Tuesday, May 24, 2011

xkcd never fails to fascinate me

I long ago subscribed to Randall Munroe's xkcd.  I get new comics in my Google Reader and it's wondrous.  :)  Today's alt-text hooked me: 'Wikipedia trivia: if you take any article, click on the first link in the article text not in parentheses or italics, and then repeat, you will eventually end up at "Philosophy".'

Of course I had to try.  I started by hitting "random article" on the sidebar, to make it fair.

Five times so far.  I give you my results ... 

Cheraw State Park - United States - federalism - politics - group decision making - individual - person - human - taxonomy - science - knowledge - fact - information - sequence - mathematics - quantity - property (philosophy) - modern philosophy - philosophy

United Nations Security Council Resolution 210 - United Nations - international organization - organization - corporations - state - social sciences - umbrella term - superset - mathematics - quantity - property (philosophy) - modern philosophy - philosophy

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (NADP+) (phosphorylating) - enzymology - proteins - compounds -  chemical substance - chemistry - science - knowledge - fact - information - sequence - mathematics - quantity - property (philosophy) - modern philosophy - philosophy

Charlotte Parish, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines -  parish - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - Lesser Antilles - Antilles - West Indies - Caribbean Sea - sea - body of water - water - chemical substance chemistry - science - knowledge - fact - information - sequence - mathematics - quantity - property (philosophy) - modern philosophy - philosophy

The Two-Character Play - Out Cry - Tennessee Williams - playwright - drama - mode (literature) - literature - fiction - narrative - Latin - Italic language - Indo-European - (language) family - languages - communication - meaning (philosophy of language) - Aristotle - Greek - nation - sovereign state - state - social sciences - umbrella term - superset - mathematics - quantity - property (philosophy) - modern philosophy - philosophy


Note that some of the entries are the words I clicked, and some of them are the title of the article - just depended on where I looked first ... 


Slightly unnerving, but also somewhat enlightening.  Everything leads back to the love of wisdom.


(Philosophy itself leads back to philosophy with only two in between ... "reason" and "rationality".)