Think of any person in the world that you don't know - somebody like the Dalai Lama. According to a new study from Microsoft you are separated from that stranger by only about 6.6 degrees of separation.

With records of 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people from around the world, researchers have concluded that any two people on average are distanced by just 6.6 degrees of separation, meaning that they could be linked by a string of seven or fewer acquaintances.

This compares closely with studies done in the past. In a 1969 study it was 6.2. Another study in 2003 estimated the average number of links were somewhere between 5 and 7.

Maybe this is another way we can avoid war. Its easier to hate people you don't know. But if everyone is a friend of a friend... linked together by seven people or less... and those links become stronger and more obvious, maybe we could find other ways to compete.