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
cities generic means principles relying scientific statement theory underlying
My provocative statement is that we desperately need a serious, scientific theory of cities and scientific theory means quantifiable, relying on underlying generic principles that can be made in a - put into a predictive framework. That's the quest.
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.
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.
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.
crazy cities people
Cities tolerate crazy people. Companies don't.
order cities ideas
We form cities in order to enhance interaction, to facilitate growth, wealth creation, ideas, innovation, but in so doing, we create, from a physicists viewpoint, entropy.
science taking
Every fundamental law has exceptions. But you still need the law or else all you have is observations that don't make sense. And that's not science. That's just taking notes.
bomb came grew recovering saw sites war
When I first saw California, it was extraordinary. Because I came from old, black, dark England, still recovering from World War II. I grew up with bomb sites everywhere.
energy food human power rest runs takes
A human being at rest runs on 90 watts. That's how much power you need just to lie down. And if you're a hunter-gatherer and you live in the Amazon, you'll need about 250 watts. That's how much energy it takes to run about and find food.
per
The bigger the city is, the less infrastructure you need per capita.