If you’re a human in this century, the odds are overwhelming that you are a city-dweller. These hubs of human cultural activity exert a powerful allure – and most people understand that this appeal is due to some deep link between the density, pace, wealth, and opportunity of cities. But what is a city, really? And why have the vast majority of human beings migrated to these intense and often difficult locations? Cities breed not just ideas but also crime, disease, and inequality. We live amidst a shift in what a normal human life looks and feels like, akin to the transition from our lives as nomadic hunter-gatherers to sedentary farmers — only this time, it is happening before our eyes. How can we cultivate the best that cities offer and minimize the predicaments they pose? A powerful new science of the city has emerged in just the last few years, connecting the metropolis through physics to the properties that govern animal metabolisms, ecological diversity, and economics.
This week’s guest is Luis Bettencourt, External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute and Director of the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation at the University of Chicago. We spoke while he was visiting Santa Fe to lead SFI’s Global Sustainability Summer School to talk about what makes a city such a fertile zone for innovation of all kinds, and how to help ensure the future of the city is one human beings want to live in.
Visit our website for more information or to support our science and communication efforts.
Join our Facebook discussion group to meet like minds and talk about each episode.
Visit The Mansueto Institute's Website.
Watch a short video on Bettencourt’s work to eliminate slums.
Here are the three papers we discussed in this episode:
"Toward cities without slums: Topology and the spatial evolution of neighborhoods" in Science Advances.
"The Origins of Scaling in Cities" in Science.
“Towards a statistical mechanics of cities” in Science Advances.
Learn more about SFI's Global Sustainability Summer School.
Follow us on social media:
Twitter • YouTube • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedIn
Multiple worlds, containing multitudes
How human history shapes scientific inquiry
Ep 4: The physics of collectives
Why is life so diverse?
How do we identify life?
What can physics tell us about ourselves?
Relaunch of Complexity Podcast Trailer
Michael Garfield & David Krakauer on Evolution, Information, and Jurassic Park
Mason Porter on Community Detection and Data Topology
Andrea Wulf on Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and The Invention of The Self
Carlos Gershenson on Balance, Criticality, Antifragility, and The Philosophy of Complex Systems
Complex Conceptions of Time with David Krakauer, Ted Chiang, David Wolpert, & James Gleick
Paul Smaldino & C. Thi Nguyen on Problems with Value Metrics & Governance at Scale (EPE 06)
Dani Bassett & Perry Zurn on The Neuroscience & Philosophy of Curious Minds
Alison Gopnik on Child Development, Elderhood, Caregiving, and A.I.
Ricard Solé on Liquid and Solid Brains and Terraforming The Biosphere
Glen Weyl & Cris Moore on Plurality, Governance, and Decentralized Society (EPE 05)
John Krakauer Part 2: Learning, Curiosity, and Consciousness
John Krakauer Part 1: Taking Multiple Perspectives on The Brain
David Wolpert & Farita Tasnim on The Thermodynamics of Communication
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
DNA Today: A Genetics Podcast
Short Wave
Stuff To Blow Your Mind
Unexplainable
پادکست آذرخش مکری - azarakhsh mokri