![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
I've checked, for each of the 100 most important persons of the 20th century (as determined by Time), which of the other 99 is more relevent to him/her. I used the simple algorithm I've described in my previous post (and a Ruby program kindly written by Giuseppe "Oblomov" Bilotta, thanks!). The results are 1MB of data (e-mail me and I'll send it to you). But maybe an image worth 1000 numbers:
While some links are trivial, others are weird: maybe the latter are dued to bugs in Google page count, or, more probably, in my algorithm. But the result is: 20th century was ruled by Winston Churchill and Marilyn Monroe.
Or, from another point of view, 20th century was the century of WWII and of the Society of the Spectacle.
Update: you have better images if you consider the proximity of two persons, using this simple formula:
pagesXY^2 / (pagesX * pagesY)
The results are similar to Cilibrasi and Vitanyi's Normalized Google Distance (and to the other similar formulas), but the formula is simpler. The formula is also similar to "mutual information", but it gives different results.
See the image, showing the 100 couples with the higher proximity. This image was automatically created (as the first one) by GoVisual Diagram Editor, "hierarchical" layout (even if in this case there is not hierarchy, because every couple of nodes is linked two-ways):
There are two great groups: above, spectacle; below, "serious stuff" (politics and culture). In the spectacle section, left is for cinema, right for music: note that Frank Sinatra is in the middle! In the "serious" section, you have all the intellectuals together. The politics is divided in two parts: the left part hosts persons of the first half of the century; right part is for the second half. But you have also other taxonomies, because you can see: national leaders (Reagan, Tatcher, Gorbachev, Mandela); civil rights movement (Mandela, M.L. King, Jackie Robinson); Christians (M. Teresa, John Paul II, B. Graham); activist women (M. Teresa, Keller, E. Roosevelt). Guevara is near the civil rights movement, but he's also linked to Dylan linked and to two pop icons (Monroe and Lee).
Update 2: another way to visualize the data in GoVisual Diagram Editor is the circular layout. I used it to visualize the top 100 links among Wikipedia core articles:
Let's read it counterclockwise: life - human - education - society - health - governement (law)- science (medicine) - history - community - information (number) - media - computer - personal - business - technology - energy - engineering (architecture) - communication - internet - time - day - life.
There are two other little groups: one is "continents", because there are Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia; Europe is related to technology in the bigger group. The other group is "natural sciences": mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, nuclear; mathematics and physics are related to engineering.
Anonymous
March 6 2007, 18:54:02 UTC 5 years ago
wonderful point
I have also appreciated _Society_of_the_Spectacle_ by Guy Debord and concur that it mostly defines the century. I'm glad this medium in which we now find ourselves is two-way. -Rudi CilibrasiMarch 7 2007, 07:14:48 UTC 5 years ago
Re: wonderful point
> I'm glad this medium in which we now find ourselves is two-way.Me too :)
March 7 2007, 01:55:53 UTC 5 years ago
A possible legend
Armstrong-Sinatra: singer with a distinctive voice (were in the same movie, High Society).Baekeland-Farnsworth: inventors.
Carson-Pankhurst: activist women.
Chanel-Lauder: beauty business women.
Churchill-Hitler: fought one against the other.
Eliot-Joyce: modernists.
John Paul-Teresa: Catholic icons (he beatified her).
King-Parks: icons of the fight for black people's rights.
Kroc-Walton: founders of big sell-companies.
Lee-Monroe actors dead young and in strange circumstances.
Levitt-Trippe: American businessmen.
Milk-Turing: killed because gay.
Reagan-Thatcher: conservative leaders of the 80s.
Ali: black, like Winfrey?
Ball: actress of the 50s, like Monroe.
Bechtel: American entrepreneur, like Levitt.
Beatles: played music, like Armstrong.
Tim Berners-Lee: invented the web, used primarily with Gates-equipped computers.
Brando: actor from Actors Studio, like Monroe.
Burnett: gave power to images, like Disney.
Carrier: inventor, like Baekeland.
Chaplin: American actor, like Monroe.
Diana: Franklin sang in tribute to her.
Disney: worked for cinema, like Lee.
Dylan: singer, like Sinatra.
Einstein: anti-Nazist, like Churchill.
Fermi: scientist, like Salk.
Fleming: his father saved Churchill's life.
Ford: optimist, like Churchill?
Frank: victim of Hitler's Holocaust.
Franklin: popular voice, like Sinatra.
Freud: Churchill?
Gandhi: fought for civil rights in the British Empire, like Pankhurst.
Gates: rich American working in the media sector, like Winfrey.
Giannini: American businessman, like Trippe.
Goddard: inventor, like Baekeland.
Gorbachev: working together with Reagan, ended the Cold War.
Graham B.: charismatic Christian, like Teresa.
Graham M.: danced with Keller.
Gurion: leader of Zionism, helped by Churchill.
Guevara: icon painted by Warhol, like Monroe.
Henson: low-cost SFX guru, while Spielberg is the high-cost SFX guru.
Hubble: explained Einstein's results.
Keller: woman voice of the ones who suffer, like Teresa.
Kennedys: loved Monroe.
Keynes: criticized Churchill.
Le Corbusier: revolutionary artist, like Picasso.
Lenin: leader of an absolute state, like Hitler.
Lindbergh: consultant to Ford.
Luciano: friend of Sinatra.
Mandela: leader of a nation, like Churchill?
Mayer: founded MGM, that produced some Monroe's movies.
Merrill: American businessman, like Bechtel.
Minh: Communist leader in the Third World, like Guevara.
Morita: founded Sony, like Ford founded Ford.
Piaget: psychologist, like Freud.
Picasso: Churchill?
Reuther: organized Ford's workers.
Robinson: icon of Black progress, like Parks.
Roosevelt E.: activist woman, like Keller.
Roosevelt F.: led US in World War 2, like Churchill led UK.
Roosevelt T.: American president, like Reagan.
Rozelle: Dylan?
Sakharov: wanted reforms in USSR, like those later done by Gorbachev.
Salk: worked for the humanity, like E. Roosevelt.
Sanger: fought for human rights together with E. Roosevelt.
Sarnoff: created an industrial empire, like Ford.
Schockley: prepared the hardware for computers, while Turing the software.
Simpson: pop icon, like Monroe.
Spielberg: worked at Hollywood, like Monroe.
Stravinsky: did a revolution in art, like Picasso (they worked together).
Unknown: destroyed the image of Communism. like Gorbachev.
Walesa: Polish man who fought Communism, like John Paul.
Watson: American businessman, like Bechtel.
Wilson: leader of a people oppressed in a state, like King.
Winfrey: starred in Spielberg's The color purple.
Wittgenstein: criticized Freud (they were both intellectuals working in Vienna)
Zedong: leader of an absolute state, like Hitler.
March 7 2007, 02:32:41 UTC 5 years ago
[Context : Topic more relevant with the simple pagecount / Topic more relevant with my algo]
Ali:King/Winfrey
Armstrong:Beatles/Sinatra
Baekeland:Goddard/Farnsworth
Beatles:Dylan/Armstrong
Becthel:Disney/Levit
Carrier:Diney/Reagan
Carson:King/Pankhurst
Chaplin:Disney/Monroe
Dylan:Beatles/Sinatra
Einstein:King/Churchill
Farnsworth:Lauder/Baekeland
Fermi:Einstein/Salk
Fleming:Einstein/Churcuill
Ford:Einstein/Churchill
Franklin:Beatles/Sinatra
Freud:Einstein/Chi
Gandhi:King/Pankhurst
Gates:King/Winfrey
Giannini:Milk/Trippe
Goddard: Einstein/Baekeland
Graham M.:King/Keller
Guevara:King/Monroe
Henson:Dinsey/Spielberg
John Paul:Reagan/Teresa
Keller:King/Teresa
Kennedys:King/Monroe
Keynes:Reagan/Churchill
King:Reagan/Parks
Kroc:Gates/Walton
Lenin:Beatles/Hitler
Levitt:Disney/Trippe
Mandela:King/Churchill
Mayer:Disney/Monroe
Merrill:Disney/Bechtel
Milk:King/Turing
Pankhurst:Churchill/Carson
Picasso:Einstein/Churchill
Reagan:King/Thatcher
Robinson:King/Parks
Roosevelt E.:King/Keller
Roosevelt F.:Reagan/Churchill
Rozelle:Gates/Dylan
Sakharov:King/Gorbachev
Salk:King/Roosevelt
Sanger:King/Roosevelt
Sarnoff:Gates/Ford
Shockley:Einstein/Turing
Simpson:Einstein/Monroe
Sinatra:Beatels/Armstrong
Stravinsky:Beatles/Picasso
Teresa:King/John Paul
Trippe:Disney/Levitt
Turing:Gates/Milk
Unknown:Einstein/Gorbachev
Walesa:Reagan/John Paul
Walton:Gates/Kroc
Watson:King/Bechtel