The Chronicle: 2/14/2003: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Connected Age

...by helping us to understand better the relationship between cause and effect that pertains to complex, connected systems, the science of networks teaches us a third lesson: that such systems, from power grids to businesses, and even entire economies, are both more vulnerable and more robust than populations of isolated entities. Networks share resources and distribute loads, but they also spread disease and transmit failure -- they are both good and bad. But unless we can understand exactly how connected systems are connected, we cannot predict how they will behave. And unless we know what kind of behavior we are trying to understand, we don't even know what it is about the network that is supposed to matter. In this manner, the science of networks may not only provide deep theoretical insight, but also yield practical solutions to currently intractable problems.

Duncan J. Watts is an assistant professor of sociology at Columbia University and an external faculty member of the Santa Fe Institute. This essay is adapted from Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age, to be published this month by W.W. Norton & Co.