Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
The
Evolutionary
Dynamics
of Sentience
in
Cities
Cities, and their component
buildings and infrastructural
systems, have developed rapidly in
responsive and adaptive capacities.
Ubiquitous computation and
new informational technologies
are increasingly embedded in the
physical and social processes of
the city. Here, Michael Weinstock
identifies sentience, or the
ability to be aware, as the primary
driver of innovation in the urban
environment; as the extended
nervous system of a city develops
the potential to sense changes in the
citys flows, and in its internal and
external environments.
92
94
Synaptic pattern
Light micrograph of a cluster of neurons and connective dendrites from
the grey matter of a human spinal cord. Surrounding the neurons is a
mass of supporting cells collectively termed the neuroglia, which lends
both mechanical and metabolic support to the nerve cells. The nervous
system of the world has similar patterns.
96
Notes
1. Michael Weinstock, The Metabolism of
Cities: the Mathematics of Networks and Urban
Surfaces, George Legendre (ed), 3 Mathematics
of Space, July/August (no 4), 2011.
2. Michael Batty, The Size, Scale and Shape of
Cities, Science 5864, 2008, pp
76971; Michael Weinstock, Metabolism and
Morphology, in Michael Hensel and Achim
Menges (eds), 3 Versatility
and Vicissitude, March/April (no 2), 2008, pp
2633; and Michael Weinstock, The
Architecture of Emergence: The Evolution of Form
in Nature and Civilisation, John Wiley & Sons
(Chichester), 2010, pp 1307.
3. Lus MA Bettancourt, Jos Lobo, Dirk Helbing,
Christian Kuhnert and Geoffrey B West, Growth,
Innovation, Scaling, and the Pace of Life in
Cities, Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, Vol 104, No 17, 2007, pp 730106.
4. Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The
Making of Typographic Man, University of Toronto
Press (Toronto), 1962.
5. Claude Lvi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques,
Librairie Plon (Paris), 1955, trans John
Weightman and Doreen Weightman, Jonathan
Cape (London), 1973, p 155.
6. William J Mitchell, Intelligent Cities, UOC
Papers, Issue 5, October 2007: www.uoc.edu/
uocpapers/5/dt/eng/mitchell.pdf.
7. Ibid.
8. Celine Rozenblat and Denise Pumain, Firm
Linkages, Innovation and the Evolution of
Urban Systems, in Peter Taylor, Ben Derudder,
Pieter Saey and Frank Witlox (eds), Cities in
Globalization: Practices, Policies and Theories,
Routledge (London), 2007, pp 13056.
9. Michael Weinstock, Sentient Systems and the
City, in 3 System City, forthcoming, 2013.
Text 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Images: p 94(tl&r) Kawasumi
Kobayashi Photograph Office Co, Ltd; p 94(bl) Library of
Congress, Prints & Photographics Division; p 94(br) Herv Conge,
ISM/Science Photo Library; p 95 Edited and redrawn by the author
from Global Map of Accessibility, Joint Research Centre, Global
Environment Monitoring Unit, European Commission for the World
Banks 2009 report Reshaping Economic Geography; pp 96-7
Michael Weinstock
97