Category Archives: Scaling

What Is Social Physics?

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Michael Batty

Several previous posts suggest that our Science of Cities is more like Biology than Physics but Social Physics has a long history. CASA’s Martin Austwick recently gave an impromptu review from Quetelet’s original definition to Comte’s rebuttal. Useful definitions from Stewart … Continue reading →

Posted in Scaling, Social Physics | 1 Comment

Cities as Brains

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Michael Batty

As cities get bigger, their capacity to innovate (hence their wealth) appears to scale super-linearly (with their size).  But the idea that ‘big cities’ have ‘big brains’ and are smarter, is problematic as is their scaling and allometry. Read Changizi … Continue reading →

Posted in Allometry, Networks, Scaling | Leave a comment