City Come A-Walkin’
Posted by Shannon
Geoffrey West, courtesy of Cosmic Variance:
Tags: biology, cities, complex systems, Geoffrey West, physics[T]o what extent are cities or corporations an extension of biology? Are they “just” very large organisms? Analogous scaling laws reflecting underlying social network structure point to general principles of organization common to all cities, but, counter to biological systems, the pace of social life systematically increases with size. This has dramatic implications for growth, development and particularly for sustainability: innovation and wealth creation that fuel social systems, if left unchecked, potentially sow the seeds for their inevitable collapse.