Pull up Mariya Takeuchi’s “Plastic Love” Wikipedia page The 1984 single is known for making the Japanese genre of “city pop” popular again. Then, when you click on the first link (which has nothing to do with the language of the article itself), Mr. Takeuchi’s own pageContinuing the same steps, City Popafter that Japanese Pop Musicafter that Popular MusicWhen you dig deeper, you go beyond the concept of music and sound. Physics, Scientific Method, Logical Proposition,and Philosophy of Languagethis is, Video above from YouTuber Not Davidexplores whether all roads on Wikipedia ultimately lead to philosophy.
Of course, there’s a Wikipedia page about this. “The Path to Philosophy” “Following the first hyperlink in an English Wikipedia article, and then repeating the process with subsequent articles, will usually lead to an article on philosophy,” the book reads. “In February 2016, this was the case for 97% of all Wikipedia articles (including this one).” For the rest, “the results lead to articles with no outbound links from Wikipedia, to nonexistent pages, or to pages stuck in a loop.” This is indeed the case for the path starting with “Plastic Love,” after the philosophy of language has circled around concepts, abstractions, and logic itself, but never got to philosophy itself.
At least that’s what happened to me today, but it could be different tomorrow, or even in a few seconds. Since Wikipedia was launched in 2001, the main difference between it and other encyclopedias is that it’s constantly changing. And the rate of change is only increasing with time. Not David’s “philosophical game” can always be broken, but the breaks can also be undone. Under normal circumstances, orange juice To philosophy After 13 steps, Apple Juice To philosophy It takes 15 steps. Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers 16 steps away philosophyBut if someone changes the order of the links, things get weird. Awareness The article puts psychology first.
These things happen. After all, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that anyone can edit. And as you can see (at least as of the time of this writing): Awareness Now I’ll link back to Philosophy first. These changes undermine the efforts of anyone trying to map the connections between one part of Wikipedia and another, as Not David does in this video. But they don’t change the fundamental principles of network design that his analysis reveals. Like the corpus callosum that connects the two hemispheres of the human brain, Philosophy is more important in its own function as a connector than it is in the things it directly connects. In fact, haven’t philosophers always wanted to know how everything fits together?
Related Content:
An interactive visualization of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Data visualization of modern philosophy from 1950 to 2018
Listen to Wikipedia: A website that turns every edit on Wikipedia into ambient music in real time
Philographics launches visual dictionary of philosophy: 95 philosophical concepts expressed through graphic design
Introduction to Philosophy: Free Course
135 Free Philosophy E-books
Based in Seoul, Colin MaOnershall Writing and broadcastingHe has written papers on cities, languages, and cultures, and his projects include the Substack newsletter. Books about cities And books A city without a state: Walking through 21st-century Los Angeles. Follow us on Twitter CollinhamOnershall or Facebook.
