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.

In the 1930s, Max Kleiber, a Swiss agricultural biologist, observed that, across mammal species, from shrews to elephants, the energy required to maintain basic metabolic function is closely correlated with an organism’s body size.

Agent_Zero. Geoff’s work is so fantastic in this space. Cities, just like ecosystems, are more diverse as they get bigger. Why is that? Well, if you think about it from a biological perspective, there’s just more diversity carrying capacity, right? Like if I’m interested in European soccer and I live in a town of 500 people, there’s just no one to

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.