[p2p-research] "We need more megalopolises"

[Dante-Gabryell Monson]

A question arises to me after reading the article :

I wonder how (distributed ) networks scale ?
Sublinear or superlinear ?
Is a p2p approach superlinear ?
Is it a network of sublinear structures ?
Is there an optimal scale/size for ( networked? ) sublinear structures ?

Just asking out of the blue...
perhaps some of you studied this ?


excerpted from the article suggested my Marco :

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/magazine/19Urban_West-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

"West and Bettencourt refer to this phenomenon as “superlinear scaling,”
which is a fancy way of describing the increased output of people living in
big cities. When a superlinear equation is graphed, it looks like the start
of a roller coaster, climbing into the sky."

...

" “We broke away from the equations of biology, all of which are sublinear.
Every other creature gets slower as it gets bigger. That’s why the elephant
plods along. But in cities, the opposite happens. As cities get bigger,
everything starts accelerating. There is no equivalent for this in nature.
It would be like finding an elephant that’s proportionally faster than a
mouse.” "

...

" “The only thing that stops the superlinear equations is when we run out of
something we need,” West says. “And so the growth slows down. If nothing
else changes, the system will eventually start to collapse.”

...

"Recently, he and Bettencourt, led by this impatience, began exploring yet
another subject: the corporation."
...

"it turns out that cities and companies differ in a very fundamental regard:
cities almost never die, while companies are extremely ephemeral."

...

" After buying data on more than 23,000 publicly traded companies,
Bettencourt and West discovered that corporate productivity, unlike urban
productivity, was entirely sublinear. As the number of employees grows, the
amount of profit per employee shrinks."


On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 7:12 AM, M. Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net> wrote:

> Still reading it, haven't a real opinion yet:
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/magazine/19Urban_West-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
>
> The reason I'm inviting to read it on a list like this is this
> paragraph:
>
>        [West] suggests, for instance, that modern cities are the real
>        centers of sustainability. According to the data, people who
>        live in densely populated places require less heat in the
>        winter and need fewer miles of asphalt per capita... Small
>        communities might look green, but they consume a
>        disproportionate amount of everything. As a result, West
>        argues, creating a more sustainable society will require our
>        big cities to get even bigger. We need more megalopolises.
>
> comments are very welcome
>
> Marco
>
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