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. Geoffrey West More Quotes by Geoffrey West More Quotes From Geoffrey West One of the remarkable things about slums is that they do develop their own social organization and economy and even culture that is, on some level, functional and in some cases, remarkably resilient. This is kind of amazing. Geoffrey West levels organization culture We form cities in order to enhance interaction, to facilitate growth, wealth creation, ideas, innovation, but in so doing, we create from - from a physicist's viewpoint, entropy, meaning all of those bad things that we feel are engulfing us. Geoffrey West cities order ideas Cities tolerate crazy people. Companies don't. Geoffrey West crazy cities people The paradigm of physics - with its interplay of data, theory and prediction - is the most powerful in science. Geoffrey West data physics powerful Cities are obvious metaphors for life. We call roads arteries and so forth. Geoffrey West arteries metaphor cities When people come together, they become much more productive. Geoffrey West productive together people Cities are the crucible of civilization. Geoffrey West crucible cities civilization Everything around us is scale dependent. It's woven into the fabric of the universe. Geoffrey West us everything fabric universe Once we started to urbanize, we put ourselves on this treadmill. We traded away stability for growth. And growth requires change. Geoffrey West away stability growth change 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. Geoffrey West city feeling thought my-own We form cities in order to enhance interaction, to facilitate growth, wealth creation, ideas, innovation, but in so doing, we create, from a physicist's viewpoint, entropy. Geoffrey West doing innovation growth ideas Tell me the size of a mammal and I can tell you, to about 85 per cent level, pretty much everything about its physiology and life history, such as how long it is going to live, how many offspring it will have, the length of its aorta, how long it will take to mature, what is the pulse rate in the ninth branch of its circuitry. Geoffrey West me you life history Your cells are not working as hard as your dog's but harder than your horse's. The bigger the animal, the less energy needed to sustain a gram of tissue. Geoffrey West horse energy dog animal I've always wanted to find the rules that govern everything. It's amazing that such rules exist. It's even more amazing that we can find them. Geoffrey West rules find amazing always Sometimes, I look out at nature and I think, 'Everything here is obeying my conjecture.' It's a wonderfully narcissistic feeling. Geoffrey West feeling look nature sometimes 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. Geoffrey West need you law science 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. Geoffrey West city you friends people It's hard to kill a city, but easy to kill a company. Geoffrey West city company hard easy Exciting cities stay exciting, and boring cities stay boring. Geoffrey West stay boring cities exciting 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. Geoffrey West rest you power food
