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Modern cities modelled as “super-cells” rather than multicellular organisms

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Re: Modern cities modelled as “super-cells” rather than multicellular organisms

#31

Post by wefarrell »

bobthepanda wrote: post #15
samatman wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New York's boroughs are another fine example. Arguably the Bay Area is something similar, and I would further argue would be much better off if it were closer in governance and self-concept to Tokyo or New York than it is in fact.

New York’s boroughs aren’t that decentralized, Manhattan is clearly the center with almost a quarter of metro area jobs and certainly not anywhere near a quarter of the metro’s population. Fun fact: Manhattan contains both the largest and fourth largest business districts in the US, Midtown and Downtown respectively.

Downtown Brooklyn, Jersey City and Long Island city have all skyrocketed in the past decade, granted they are all centered around Manhattan and can be viewed as skyscraper sprawl.

Flushing, which is more on the outskirts, has grown rapidly very recently and has some massive development planned.

The city is definitely moving in the direction of decentralization, but that could just be because the center is saturated. Will be interesting to see what it looks like in the next decade.

Re: Modern cities modelled as “super-cells” rather than multicellular organisms

#32

Post by matheusmoreira »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #9
rubatuga wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

okay dr dshiv, what about cytoskeletons, microtubules, filaments, and their associated proteins such as dynein? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intracellular_transport

I love intracellular transport videos like this. I want to see them set to Philip Glass: https://youtu.be/5dVIAISw68U https://youtu.be/6aMq6dZkMyQ

ATP synthase!

https://youtu.be/kXpzp4RDGJI

https://vcell.science/project/atpsynthase

I think of it as a hydroelectric power plant. Hydrogen atoms are water, the electrochemical gradient is gravity and the enzyme is the turbine.

Re: Modern cities modelled as “super-cells” rather than multicellular organisms

#33

Post by matheusmoreira »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #2

Brah, no way. If you get stoned on an airplane, you shall see that highways distinctly resemble veins and arteries. Cells don't have circulatory systems. Bam. My model fits better with Superorganism. Now, let me write a paper and invent words to rival your "eukarcity" and "cityplasm".

And maps of cities are like histology slides.

Re: Modern cities modelled as “super-cells” rather than multicellular organisms

#34

Post by jameshart »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #2

Brah, no way. If you get stoned on an airplane, you shall see that highways distinctly resemble veins and arteries. Cells don't have circulatory systems. Bam. My model fits better with Superorganism. Now, let me write a paper and invent words to rival your "eukarcity" and "cityplasm".

Nah, Sam Vimes in Guards Guards had it all worked out. And he was lying in a gutter at the time.

“The city wasa, wasa, wasa wossname. Thing. Woman. Thass what it was. Woman. Roaring, ancient, centuries old. Strung you along, let you fall in thingy, love, with her, then kicked you inna, inna, thingy. Thingy, in your mouth. Tongue. Tonsils. Teeth.”

Re: Modern cities modelled as “super-cells” rather than multicellular organisms

#35

Post by iamadog4 »

This is really interesting, but I think it's too literal. If you consider how radically different, but nonetheless alike the human body is from a cell, and how different but similar multicellular life can be - the scale, environmental, and dietary optimizations cause a significant disparity from one organism to the next. To me that says this is too literal, and an exceedingly close reading of the more figurative analogy. With that I think the sensibility erodes rapidly.

I think what one really had ought to take from the cellular analogy is that humanity is inadvertently creating systems in the natural world that mimic evolutionary and biological systems - that the emergent forces of the mind and society are automatically following the very same patterns that selected them. Or perhaps even being forced into that range of development through a limit of range of the function leaving development what is only a handful of viable options. Obversely, we're given the same challenges as any other organism: for example signalling - at first we've a very slow inaccurate system kin to chemical messengers, it's improved upon us, and quite suddenly we've the telegraph and the telephone, it's improved further with coaxial transport. Perhaps we've even improved on the system with the use of light. I do suppose though there is some research in biology that points to quantum phenomena being leveraged by organisms. I don't know that this conception is applicable practically - you won't be able to do anything other than project the trends of evolution of society and probably quite badly but it is interesting food for thought.

Re: Modern cities modelled as “super-cells” rather than multicellular organisms

#37

Post by failwhaleshark »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #2

Brah, no way. If you get stoned on an airplane, you shall see that highways distinctly resemble veins and arteries. Cells don't have circulatory systems. Bam. My model fits better with Superorganism. Now, let me write a paper and invent words to rival your "eukarcity" and "cityplasm".

I tend to think of them as ant trails, but a circulatory system works too.

Re: Modern cities modelled as “super-cells” rather than multicellular organisms

#38

Post by failwhaleshark »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #9
rubatuga wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

okay dr dshiv, what about cytoskeletons, microtubules, filaments, and their associated proteins such as dynein? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intracellular_transport

I love intracellular transport videos like this. I want to see them set to Philip Glass: https://youtu.be/5dVIAISw68U https://youtu.be/6aMq6dZkMyQ

I need me some proteins walking microtubules videos. Little damn machines almost make you want to believe in intelligent design, but natural selection and physics are just right to make it awesome.

Re: Modern cities modelled as “super-cells” rather than multicellular organisms

#39

Post by failwhaleshark »

samatman wrote: post #12
andrewl-hn wrote: post #6

Tokyo is an example of a "multicellural" city, with its Special Wards each functioning as a separate city with only some services shared among them. The wards each have a population of a few hundred thousand people, and some take top spots in the list of biggest cities in Japan. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Japan The city has been run like this for decades, and it seems to work out for Tokyo pret…

New York's boroughs are another fine example. Arguably the Bay Area is something similar, and I would further argue would be much better off if it were closer in governance and self-concept to Tokyo or New York than it is in fact.

The Bay Area is like amoebas or trees that grew into each other. It's almost impossible to tell the different between where one city starts and the next ends.

"Am I in San Jose or Los Gatos?"

37°14'13.57"N 121°55'30.49"W

"Is this Mountain View, Palo Alto, or Los Altos?"

37°24'15.38"N 122° 7'4.09"W

"Are we in San Jose, Saratoga, or Cupertino?"

37°18'11.21"N 122° 1'3.23"W

Re: Modern cities modelled as “super-cells” rather than multicellular organisms

#40

Post by failwhaleshark »

anthk wrote: post #28
andrewl-hn wrote: post #6

Tokyo is an example of a "multicellural" city, with its Special Wards each functioning as a separate city with only some services shared among them. The wards each have a population of a few hundred thousand people, and some take top spots in the list of biggest cities in Japan. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Japan The city has been run like this for decades, and it seems to work out for Tokyo pret…

Barcelona is a good and obvious example.

I always wonder about the word "obvious." Does it need to be a universal quality or experience in order to be obvious? For example, I have no idea about Barcelona having not had the pleasure of visiting there yet.
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