# Wiki-walk to philosophy **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 25, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178 "2011-05-25T17:42:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/1 "2011-05-25T17:42:15Z")
According to today’s [XKCD](http://xkcd.com/903/), “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.’” I just did it in 27 links starting with William Shatner. Anyone else want to try? ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/2 "2011-05-25T17:44:50Z")
I did it with the article of the day: “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. I’m sure at some point it breaks down, likely in a circle of links. But it’s pretty funny, nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/3 "2011-05-25T17:49:02Z")
Started at “The Twilight Zone” and ended up in a loop (mathematics) after 14 clicked links. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/4 "2011-05-25T17:49:10Z")
Yeah, tried it with yesterday’s topic (Tiny Thompson) and ended in a loop: Fact -\> Information -\> Sequence -\> Mathematics -\> Study (Research redirect) -\> Knowledge -\> Fact ETA: Looks like **Winston** found the same Mathematics loop ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/5 "2011-05-25T17:50:11Z")
Dragon Age got me into the Mathematics Loop in 18 clicks. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/6 "2011-05-25T17:51:48Z")
F.G. “Teddy” Oke Trophy to Philosophy in 15. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/7 "2011-05-25T17:55:04Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > I did it with the article of the day: “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. > > I’m sure at some point it breaks down, likely in a circle of links. But it’s pretty funny, nonetheless. Yep, there’s a “science” loop, that I found from the Cecil Adams page, of all places. (The Dope will get to philosophy though). Once you get to science, you end up going through a loop that will just lead you right back to it. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/8 "2011-05-25T17:56:25Z")
Clicked “random article”, ended up with Wilhelm Mauseth, a Norwegian speedskater. [Wilhelm Mauseth - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Mauseth) 13 clicks took me into the dreaded “Knowledge” loop (knowledge, fact, information, sense, organism, biology, natural science, science, knowledge). Very close to philosophy, but not quite there, and it’ll never get there barring edits. Speaking of - I wonder if editors will start deliberately repairing looped paths in order to clear a wiki-walk to philosophy, now that XKCD has pointed this out. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/9 "2011-05-25T17:57:55Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > Dragon Age got me into the Mathematics Loop in 18 clicks. Nitpick, but I think it’s more correct to call this the “knowledge” loop. The mathematics page sends you to “knowledge”, which eventually loops back on itself - but not on mathematics. ETA: You could also name this loop after anything else in it, of course - “science” is part of the same loop, as is “knowledge”. But mathematics isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/10 "2011-05-25T17:58:26Z")
It worked for me, surprisingly quickly. I started with “Bastille Day” since my son had asked about it this morning. Bastille Day -\> France -\> unitary state -\> sovereign state -\> state -\> social sciences -\> scholarly method -\> philosophy Only 7 links. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/11 "2011-05-25T17:58:31Z")
And thus, the danger of Wikipedia: As of last night, you could get from mathematics to philosophy. “Study” wasn’t a link, so you went to quantity -\> property (which has also been changed) -\> modern philosophy -\> philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/12 "2011-05-25T18:03:22Z")
“Raymond Carr House” (random article) brought me to “sovereign state” in 4 clicks, which I have already shown is 4 clicks from Philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/13 "2011-05-25T18:03:55Z")
You know, this could actually be the basis for a game: wiki-racing. Each contestant loads a random wikipedia page, and they all need to click their way to a destination selected by a judge. The random starting point means there’s an element of chance to the game, but since the players could click _any_ link in the article text (not just the first), there’s also skill: players with a greater sense of how subjects relate to one another will do better. Goal is to reach the destination page in as few clicks as possible. ETA: Maybe the game should be called wiki-golf. And apparently, this is actually a thing: [Urban Dictionary: Wiki Golf](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wiki%20Golf) ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/14 "2011-05-25T18:09:17Z")
I started from ‘noncommutative quantum field theory’, and ended up in a loop on ‘mathematics’ (which is funnily enough quite analogous to how my actual reading of that article went), but apparently, that loop is now gone… Though I did eventually end up on a disambiguation page for ‘group’, whose first link is ‘group (mathematics)’, which again links to mathematics. I’m now trying to see if I can repeat that loop… Yes, it worked again. That’s a big loop! Mathematics -\> Study -\> Knowledge -\> Fact -\> Information -\> Symbol -\> Numeral -\> Writing system -\> Symbolic system -\> Anthropology -\> Humanities -\> academic disciplines -\> Academia -\> Community -\> Group -\> Group (mathematics) -\> Mathematics ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/15 "2011-05-25T18:13:27Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > You know, this could actually be the basis for a game: wiki-racing. Each contestant loads a random wikipedia page, and they all need to click their way to a destination selected by a judge. The random starting point means there’s an element of chance to the game, but since the players could click _any_ link in the article text (not just the first), there’s also skill: players with a greater sense of how subjects relate to one another will do better. > > Goal is to reach the destination page in as few clicks as possible. > > ETA: Maybe the game should be called wiki-golf. > > And apparently, this is actually a thing: [Urban Dictionary: Wiki Golf](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wiki%20Golf) We’ve played something like it a few times before; one person posts two pages, the next person has to get from the first to the second in as few links as possible, then posts the next challenge. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/16 "2011-05-25T18:14:44Z")
Damn, I got caught in a small loop. Civil Law \> List of country legal systems \> Civil Law. How boring. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/17 "2011-05-25T18:19:46Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > I started from ‘noncommutative quantum field theory’, and ended up in a loop on ‘mathematics’ (which is funnily enough quite analogous to how my actual reading of that article went), but apparently, that loop is now gone… Though I did eventually end up on a disambiguation page for ‘group’, whose first link is ‘group (mathematics)’, which again links to mathematics. I’m now trying to see if I can repeat that loop… Yes, it worked again. That’s a big loop! > > Mathematics -\> Study -\> Knowledge -\> Fact -\> Information -\> Symbol -\> Numeral -\> Writing system -\> Symbolic system -\> Anthropology -\> Humanities -\> academic disciplines -\> Academia -\> Community -\> Group -\> Group (mathematics) -\> Mathematics You need to leave the _Information_ page via _sequence_, not _symbols_. You seem to be missing a link ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/18 "2011-05-25T18:27:02Z")
> [@Winston\_Smith](#): > > You need to leave the _Information_ page via _sequence_, not _symbols_. You seem to be missing a link :smack: Right, I think I just missed that the second time around because _sequence_ by then was marked as a read link, and I reflexively clicked on the first bright blue word… That’s why I at first thought the loop had disappeared. Interesting, though, that you get back to mathematics either way… I wonder what kind of load all those link chasing xkcd readers are putting on the server… Also, starting from philosophy, you apparently get stuck in a mutually back referring rationality-reason mini loop. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/19 "2011-05-25T18:28:25Z")
I’ve done 10 more walks starting with random articles. Nine of them led to knowledge: Nappe Friendly Persuasion (1975 film) Dorothy Allen Animal migration Great Flood of 1951 Independence, West Virginia Pizza Express A Little Love (album) Nyiro And only one, “John Blythe,” led to philosophy. “Philosphy,” by the way, leads to a consciousness-awareness loop. ETA: and who wants to be trapped in a consciousness-awareness loop, I ask you? It sounds like a problem for a New Age seminar. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178/20 "2011-05-25T18:29:15Z")
I tried it with barefoot running and ended up in a loop about 9 links deep, so I moved on to the second word in the article that started the loop and ended up in a different loop. On to the third word, different loop. :mad: I can’t win. I don’t like this game. :: throws ball to ground and stomps off :: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-walk-to-philosophy/583178.md?page=2)