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Wikipedia:Getting to Philosophy

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 69.37.3.244 (talk) at 01:10, 13 June 2011. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The object of this game is to click on the first link in the main text of an article and repeat the process. As of May 26, 2011, 94.5% of all articles in the English Wikipedia lead eventually to the article Philosophy. The rest lead to an article with no wikilinks, links to pages that do not exist, or get stuck in loops.[1] Now, isn't that fascinating? The question of why everything goes to philosophy is an interesting one. Feel free to add to the top ten list below or to update the list as links change.

Rules

  • Chains are defined as ending either when Philosophy is reached, you reach a page with no links, a page that does not exist, or you get stuck in a loop.
  • The basic idea is to look for the first link in the main text of the article, not anything parenthetical or added to make navigation easy.
  • Links in Italics, Disambiguation links, Infoboxes, links to Wiktionary and links to other Wikis don't count.
  • External links to other websites or links to other parts of the page you are already on don't count.
  • Anything inside parenthesis (including dates of birth, Greek or Latin definitions) doesn't count.
  • Red links do count. because they are not parenthetical or added for navigation. See Strategy for possible ways of dealing with red links.
  • Please read Gaming The System below if you are considering changing the first link of an articles in the chain yourself.

Gaming The System

Because Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that anyone can edit, it is trivially easy to edit pages so as to break loops or change the length of chains in order to "win" this game. Because of this, all editors are asked as a matter of honor and fairness to abide by the following rules:

Don't edit a page for the sole purpose of changing how it ranks in this game. You can edit a page if you honestly believe that your edits improve the article, even if your real motive is to change how it ranks in this game, but do not hurt Wikipedia just to win a game.

If you are checking a top ten page and find that the length of the chain has changed, carefully look at the edit(s) that caused the change. If it improves the page, go ahead and edit the top ten list. If it is an obvious attempt to game the system at the expense of the page, undo the edit. If it is a marginal case, discuss it on the talk page before deciding what to do.

You can brag about finding a particularly long chain on this article's talk page, but please do not list your name on the main page. Doing that tempts others to game the system by editing a link in your chain and knocking it off the list, or to edit pages so that their chains ranks higher.

As you search for chains you will encounter loops. Breaking the loops can be helpful to Wikipedia because it isn't ideal to have two words define each other, but again, only break the loop in a way that improves the article. Links to more general topics are often improvements.

Remember, improving Wikipedia comes first, playing the game second.

Top Ten Chains

Before adding a new entry, please check the links on at least one existing entry and move it up or down as appropriate. It is especially important to check the lowest ranked chain before bumping it off the list..

1-2 (20) Superabundance Young Knives, Indie rock, Alternative rock, Rock music, Popular music, Music genre, Genre, Literature, Fiction, Narrative, Storytelling, Word, Language, Human, Extant taxon, Biology, Natural science, Naturalism (philosophy), Philosophy.

1-2 (20) Jordanhill railway station Side platform, Railway platform, Rail tracks, Rail transport, Transport, Cargo, Commerce, Business, Organizaion, Social group, Social sciences, Field of study, List of academic disciplines, Academia, Community, Interacting, Interaction, Causality, Event (philosophy), Philosophy.

3-6 (19) Stranger in My Own Hometown Elvis Presley, Tupelo, Mississippi, County seat, Administrative centre, County Town, County, Jurisdiction, Authority, Latin, Italic language, Indo-European, Language family, Languages, Human, Living, Biology, Natural science, Naturalism, Philosophy.

3-6 (19) Nokia 3310, Nokia, Finland, Nordic countries, Atlantic ocean, Ocean, Seawater, Water, Chemical substance, Chemistry, Science, Knowledge, Information, Sequence, Mathematics, Quantity, Property, Modern Philosophy, Philosophy.

3-6 (19) Rubik's Cube Three-dimensional space, Universe, Existence, Sense, Physiology, Science, Knowledge, Description, Rhetorical modes, Expository writing, Writing, Language, Human, Extant taxon, Biology, Natural science, Naturalism (philosophy), Philosophy.

3-6 (19) Tower of Silence Zoroastrianism, Zoroaster, Iran, Islamic republic, Muslim world, Islam, Monotheism, Deity, Preternatural, Nature, Phenomenon, Observation, Human, Extant taxon, Biology, Natural science, Naturalism (philosophy), Philosophy.

7-9 (18) Jeffrey F. L. Partridge American Book Awards, Before Columbus Foundation, Ishmael Reed, Poet, Poetry, Literature, Fiction, Narrative, Storytelling, Word, Language, Human, Extant taxon, Biology, Natural science, Naturalism (philosophy), Philosophy.

7-9 (18) Spastik Children Metallica, Heavy Metal music, rock music, popular music, music genre, genre, literature, fiction, narrative, storytelling, word, language, human, extant taxon, biology, natural science, naturalism, philosophy

7-9 (18) Throop Dunmore Interchange, Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania, Interstate 81, Interstate Highway System, List of highway systems with full control of access and no cross traffic, Controlled-access highway, Highway, Road, Thoroughfare, Location (geography), Geography, Earth, Planet, Orbit, Physics, Natural science, Naturalism (philosophy), Philosophy.

10-13 (17) Curley Byrd, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, Maryland, Prince George's County, Maryland, County (US), U.S. state, Federated state, Constitution, State (polity), Social sciences, List of academic disciplines, Academia, Community, Interacting, Causal, Event (philosophy), Philosophy.

10-13 (17) Fearless (Terri Clark album) Country music, Music of the United States, Music genre, Genre, Literature, Fiction, Narrative, Storytelling, Word, Language, Human, Extant taxon, Biology, Natural science, Naturalism (philosophy), Philosophy.

10-13 (17) The Vue on Apache, Arizona State University, Public university, University, Higher education, Learning, Knowledge, Description, Rhetorical modes, Expository writing, Writing, Language, Human, Extant taxon, Biology, Natural science, Naturalism (philosophy), Philosophy

10-13 (17) Phil Hartman Brantford, Grand River (Ontario), River, Watercourse, Water, Chemical substance, Chemistry, Science, Knowledge, Information, Sequence, Mathematics, Quantity, Property, Modern Philosophy, Philosophy.


Strategy

You can use the "random article" function as a first guess.

If a particular article quickly reaches an article on a general topic such as Mathematics, Religion, Science, etc., Other articles which quickly reach the same general topic will have about the same number of total links, so you can save time by not following those chains all the way.

Some closely related articles have wildly differing paths, so it is often worthwhile to check variations.

It is permissible to edit articles to change the chain, but only if the change improves Wikipedia. See "Gaming the System" above. For example, WP:REDLINK says that if a redlink is to a topic that is unlikely ever to have an article, you can remove the link. That would be an example of making a chain longer and improving Wikipedia at the same time. On the other hand, if the redlink is to an article that doesn't exist but should be created your only options are to give up or to create the missing page yourself (with real content, not just a stub).

If you find a particularly long chain, you can use the "what links here" link to the left of the page. If one of the pages listed has the current page as the first link, you just made the chain one link longer.

You may wish to write a program to search for chains or to confirm chains found by others. If you do this, make sure the program follows the rules properly.

Variants

Variant rules may include:

  • If you end up in a loop, click on the next available link instead of the first one.
  • Check the chains using the revision as of a particular date in the past.

See also

References

  1. ^ Ilmari Karonen (June 2011). "First link". Wikipedia user page.
  • Cartoon at xkcd featuring the observation (see tooltip)
  • Web page displaying the chain for any given start article *(please double check the results before posting them)
  • HTML5 web page written by Jeffrey Winter that renders links graphically in a tree *(detects loops and uses the second link to always complete the game)
  • YouTube video demonstrating this observation, which starts with random article and eventually end up in the article Philosophy
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