Memetic analysis of Apocalypse
Following up on the apocalypse meme, I decided to use some of the tools I've developed over the past week to conduct a "memetic analysis" of Apocalypse, at least from the English Wikipedia perspective.
Starting at the Wikipedia entries for Apocalypse and Eschatology, I crawled down two levels on each Wikipedia link in the two base pages. The result was a network of 21,831 nodes and 51738 edges, impossible to analyze on my home computer. I culled the nodes that did not link back to any other node in the network, resulting in a smaller network with 266 nodes and 4406 edges: easy to analyze but hard to visualize. Therefore, I conducted a betweenness analysis for the smaller network, resulting in a number between 0 and 1 for each node, representing the extent to which the node serves as a "bridge" for a large number of paths between other nodes (1 being the most "between" and 0 being the least). Finally, used this betweenness measure to filter out the least important nodes in the network, varying a threshold until I obtained a visually digestible network image. Here is the result for a threshold of 0.01:
What emerges is that Apocalypse, at least as understood by English-speaking Wikipedia contributors, is overwhelmingly a Western concept, with Christianity, Jesus, Satan, God, etc. in the center of the network. There are a few nodes from Eastern religions on the outer edges of the network, notably Maitreya and Kali Yuga. Oddly, Maya civilization is included in the network, even though the Wikipedia entry does not seem to mention the associated 2012 eschatological speculations. The following figure shows the result of a higher threshold of 0.05, where it is clear that Jesus, God, Satan, and the Bible sit squarely in the middle of the network. So far, nothing too surprising.
Next, I added a Wikipedia page Peak oil, once again traveling down two levels on each link. The result was a network of 74,726 nodes and 30,714 edges. Using the same strategies to cull the data to obtain a visually digestible network image, here is the result:
Clearly Apocalypse and Peak oil separate into largely distinct clusters. What is interesting is what lies in the middle: United States, Sun, Canada, Israel, and Venezuela (and to some extent Doomsday). Note that Pope Benedict XVI now emerges as a bridging node. Readers familiar with Christian apocalyptic thinking will no doubt recognize Israel as a key player (and perhaps Benedict also). Note that Transhumanism and Technological singularity are also in the center.
Finally, I included Global warming, using the same methodology as described above. The result:
With the addition, the clusters seem to merge a bit, with Global warming and Peak oil on one side, Christian apocalyptic thinking on the other, and numerous countries sitting in the middle of the network. Note that George W. Bush and Pope Benedict XVI appear to be the only living persons sitting in the middle of the network.
The results of this analysis highlight which countries and present day personalities are central to the joint themes of Apocalypse, Peak oil, and Global warming. Predictable players emerge as nodes in the network, including one (Maya civilization) that seems to have no explicit mention of apocalypse eschatology in the main page. The results also shows how some of the other millenialist themes of Transhumanism and the Technological singularity travel along as companion memes.
Starting at the Wikipedia entries for Apocalypse and Eschatology, I crawled down two levels on each Wikipedia link in the two base pages. The result was a network of 21,831 nodes and 51738 edges, impossible to analyze on my home computer. I culled the nodes that did not link back to any other node in the network, resulting in a smaller network with 266 nodes and 4406 edges: easy to analyze but hard to visualize. Therefore, I conducted a betweenness analysis for the smaller network, resulting in a number between 0 and 1 for each node, representing the extent to which the node serves as a "bridge" for a large number of paths between other nodes (1 being the most "between" and 0 being the least). Finally, used this betweenness measure to filter out the least important nodes in the network, varying a threshold until I obtained a visually digestible network image. Here is the result for a threshold of 0.01:
What emerges is that Apocalypse, at least as understood by English-speaking Wikipedia contributors, is overwhelmingly a Western concept, with Christianity, Jesus, Satan, God, etc. in the center of the network. There are a few nodes from Eastern religions on the outer edges of the network, notably Maitreya and Kali Yuga. Oddly, Maya civilization is included in the network, even though the Wikipedia entry does not seem to mention the associated 2012 eschatological speculations. The following figure shows the result of a higher threshold of 0.05, where it is clear that Jesus, God, Satan, and the Bible sit squarely in the middle of the network. So far, nothing too surprising.
Next, I added a Wikipedia page Peak oil, once again traveling down two levels on each link. The result was a network of 74,726 nodes and 30,714 edges. Using the same strategies to cull the data to obtain a visually digestible network image, here is the result:
Clearly Apocalypse and Peak oil separate into largely distinct clusters. What is interesting is what lies in the middle: United States, Sun, Canada, Israel, and Venezuela (and to some extent Doomsday). Note that Pope Benedict XVI now emerges as a bridging node. Readers familiar with Christian apocalyptic thinking will no doubt recognize Israel as a key player (and perhaps Benedict also). Note that Transhumanism and Technological singularity are also in the center.
Finally, I included Global warming, using the same methodology as described above. The result:
With the addition, the clusters seem to merge a bit, with Global warming and Peak oil on one side, Christian apocalyptic thinking on the other, and numerous countries sitting in the middle of the network. Note that George W. Bush and Pope Benedict XVI appear to be the only living persons sitting in the middle of the network.
The results of this analysis highlight which countries and present day personalities are central to the joint themes of Apocalypse, Peak oil, and Global warming. Predictable players emerge as nodes in the network, including one (Maya civilization) that seems to have no explicit mention of apocalypse eschatology in the main page. The results also shows how some of the other millenialist themes of Transhumanism and the Technological singularity travel along as companion memes.
Labels: experimental
posted by slomo at 12:50 AM
2 Comments:
that's just freaking brilliant;
a little scary too!
NICE!
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