80/20 rule:
-the 80/20 rule : four fifths of our efforts are largely irrelevant
-the distribution of links on various webpages followed “power law”

heyyy I found this graph on the internet and it seems to explain what I’m reading…now to learn how to read graphs…

“power laws mathematically formulate the fact that in most real networks the majority of nodes have only a few links and that these numerous tiny nodes coexist with a few big hubs, nodes with an anomalously high number of links..the few links connecting the smaller nodes to each other are not sufficient to ensure that network is fully connected”

I’m going to be honest in saying that I genuinely could not engage with anything in the first couple pages of this reading because it was so scientifically worded, and something in my brain automatically shuts down at the mere mention of scientific terms. I did however take away the greater underlining philosophical question – How does order emerge from disorder?  Because I largely skimmed through the first few pages, struggling to stick with any one point being made, I’m not entirely sure how this relates to networks or power law, but this quote seems to sum it up nicely…
“the theory of phase transitions told us loud and clear that the road from disorder to order is maintained by the powerful forces of self-organisation and is paved by power laws…power laws are not just another way of characterising a system’s behaviour” 

I suppose all of the scientific background to power laws and the theory of order and disorder in this reading leads up to the question “are real networks in a continuous state from disorder to order?” or even “how does nature spin its webs”. the reading is attempting to find some scientific pattern of understanding why the network functions the way that it does, and if I’m totally honest, I don’t think I understand it any better having read this…