Geoffrey West
Geoffrey West
Geoffrey Brian Westis a British theoretical physicist, former president and distinguished professor of the Santa Fe Institute. He is one of the leading scientists working on a scientific model of cities. Among other things his work states that with the doubling of a city's size, services per capita will generally increase by 15%...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPhysicist
bit lead slums tumor ultimately unhealthy ways
Slums could be thought of as the development of a special organ, or they could be thought of as a tumor that's grown, and in some ways is unhealthy and could ultimately lead to the city's destruction. My own feeling is that slums are probably a bit of both.
great magnet people plays sucking
A city plays the role of a great big magnet that's sucking people up.
boring cities exciting stay
Exciting cities stay exciting, and boring cities stay boring.
cities confronted energy finance global health impact origins problems
Cities are the origins of global warming, impact on the environment, health, pollution, disease, finance, economies, energy are all problems that are confronted by having cities. That's where they - all these problems come from.
nature obeying
Sometimes, I look out at nature and I think, 'Everything here is obeying my conjecture.' It's a wonderfully narcissistic feeling.
Cities are just a physical manifestation of your interactions, our interactions, and the clustering and grouping of individuals.
certainly cities country looks
When you look at a city, you know, it looks so unique. You feel this kind of uniqueness, you know, and especially if you go from a big city to a small city or if you go from one country to another. Cities look very different, often. They even feel very different. You know, and they are, of course. They certainly are.
ask center cities high job move people
If you ask people why they move to the city, they always give the same reasons. They've come to get a job or follow their friends or to be at the center of a scene. That's why we pay the high rent. Cities are all about the people, not the infrastructure.
cities civilization crucible
Cities are the crucible of civilization.
people together productive
When people come together, they become much more productive.
cities metaphor arteries
Cities are obvious metaphors for life. We call roads arteries and so forth.
order law cities
You could not have evolved a complex system like a city or an organism - with an enormous number of components - without the emergence of laws that constrain their behavior in order for them to be resilient.
powerful data physics
The paradigm of physics - with its interplay of data, theory and prediction - is the most powerful in science.
crazy cities people
Cities tolerate crazy people. Companies don't.