Wikipedia philosophy phenomenon
The Wikipedia philosophy phenomenon, sometimes called the "Philosophy Game", is the tendency that English Wikipedia articles' first hyperlink, when clicked in a chain, tend to end in a loop at the article "Philosophy".[1] The concept was discovered by Wikipedian Mark J.[2]
The phenomenon first received widespread attention from a "fun fact" in the xkcd webcomic on 25 May 2011, which led to University of Vermont researchers Mark Ibrahim, Christopher Danforth, and Peter Sheridan Dodds publishing a paper on the matter.[1] The research found that the first link generalises the topic and eventually leads to "Philosophy":
So while a great many [First Link Network] paths flow to "Philosophy" [...], the accumulation is not the result of many articles directly referencing "Philosophy." Instead, first links flow towards "Philosophy" as the ultimate anchor, by generalizing from specific to broad.[3]
In 2011, more than 93% of English Wikipedia articles led to "Philosophy".[4] In 2016, this was true for 97% of articles.[5][needs update]
Other languages
Some other language Wikipedias, like the German, French and Russian editions, also led to "Philosophy" like the English Wikipedia. Others, like the Dutch and Japanese editions, did not.[5] As of 2017, the concepts with highest centrality to first link networks in European language Wikipedias are sciences, such as "Psychology" for Italian Wikipedia,[5] while East Asian languages are connected by concepts such as humans or Earth.[6]
See also
- [[Wiki rabbit hole|Wiki rabbit hole]]
- [[Wikiracing|Wikiracing]]
- [[Six degrees of separation|Six degrees of separation]]
- [[Small world network|Small world network]]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Collins, Nathan (9 May 2016). "All Wikipedia Roads Lead to Philosophy, but Some of Them Go Through Southeast Europe First". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
- ↑ Fry, Hannah (12 July 2016). "Marmalade, socks and One Direction". BBC Four. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
- ↑ Ibrahim, Mark; Danforth, Christopher M.; Dodds, Peter Sheridan (1 March 2017). "Connecting every bit of knowledge: The structure of Wikipedia's First Link Network". Journal of Computational Science. 19: 21–30. arXiv:1605.00309. doi:10.1016/j.jocs.2016.12.001. ISSN 1877-7503.
- ↑ Ball, James (10 July 2011). "The Only Way Is Essex + Wikipedia = philosophy". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lamprecht, Daniel; Dimitrov, Dimitar; Helic, Denis; Strohmaier, Markus (17 August 2016). Evaluating and Improving Navigability of Wikipedia: A Comparative Study of Eight Language Editions (PDF). OpenSym, Berlin, Germany: Association for Computing Machinery. doi:10.1145/2957792.2957813. ISBN 978-1-4503-4451-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 September 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2025. Unknown parameter
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- ↑ Gabella, Maxime (17 August 2017). "Cultural Structures of Knowledge from Wikipedia Networks of First Links". Institute for Advanced Study: 5. arXiv:1708.05368.
External links
- Wikipedia:Getting to Philosophy, original source of the discovery
- Extended Mind, 2011 xkcd where the hover text references the Wikipedia philosophy phenomenon
- Clip from The Joy of Data, 2016 documentary where mathematician Hannah Fry talks about "getting to philosophy"
- What happens if you click the first link on every Wikipedia article?, a video on the Wikipedia YouTube channel
- Wikipedia Philosophy Game
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