It sounds like a demented inquiry . But two physicists took some time off from studying speck to read ancient epics , trying to answer classical humanness questions using internet possibility .
In the chart above , enemies linked by loss and ally by green .
In a terrific storyonThe Vergetoday , Veronique Greenwood talk to the physicists and explore what they found . Mostly , they were interested to find out whether there were any correlations between material - life social networks and networks of ally and kin described in medieval epic like The Táin or Beowulf .
write Greenwood :
Several age ago , Kenna , who has a successful career as a physicist , found his view return to mythology . It was n’t as big a release as it might seem at first . “ In statistical physics , you ’re deal with object such as gasses that are comprised of molecules and mote , ” he say . “ The organization consists of many diminished entity , and so many of them you may not deal with them individually , you have to deal with them statistically . ” Some physicists have get down to utilise standardized method acting to look at how gravid numbers of citizenry interact to bring about view of human society , and Kenna wondered whether they could be applied to myth and floor . The Táin , which comes to us in pieces from many unlike manuscripts , the oldest nearly 1,000 years sometime , is considered literature rather than historical account . But it might still encode , in a way statistics can reveal , selective information about the society that produced it . Math might also help oneself sort out tales in a new agency , quantitatively , in improver to the usual qualitative classifications .
In cerebrate these thought process , he had plenty of company — the approximation that computation might be capable to supply perceptiveness into literature and history has gathered f number in the last couple of decades . But it has chivy some controversy , as researchers seek to figure out how computer scientific discipline and statistics can be helpful in fields where trained reading and intuition are central . There are many levels of the debate , but it unremarkably circles around to this pointedness : Can you answer worthful questions this way ? Can these prick supply selective information that is severe to grasp otherwise ?
The answer turns out out to be “ sometimes , ” but the connection graphs these would - be literary scholar create are worth everything .
translate the full history atThe brink
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