Sublime

as cities grow and their networks evolve, the area or volume of the networks needed to keep them functionally connected tends to become smaller on a per capita basis. For example, in larger cities more people can share the same bus or segment of road or sewer pipe.

not vary.

These data make a strong case that, as human social networks grow, they necessarily lead to systems that require fewer resources per person, and produce more per person. In other words, the benefits of scale for human groups have always been there.

Scaling exponent Driving effect Organization Growth β < 1 Economies of scale Structural (spatial) Subexponential, logistic (stable) β > 1 Network effects Social, informational Superexponential (open-ended) β = 1 Individual needs Individual, household Exponential

some form of complexity theory is required if we are to understand many of the intimate, and patently uncertain, interactions found in modern society.

What’s really happening within each city is a massive exchange of information across social and economic networks of people and organizations, all taking place on a complex infrastructural landscape of buildings, roads, pipes, and wires. For the most part there is no maestro; the properties of cities emerge from countless interactions of millions o

The science of complex systems is the study of how local interactions can lead to global consequences.