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Geoffrey West on COMPLEXITY

FQxI · talk · Watch on YouTube

Fundamental physicsTransit, cities & urban planningBiology & biotechnology

What it is

Physicist Geoffrey West speaks at an FQXi conference on time about complexity and scaling laws. He covers how metabolism, growth and lifespan scale across organisms and how the same mathematics applies to cities and companies.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters recommend it as an accessible introduction to scaling laws and to why cities keep growing while companies and organisms eventually die.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2014, last 2018

What HN commenters said

  1. “Geoffrey West who has an interesting high-level physics approach to this issue”

    Comprehensive 40 minute West talk on scaling in organisms and cities.

    vanderZwan, 2014-08 · Recommendation · in “AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs [pdf]”

  2. “For a great, accessible intro talk on this topic, check out Geoffrey West's”

    Accessible intro talk on complexity and scaling.

    Radim, 2015-09 · Recommendation · in “Interdisciplinary and physics challenges of Network Theory”

  3. “Geoffrey West makes a compelling argument that it's due to the scaling laws around growth itself.”

    West explains why companies eventually stagnate via scaling laws.

    schiffern, 2017-06 · Recommendation · in “Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: geoffrey west, scaling laws, cities, metabolism, complex systems

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