Six Degrees....

[selenak]

On a lighter note: in ye olde 1990s, there used to be this party game, which became a stage play: "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon". Meaning you could connect anyone in the world to Kevin Bacon in six steps, maximum.

Well, after one year of 18th century source reading with my comrades in armys mildred_of_midgard and cahn, I have concluded that the Age of Enlightenment equivalent clearly is "Six Degrees of Francesco Algarotti". Meaning not only that you can connect anyone to Francesco Algarotti in six steps, maximum, but some of these steps probably include people who have had sex with Algarotti, or tried to habe sex with Algarotti, or wrote about other people having sex with Algarotti.

If you don't know who Francesco Algarotti was, never mind. A year ago, neither did I. But believe me: six steps. Maximum. Try me. (Or the above mentioned ladies.)

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Joseph Banks!

[selenak]

Joseph Banks: natural science advisor to King George III., son of uncrowned Prince Frederick of Wales, who for three years was the very intimate friend of Lord Hervey, who definitely had sex and a full blown affair plus love triangle with Algarotti!

So: Banks - George - Fred - Hervey - Algarotti.

[lilacsigil]

Only 5 degrees, nice!

[mildred_of_midgard]

I can do it in 3 degrees!

Banks -> Boswell -> Voltaire -> Algarotti

Wikipedia tells me that Banks, when returning from Captain Cook's voyage around the world, was interviewed by Boswell (he of Boswell's Life of Johnson). Boswell met Voltaire, who as you'll see in the comments before you, had Algarotti stay with him and wrote a sexually explicit poem about Algarotti and the secretary of the French envoy.

By the way, I googled it, and the internet confirms my understanding of how you count degrees: Algarotti is 0 degrees from himself, Voltaire 1, Boswell 2, and Banks 3. So selenak was able to do it in 4 degrees.

We have a similar game in math, with Paul Erdős. He was a very prolific 20th century mathematician who co-authored a lot of papers, so if you co-authored a paper with him, your Erdős number is 1. If you've co-authored a paper with someone who co-authored a paper with him, your number is 2, and so on. Erdős's own number is 0.

"We." I'm not actually a mathematician and have never published a mathematical paper, but I did major in math, so I'm granting myself honorary membership. ;)