Why do we stop growing, live for 100 years and sleep 8 hours a day? Why do people, and almost all companies, die whereas cities keep growing as life continues to accelerate. Is this sustainable? And how are these related to innovation, wealth creation, “singularities” and social networks? These are among the questions Geoffrey West will discuss in the context of the universal scaling laws that govern all of life. These laws originate in the dynamics and structure of the networks that sustain life at all scales from circulatory to social systems; they underlie the big, urgent questions of urbanization, lifespan, cancer, pandemics, the increasing pace of life, and global sustainability.
Speaker:
Geoffrey West is the Shannan Distinguished Professor and former President of the Santa Fe Institute and an Associate Senior Fellow of Oxford University’s Green-Templeton College. West is a theoretical physicist whose primary interests have been in fundamental questions ranging across physics, biology and the social sciences. His research includes metabolism, growth, aging & death, sleep, cancer, innovation, cities, companies, the accelerating pace of life and global sustainability. West has lectured at many high profile events including TED and Davos. He has received many awards and his work featured in numerous publications, podcasts and TV productions worldwide, including being selected as a breakthrough idea by the Harvard Business Review. He is the author of the best-selling book Scale; The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies and was named in Time's list of "100 Most Influential People in the World" in 2007.
Date
Thursday, 02 September 2021
Time
15:00 - 15:45 BST
Cost
Free
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