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Wikipedia:Getting to Philosophy

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by ScoreJ6 (talk | contribs) at 17:42, 19 August 2011 (→Top ten chains). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The object of the "Get to Philosophy" game is to click on the first link in the main text of a Wikipedia 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] 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.

There have been some theories on this phenomenon, with the most prevalent being the tendency for Wikipedia pages to move up a "classification chain." According to this theory, the Wikipedia Manual of Style guidelines on how to write the lead section of an article recommend that the article should start by defining the topic of the article, so that the first link of each page will naturally carry the player into a broader subject, eventually ending in wide-reaching pages such as Mathematics, Science, Language, and of course, Philosophy. Because Philosophy is the only one of these broad-subject pages to be a part of a loop, players logically "end" there.

Rules

  • Chains are defined as ending either when Philosophy is reached, a page with no links is reached, a page that does not exist, or a loop occurs.
  • The player looks for the first non-parenthesized, non-italicized link.
  • External links or links to the current page do not count.
  • Because they are not parenthetical or added for navigation, red links do count. See Strategy for possible ways of dealing with red links.
  • If you are considering changing the first link in an article, please read Gaming the System below.

Gaming the system

Because of Wikipedia's status as a public encyclopedia, editing a page to break a loop or lengthen a chain (to "win") is simple. Because of this, all editors are asked to abide by the following rules:

Editing a page for the sole purpose of "winning" is discouraged. These edits do not assist Wikipedia in any way. If you believe the edit will improve the article, then editing the page would be encouraged.

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 an edit 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.

While bragging about a particularly long chain is fun and exciting, this should be confined to this article's talk page. Do not place it on the main page unless it makes the top-ten list. Doing so tempts others to game the system by editing a link and taking it off the list, or to edit pages so theirs rank higher.

Loops will be encountered. Breaking loops is helpful to Wikipedia, as it is not ideal to have two pages define each other. Once again, the player should take care to only edit the page if it results in an improvement.

As you play, bear this in mind: improving Wikipedia comes first, playing the game comes 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 (30) Tolkien's legendarium, Tolkien research, J._R._R._Tolkien, Order of the British Empire, Chivalric order, Knight, Warrior, Combat, Violence, Psychological manipulation, Social Influence, Conformity, Unconscious mind, Germans, Germanic peoples, Proto-Indo-Europeans, Proto-Indo-European language, Linguistic reconstruction, Internal reconstruction, Language, Human, Extant taxon, Biology, Natural science, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Truth, Reality, Philosophy.

2 (28) USS Newark (CL-108), Fargo class cruiser, Cleveland class cruiser, United States Navy, Naval warfare, Combat, Violence, Psychological manipulation, Social Influence, Conformity, Unconscious mind, Germans, Germanic peoples, Proto-Indo-Europeans, Proto-Indo-European language, Linguistic reconstruction, Internal reconstruction, Language, Human, Extant taxon, Biology, Natural science, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Truth, Reality, Philosophy.

3-4 (26) ""Chris Needs"", Order of the British Empire, Chivalric Order, Knight, Warrior, Combat, Violent, Psychological Manipulation, Social Influence, Conformity, Unconscious Mind, Germans, Germanic Peoples, Ethnolinguistics, Linguistics, Language, Human, Extant Taxon, Biology, Natural Science, List of Academic Disciplines, Knowledge, Fact, Truth, Reality, Philosophy.

3-4 (26) Visit, Visitation, Heraldic visitation, King of Arms, Officer of arms, Sovereignty, Socrates, Classical Greece, Culture, Alfred L. Kroeber, United States, Federalism, Political, Group decision making, Individual, Person, Human, Extant taxon, Biology, Natural science, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Truth, Reality, Philosophy.

5-8 (25) 1995 Citizen Cup, Citizen Cup, America's Cup, Match race, Regatta, Boat, Watercraft, Craft, Vehicle, Transport, Cargo, Produce, Farm, Aquaculture, Fish, Gill, Respiration organ, Respiration (physiology), Physiology, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Truth, Reality, Philosophy.

5-8 (25) Operation Linebacker, Seventh Air Force, Numbered Air Force, United States Air Force, Aerial warfare, Military aircraft, Fixed-wing aircraft, Aircraft, Vehicle, Transport, Cargo, produce, farm, land, Earth, planet, orbit, physics, Natural science, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Truth, Reality, Philosophy.

5-8 (25) Reverse (American football), Trick play, Play from scrimmage, Canadian football, Gridiron football, Football, Team sport, Sport, Organization, Social group, Social sciences, List of academic disciplines, Academia, Community, Living, Life, Physical body, Physics, Natural science, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Truth, Reality, Philosophy.

5-8 (25) USS Roanoke, USS Roanoke (1855), Steam frigate, Frigate, Warship, Ship, Age of Sail, International trade, Capital (economics), Economics, Social sciences, List of academic disciplines, Academia, Community, Living, Life, Physical body, Physics, Natural science, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Truth, Reality, Philosophy.

9-11 (24) Air Force Armament Museum, Eglin Air Force Base, United States Air Force, aerial warfare, military aircraft, Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft, Vehicle, transport, cargo, produce, farm, land, Earth, planet, orbit, physics, Natural science, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Truth, Reality, Philosophy.

9-11 (24) Cornfield Bomber, Convair F-106 Delta Dart, Interceptor aircraft, Fighter aircraft, Military aircraft, Fixed-wing aircraft, Aircraft, Vehicle, Transport, Cargo, produce, farm, land, Earth, planet, orbit, physics, Natural science, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Truth, Reality, Philosophy.

9-11 (24) NBC 23, KNDO, NBC, Commercial broadcasting, Broadcasting, Distribution (business), Marketing mix, American Marketing Association, Professional association, Nonprofit organization, Organization, Social sciences, List of academic disciplines, Academia, Community, Extant taxon, Biology, Natural science, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Truth, Reality, 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. If you do this, delete the shorter chain and replace it with the lengthened chain.

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.

Origins

On April 13, 2011, a submission was made on a popular news aggregation website called Reddit.com by the username pixelcrak [2]. This appears to be the first public appearance of the phenomenon.

See also

References

  1. ^ Ilmari Karonen (June 2011). "First link". Wikipedia user page.
  2. ^ Originally discovered by user "pixelcrak" on Reddit.com: http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/gpdhb/try_thiswikipedia_mindfk/
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