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Ancient and Modern Cities Aren't So Different.

posted by janrinok on Saturday February 28 2015, @09:33AM   
from the nothing-changes dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Despite notable differences in appearance and governance, ancient human settlements functioned in much the same way as modern cities, according to new findings by researchers at the Santa Fe Institute and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Previous research has shown that as modern cities grow in population, so do their efficiencies and productivity. A city's population outpaces its development of urban infrastructure, for example, and its production of goods and services outpaces its population. What's more, these patterns exhibit a surprising degree of mathematical regularity and predictability, a phenomenon called "urban scaling."

But has this always been the case?

http://phys.org/news/2015-02-ancient-modern-cities.html

[Related]: http://www.santafe.edu/news/item/human-social-universals/

[Abstract]: http://www.santafe.edu/research/working-papers/abstract/3f8afbc22a66c776600bfe31f1d01149/

[Working Paper]: http://www.santafe.edu/media/workingpapers/14-11-041.pdf

• population (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 28 2015, @10:03AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 28 2015, @10:03AM (#151008)

  "The population of Tenochtitlan in 1519 has been estimated as between 150,000 and 200,000; the population of London at that time was approximately 50,000; Paris was approximately 300,000."
  1900 Mexico City population: 500,000.
  2014 Mexico City population: 9 million.
  2014 Greater Mexico City population: 22.5 million.

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