[network distance & world "size"] - A New Kind of Science: The NKS Forum

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network distance & world "size"

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Posted by: inhaesio zha

networked world, space changes shape through time, when space is more connected the world seems smaller, when it's less connected the world seems bigger, space as the network distance between points, having nothing to do with cartesian extent, if space is connected like a chess board is for a queen, it seems smaller than if it's connected like for a knight, will this type of world expansion and world contraction emerge from our space-as-network models?

one instance of a type of networked system that often demonstrates expansion/contraction of this type:

http://inhesion.com/zha/old_sites/i...tucson/animals/

the second number in each caption is a count of the connections in the network at that moment


Posted by: inhaesio zha

zip of the page linked in the last post


Posted by: inhaesio zha

I guess the basic thought here is: let's say that the world is some sort of network system, where the connectivity of the nodes changes...in a case like that, might it be that there are points in the world history where the world is massively connected, and times when the world was much less connected, overall--times when the total number of connections was greater or less than at other times? Might it be that {the universe expanding} is the same thing as {the network system becoming less connected overall}?

When the universe was maximally connected, the number of hops from node to node, for any two given nodes, would be smaller, so things/information traveling through the world would be able to get from one point to any other point faster--in this case it would seem like things are closer together.

When the universe was minimally connected, say, like a circle of nodes (or worse), the distance (in network hops) between two points could be larger than it would be in a maximally connected network, so information would take longer (as a function of the number of network hops it would have to travel between two points) to get from place to place--in this case it would seem like things are farther apart.




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