Think of the act of clicking the first link in the Wikipedia article as a function that takes in the page you're on and outputs another page.

If you call this function on itself over and over again (ie use the output of one step as in the input of the next step), you will eventually enter a loop. The proof of this is simple: there are only a finite number of Wikipedia articles, therefore you must eventually reach an article you've seen before. (This is the same reason systems with a finite number of states cannot be chaotic.)

Since it's necessarily true that all articles will eventually reach a loop when you iteratively click the first link, we have to ask: how unusual is it that they usually reach the SAME loop?

E.g.

A fish is any member of a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals that lack limbs with digits.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is an American _multinational corporation_ which provides Internet-related products and services [...]

A table is a form of _furniture_ with a flat and satisfactory horizontal upper surface [...]

And so on. If you always walk up the abstraction chain because you're picking the first link (the general category), you'll end up at the root of the categorization tree, which is likely something along the lines of Argument, Logic, Fact etc.

Note however that the current state of wikipedia has a different root loop for me, Logic leads to Philosophy.

(1) or one of a very limited number of loops, I also saw Science <-> Knowledge.

Without more information, I don't think this is true. It is true if the transition function between states depends on a finite number of previous ones (WLOG if s_n is a function of only s_{n-1}), but I think that it isn't if the transition depends on an infinite number.

(Though, in this case, clearly there is no history, so what you say is true.)

In the case of depending on up to an infinite history, I wouldn't call that system to have a finite number of states any longer.

For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebra

"Algebra ... is a branch of mathematics." (mathematics being a link)

So if you continue to generalize you'll end up at the most general subject which appears to be philosophy.

[update] added an example

Ah, and the first three of the liberal arts that were the first thing a student learned, grammar, rhetoric and logic, were called the trivium, hence the modern word "trivial" for obvious things everyone should know.

In the above - grammar, rhetoric, logic - formed the "trivium" and - arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy - formed the "quadrivium".

Also "trivium" represented the place where three roads would intersect. People would meet here and exchange pleasantries and gossip. That is how you get the current meaning of the word "trivia".

In the context of academic degrees, the term "philosophy" does not refer solely to the field of philosophy, but is used in a broader sense in accordance with its original Greek meaning, which is "love of wisdom". In most of Europe, all fields other than theology, law and medicine were traditionally known as philosophy. The doctorate of philosophy as it exists today originated as a doctorate in the liberal arts at the Humboldt University of Berlin, and was eventually adopted by United States universities, becoming common in large parts of the world in the 20th century.[1] In many countries, the doctorate of philosophy is still awarded only in the liberal arts, which is known as "philosophy" in continental Europe.

As a nerdy kid, over a few years I read my way through a significant chunk of the early 1990's Groliers Encyclopedia set my Grandma bought me at Krogers. And it was never cover-to-cover reading, instead it was filled with hopping around, page-to-page, volume-to-volume. Start at oscilloscope, but what's a cathode ray? And then it's in television? How does broadcasting work? I'd sit on the floor with a half dozen open encyclopedias open around me, the same way we can do now with browser tabs.

Wikipedia has many flaws, but it's a fantastic tool and I'd have killed for it as a 12 year old with 5 volumes of an encyclopedia in my backpack!

I find this drill-down effect to be quite illuminating, if not productive. Strangely, it seems to provide both depth and breadth of topics in relatively equal measures.

Recently, I've been giving access to the game data to people (like university researchers, etc) to test different theories on path connections made by real people, etc.

The game has now been running for over 3 years, has about 1.19 million players, playing over 1.37 million games, with about 1.22 million won games (successful start/end article connection).

Got a really cool application for all the game data? I'd love to hear: [email protected]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Get_to_Philosophy

In trying to describe a domain in an encyclopedia, it does little good to use language specific to the domain. If your reader doesn't know what Biology is, it's little use trying to describe it in terms of Microbiology and Immunology. You have to use more general language.

There are are few words more general and meaningless in our language than "organization".

edit - grammar

http://i.imgur.com/KSju9.png

(Incidentally, my test case for the screenshot did not lead to Philosophy!)

http://wikiloopr.com/anime

My brain exploded.

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_planets:_75001%E2...

That is, however, a weird Wikipedia page. It seems like the first link is a target to another location on the page, which (I'd assume) would put it in an infinite loop.

As noted by XKCD, everything is based on something else: http://xkcd.com/435/

And I think after Maths on that should come Philosophy.

But please don't go editing articles to improve the loops or otherwise change them. Unless of course the change is beneficial to the article.

It's like going for a walk somewhere fascinating; enjoy the view, but leave nothing behind :)

  Biology
  Natural science
  Science
  Knowledge
  Fact
  Proof (truth)
  Argument
  Philosophy
  Problem
  Doubt
  Belief
  Proposition
  Logic
  Reason
  Human
  Mammal
  Class (biology)
  Biological classification
  Organism
  Biology

Am I just missing something here?

Edit: This no longer happens. Now it properly loops on Philosophy and Proposition.

* Carly Rae Jepson

* Paul is dead

* Telephony

* Easter Island

* Drum and bass

* Sunglasses

* CAT 5

* Willy Wonka

* Black hole

* Vancouver

* Cloud Cuckoo Land

* Bacon

* Radish

* Brunette

* Dunning-Kruger Effect

* Lady Gaga

* Sailor Moon

If the chain hits Philosophy first, it converges on Philosophy/Argument. If it hits Fact first, it converges on Fact/Truth.

  Star Trek
  Star Trek
  Cinema of the United States
  Film
  Cinema of the United States
  Recording
  Data
  Level of measurement
  Film
  ...etc until the last page title, "Reality"

    Anime
    Animation
    The page you specified doesn't exist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusion

Is that an Easter Egg (illusion == doesn't exist)?

Greek City States ->

  Polis
  City
  Human settlement
  Statistics
  Data
  Level of measurement
  Stanley Smith Stevens
  United States
  Federalism
  Politics
  Art
  Human behavior
  Behavior
  Organism
  Biology
  Natural science
  Science
  Knowledge
  Fact
  Proof (truth)
  Argument
  Philosophy
  Problem
  Doubt
  Belief
  Proposition loops to Philosophy

For example, the page on Anime:

http://wikiloopr.com/Anime

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anime&action=e...

"Whale" leads to the "pinniped"/"marine mammal" loop. How about that one?

- Always interested in the backstory of folks that sit around thinking this stuff up (and then testing it).

http://www.syndiosocial.com/the-philosophy-of-networks/

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reason&diff=51...

Today most articles ends in cycle between Philosophy and Modern Philosophy.. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_philosophy )

few days ago, it was cycling between Philosophy and Agency ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(philosophy) )

What changed and why?

Its a little bit like butterfly effect :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Problem&action...

Port Arthur http://wikiloopr.com/Port%20Arthur

Either that, I found a bug.

Edit: Looks like somebody is editing certain articles that don't have philosophy as the first link to have it. Psychology used to loop with itself through like 5 intermediates.

And lo and behold, I tried word "word" and it loops between "emotion" and "psychology". http://wikiloopr.com/word

http://wikiloopr.com/Peru

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy

it still brings you to a loop, but it's not an immediate back-and-forth between the last two.

"In philosophy and sociology..."

On the Agency (philosophy) page. This changed the output of the results, but in the end the loop still existed. However, I couldn't help but feel like someone is trying to hack the matrix.

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reason&oldid=5...

[1] http://translationparty.com/

http://wikiloopr.com/Reince%20Priebus

[1] https://gist.github.com/1654064

[1] http://wikiloopr.com/Paul%20Graham

Amusingly, my test got stuck in a loop between Science and Natural Science. :)

http://i.imgur.com/rgMkh.png

  The Tyger
  William Blake
  Romanticism
  Industrial Revolution
  United Kingdom
  Britain (placename)
  Great Britain

m3mnoch.

1. Elephant (Mammal ... Human)

2. Big Bang (Fact ... Truth)

http://wikiloopr.com/home http://wikiloopr.com/chopsticks http://wikiloopr.com/monty%20python

I also found M62 Locomotive [2] at 26 to be interesting.

1: http://wikiloopr.com/MAF

2: http://wikiloopr.com/M62%20locomotive

That's a good find you found. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_loops

  I'm
  so
  meta
  even
  this
  acronym