I just discovered Reed's Law

[Chris Corrigan]

I think I see the problem.  Superscripts didn't work out very well.

The formula is "2 to the power of N minus N minus 1."  "N" is the number
of people in your group.

Sometimes English is the way to go...

Chris


---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

Bowen Island, BC, Canada
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com


>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Chris
>  Corrigan
>  Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 3:12 PM
>  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>  Subject: Re: I just discovered Reed's Law
>
>  Jaime wrote:
>
>  >  Hi Chris!!!
>  >
>  >  Congratulations for a job well done. I always face
>  >  claims about the small number of participants for
>  >  prospective OS mettings in Bolivia. Reed's Law will be
>  >  an excellent argument to show possibilities. However,
>  >  I can not replicate the formula in order to confirm
>  >  your findings for 12 people and 4083 possible groups.
>  >  Could you please explain in a more detailed way the
>  >  formula for me?
>  >
>
>  The way I figure it, it's 212-12-1.  So that's
2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2
>  which is 4096.  4096-12=4084.  4084-1=4083.
>
>  That's how I did it anyway.  That gives you all the possible
>  combinations of groups of more than two.  Of course in OST, often
groups
>  of one meet, so that number is a little low.  I'm no math genius, but
>  any way you cut it, the numbers are pretty impressive.  A group of 32
>  yields a number close to 22 billion, which is something like four
times
>  the population of the earth.  Not that you can make any comparisons
>  directly, but as a way of illustrating the scale of possibilities, to
be
>  able to walk around a room of 32 and say "within this circle, the
number
>  ways of organizing ourselves dwarf the population of humans on the
>  earth" is a pretty compelling introduction to the potential of
>  potential.  I'm going try the line this weekend, with a group of 32.
>
>  >  By the way, in the battle or sluggish against GM
>  >  (genetically modified) seeds and organisms, your
>  >  finding is very important.
>  >
>
>  I thought so too.  The world is a strange place.
>
>  >  Warm regards from Bolivia to everybody
>  >
>
>  Right back at you.
>
>  Chris
>
>  ---
>  CHRIS CORRIGAN
>  Consultation - Facilitation
>  Open Space Technology
>
>  Bowen Island, BC, Canada
>  http://www.chriscorrigan.com
>  chris at chriscorrigan.com
>
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