According to the on-line, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, the Six Degrees of Separation hypothesis was formulated in 1929 and tested in the years 1967 and 2001. In now testing the hypothesis, The Lighthouse Press is awarding the novels, The Gray Stopgap and The Wayfarers, to participants who validate the theory within the control parameters established by the small press publishing company.
“I have little faith in the theory,” remarked Lighthouse Publisher, Ron Richard. “In fact, this whole thing started because I told one of our authors that if the theory was true, his name and novel should now be household words—but not even our Steven Spielberg endorsed novel, The Wayfarers, by Stuart Tower, had obtained that sort of fame.”
The Lighthouse author with whom Richard had that discussion was DL Tolleson.
“I told him (Richard) that we were all only five or six people away from anybody on the planet,” Tolleson remarked.
The result of those innocent remarks is a well-orchestrated experiment that may exponentially grow to beyond 600,000 participants. The goal is simple: To establish five separate chains of five of intermediary acquaintances between Lighthouse author DL Tolleson and five target people who have been identified in private e-mail messages sent to 49 initial recipients.
For more information people are invited to review the experiment parameters on the web at www.TheLighthousePress.com/fyi_sixdegrees.htm.