Cities are our best place to innovate and learn to live better, mirroring the internet, because ideas co-mingle here.
“One emergent pattern, spanning centuries, is that the pace of innovation is perpetually accelerating, driven by a combinatorial explosion of possible recombinations of good ideas that accumulate over history. And that is why cities are the crucible of innovation.
Geoffrey West of the Santa Fe Institute argues that cities are an autocatalytic attractor and an amplifier of innovation. On average, people are more innovative and productive when they live in a city because ideas can cross-pollinate more easily. Matt Ridley calls it “ideas having sex”. This positive network effect drives a positive feedback loop – attracting the best and the brightest to flock to the salon of the mind, the memeplex of modernity.”