Parting Thoughts

In the last four months, I have learned more about networks than I have the last four years that I have been on Facebook. Studying networks that existed before the internet existed was especially eye-opening. I always thought that networks begun with sites like Myspace, but people before the internet used more manual methods of viewing network connections, and some of the network graphs that were made pre-internet are astounding to look at.

I really like that we had the freedom to research and write about whatever we wanted to. I was able to learn a lot more about topics which I'm passionate about. This class gave students the opportunity to interpret its content in their own ways, while discussing their views amongst others. One of my favorite topics we learned about was Swarm Theory. We learned that a seemingly unintelligent individual, when grouped with a swarm of others, can collectively combine their knowledge to optimize their ordinary tasks. With this mindset, ants were able to solve the Towers of Hanoi and bees could solve the Travelling Salesman problem.

I have learned to incorporate the knowledge from this class into my daily life. For example, I use Swarm Theory to better understand how members of websites think together, I use open sourcing, like Wikipedia, to better understand how Linux and Android work, and I use contagion to think about why so many people smoke and drink at Northeastern and why it spreads. This class has given me a new perspective on life by changing how I view the world.