Natural Selection

One week ago I found myself surfing the internet, doing a little bit of searching on Wikipedia. I think you know the kind I'm talking about. The kind where you start by searching something possibly related in some way to something in your life, perhaps an assignment in class or a subject brought up in conversation. As you read the article on this first topic you click a link to something else you find interesting. For example, I might be researching the Segway personal transporter (something I do far too often for my own good), as I might click a link to learn more about electric motors. From the page I'll link to something about the physics of electricity, and then onto a page describing the life and times of British scientist William Sturgeon and so on and so forth until I wind up at a page describing platform screen doors and learning how they prevent suicides. In this way I hop from one subject to another, never staying long enough to learn anything substantial but covering enough topics to get me past the first few rounds of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Is that show even still around? Wait, yes it is. If you haven't already discovered this for yourself, you've no doubt discovered just how fun such a process can be, like six degrees from Kevin Bacon except with things that matter slightly more.