Modern cities modelled as “super-cells” rather than multicellular organisms • Hacker News Board

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

#41

Post by failwhaleshark » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 4:39 PM UTC

eternalban wrote: post #19

samatman wrote: post #11

Modeling cities as 'cellular' is a common mistake, well explored in A City is not a Tree by Christopher Alexander. http://en.bp.ntu.edu.tw/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/06-Alexan... tl;dr we tend to talk about cities in heirarchical, enclosed terms, as having "limits", "neighborhoods", "blocks", "plots", and so on. This can be modeled as a tree, in the maths and computer science sense. But it's more accurate to model th…

A semi-lattice structure does not preclude cells. The human body is not a tree. For those interested in mathematical approaches to architecture and spatial systems I recommend the research work and books of James Hillier and Julienne Hanson: Social Logic of Space, Hillier & Hanson https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/social-logic-of-space/6...

Butbutbut we have limbs, some people are true to their roots, and branch out. Okay, fine, I'll put the Texas Chainsaw Massacre implement down. Let's self out.

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

#42

Post by carapace » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

failwhaleshark wrote: post #38

dr_dshiv wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Heard of Michael Levin yet? :)

("What Bodies Think About: Bioelectric Computation Outside the Nervous System" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18736698 )

The work coming out of his lab seems to me to indicate that intelligence is ambient in living tissue, with the corallary that living systems are designed by intelligence: their own.

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

#43

Post by Ericson2314 » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 5:04 PM UTC

wefarrell wrote: post #31

bobthepanda wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

I think a key step will be the Triboro RX. In the short term it would be a regular circumferential subway line, but that will allow Brooklyn and Queens to function without Manhattan more.

I think the the combination of geography and state boundary politics makes NYC hard to actually become multi centered, but it wold be interesting to be proven wrong. Certainly we should strive to see Long Island, North Jersey, and West Connecticut have better rail and be less car-dominant.

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

#44

Post by failwhaleshark » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

carapace wrote: post #42

failwhaleshark wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Heard of Michael Levin yet? :) ("What Bodies Think About: Bioelectric Computation Outside the Nervous System" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18736698 ) The work coming out of his lab seems to me to indicate that intelligence is ambient in living tissue, with the corallary that living systems are designed by intelligence: their own.

Yeap. ;-)

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

#45

Post by bobthepanda » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 5:41 PM UTC

wefarrell wrote: post #31

bobthepanda wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

No, Manhattan is still outpacing them all in terms of total and percentage job growth; their share of job growth is growing, but Manhattan is still a whopping 52%. https://www.osc.state.ny.us/files/reports/osdc/pdf/report-1-... Hudson Yards and Midtown East are not showing signs of slowing down.

Flushing is mostly meds and retail, which is fine for a shopping district but is not indicative of a greater jobs market trend. Manhattan's tyranny is largely due to its geography; it is the only place with fast, reliable mass transit access to all of the metropolitan area, and companies don't want to limit their labor pool. It is a pain in the ass to travel within Queens on mass transit (say, Rochdale to Flushing), let alone travel from some place like Westchester or New Jersey to Flushing. Flushing is no Shibuya or Shinjuku.

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

#46

Post by vmception » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 5:42 PM UTC

wefarrell wrote: post #31

bobthepanda wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

The city is saturated and almost everyone outside of Manhattan wants more relevance and hates that the observation of Manhattan is accurate.

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

#47

Post by bobthepanda » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 5:44 PM UTC

Ericson2314 wrote: post #43

wefarrell wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

I think a key step will be the Triboro RX. In the short term it would be a regular circumferential subway line, but that will allow Brooklyn and Queens to function without Manhattan more. I think the the combination of geography and state boundary politics makes NYC hard to actually become multi centered, but it wold be interesting to be proven wrong. Certainly we should strive to see Long Island, North Jersey, and W…

I have very severe doubts about TriboroRX happening in my lifetime because of a combination of exorbitant costs at the MTA ($12B and counting for East Side Access) and the State's/MTA's tendency to slow-walk and sandbag projects they're not particularly interested in ($8B estimates for the Rockaway Beach Branch, radio silence on Utica Avenue or NYS high speed rail)

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

#48

Post by baq » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 5:53 PM UTC

telesilla wrote: post #14

dr_dshiv wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Next best thing, animated DNA : https://youtu.be/7Hk9jct2ozY

This single video could replace a whole month of boring biology lessons in high school… amazing really

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

#49

Post by bobthepanda » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 5:54 PM UTC

fridif wrote: post #24

bobthepanda wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Soon to be the 10th and 17th id imagine

Based on what data?

NYC is not being buffeted by a major trend that wouldn't also affect every other business district in the US.

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

#50

Post by cleorama » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 6:22 PM UTC

xvilka wrote: post #17

I can recommend a good book about this subject - Scale[1] by Geoffrey West. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31670196-scale

Thanks for the tip. Could you tell us more about why you would recommend others to read this book?