The result was astonishing, and changed science: West found that despite the riotous diversity in mammals, they are all, to a large degree, scaled versions of each other. The term “complexity” can be misleading, however, because what makes West’s discoveries so beautiful is that he has found an underlying simplicity that unites the seemingly complex and diverse phenomena of living systems, including our bodies, our cities and our businesses.įascinated by aging and mortality, West applied the rigor of a physicist to the biological question of why we live as long as we do and no longer. Visionary physicist Geoffrey West is a pioneer in the field of complexity science, the science of emergent systems and networks. Whether it can is a topic I’ll return to in the last chapter.'This is science writing as wonder and as inspiration.' - The Wall Street Journalįrom one of the most influential scientists of our time, a dazzling exploration of the hidden laws that govern the life cycle of everything from plants and animals to the cities we live in. The system we have evolved critically relies on people continually wanting new cars and new cell phones, new widgets and gadgets, new clothes and new washing machines, new thrills, new entertainment, and pretty much new everything, even when they already have enough of “everything.” It may not be a pretty picture and it doesn’t work for everyone, but so far, it’s worked remarkably well for most of us, and apparently most of us seem to want it to continue. Nevertheless, it seems that without the motive of self-interest our entrepreneurial free market economy would collapse.

The struggle and tension between unbridled individual self-enhancement and the care and concern for the less fortunate has been a major thread running throughout human history, especially over the past two hundred years.

Hunter-gatherers were significantly less hierarchical, more egalitarian and community oriented than we are. Our present social network structures barely existed in their present form until urban communities evolved. “With the invention of the city and its powerful combination of economies of scale coupled to innovation and wealth creation came the great divisions of society.

Scale by Geoffrey B. West