A Web of Destruction?

This past week, the discussions in class was more on the relationship between grid writing and cool writing. However we also read selections from Duncan Watts’ Six Degrees. I want to touch on both of these topics in this week’s reading notes.

In class on Tuesday, we discussed in depth how things can be grid-like and network-like. In particular, we talked about how the university employs a grid-like pattern AND a network-like layout. In the oldest parts of the university, it is not like a grid due to the “emergence” theme of that part of the university. As time went on, buildings like van hise and van vleck were built and they are more grid-like, even on the outside. And nowadays, the new dorms being built promote networks as the use the “cluster” format within.

On the subject of networks, I feel that a network can work in so many different ways. As mentioned before, emergence has a lot to do with networks as interactions with people lead to new relationships and new products. As we interrelate with people we are able to put new ideas together and produce new groups and possibly something that has never been produced before. I am constantly told by my father that I need to make connections and get my name out there. That goes along with the theme of networks: networking gets you opportunities that you wouldn’t have had if you didn’t go out there and get your name out there and network.

Continuing with the theme of networks but switching over to the reading, Watts discusses how networks greatly contribute to virus spread. On page 119 of our reader, Watts says, “”…why have we only recently started to experience [computer viruses] on a global scale?...The answer…is the internet” (Watts, 167). The internet provides us with such a HUGE network of connectivity where we can be connected to millions of people with one click. And with the growing network, virus spread is so much easier. Modern connections have allowed viruses to travel, and do so quickly to infinite places. It seems the only way to stop this amazing spread of viruses is to plainly cut ties within the network. Just as “removing dirty needles from the circulation eliminates one mechanism by which HIV can spread…” (Watts 181), cutting ties within a network will eliminate a pathway for viruses to conquer.

Finally, I want to say that people who make viruses for computers suck. What’s their deal? Do they really have nothing better to do?