I got stuck even before then…
The Twilight Zone
Television
Telecommunication
Transmission
Telecommunication
etc.
Quoth Telperion:
You’re supposed to skip the italicized and parenthetical links. I get Erik the Red -> Nordic Countries -> Atlantic Ocean -> Ocean -> Seawater -> Water -> Chemical Substance -> Chemistry -> Science, at which point we’re onto edit war turf.
Starting randomly at Giejsz coat of arms, I found a really big loop with Social Sciences.
Social sciences
Field of Study
Academia
Community
Interaction
Causality
Object
Object (Philosophy)
Latin
Latium
Rome
Capital city
Seat of local government
Local government
State (polity)
Social sciences
You should be using either “effects” or “events” from the Causalitypage, rather than “objects”.
If you use “effects” you hit Philosophy fairly quickly, and “events” is even quicker.
I could have sworn that events took me to wikidictionary instead.
My reasoning for philosphy being at the root has to do with the final bridge between the outside world and the brain, how do we know what we know.
“Bellamy salute” (the subject of another thread, so I had the wiki page open) eventually loops without hitting Philosophy. It comes close – there were a couple of pages that did have a link to Philosophy, but none of them were the first link.
Hal, I get Bellamy salute -> salute -> gesture -> nonverbal communication -> communication -> meaning (philosophy of language) -> definition -> meaning (linguistics) -> linguistics -> human -> taxonomy -> science -> knowledge -> fact -> information -> sequence -> mathematics -> quantity -> property (philosophy) -> modern philosophy -> philosophy. What loop were you getting?
Wow, I screwed that one up right quick. I missed “gesture” and instead went to “hand”.
I found a sex/gender loop beginning with “Nun”
“Nun”
“Woman”
“Female”
“Sex” goes to “gender”
“Gender”
“Male”
“Sex”
“Gender”
“Male”
“Sex” etc…
bummmmer
Took me only 12 clicks. I first went to Random Article and got S. Jebanesan; from there it went:
S. Jebanesan > 1. Sri Lankan Tamils > 2. Tamils > 3. Tamil language > 4. Dravidian languages > 5. Language family > 6. Language > 7. Grammar > 8. Linguistics > 9. Science > 10. Knowledge > 11. Experience > 12. Philosophy.
Pretty neat!
It reminds me of similar fun with a dictionary I read about in I think it was David Crystal’s The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Start at any random word in the dictionary and keep looking up the first word in the definition. Eventually the trail will lead to the word be. I tried it with a print dictionary several times and it worked every time. I bet it would work with Wiktionary too.
I had totally forgotten about this. I just got from Notebook to Philosophy in ten clicks. It looks like the Knowledge Loop may be broken.
Same for xkcd, via Knowledge. No loop.
To all be on the same page—so to speak—try what I tried: Random Article. Maybe trying to pick the best starting page doesn’t help.
Reviewing the posts from 9 years ago, I wondered a crazy thought: if the Wikipedia articles on Knowledge and other topics close to Philosophy have been carefully edited by xkcd fans to eliminate those loops.
From the beautiful Anne Hathaway to Philosophy in 27 clicks.
Anne Hathaway
List of awards and nominations received by Anne Hathaway
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
British Academy film awards
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
David Lean
Order of the British Empire
Order of chivalry
Order (distinction)
Honour
Ethos
Orpheus
Prophet
Religion
Cultural system
Culture
Behavior
Social behavior
Action (philosophy)
Behavioural science
Organism
Biology
Natural science
Branches of science
Science
Knowledge
Experience
Philosophy
Checker Motors Corporation leads you to Kalamazoo, Michigan, then quickly to a three part U.S. State => United States => Contiguous United States loop.
Shouldn’t Ethos go to Greek? Maybe someone edited the page since you tried it.
Oops – didn’t notice that link.
Anne Hathaway
List of awards and nominations received by Anne Hathaway
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
British Academy film awards
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
David Lean
Order of the British Empire
Order of chivalry
Order (distinction)
Honour
Ethos
Greek language
Indo-European languages
Language family
Language
Grammar
Linguistics
Science
Knowledge
Experience
Philosophy
20 clicks.