Author Archives: Michael Batty

About Michael Batty

I chair CASA at UCL which I set up in 1995. I am Bartlett Professor In UCL.

Ravenstein’s Flow Map

Amazing what you discover when you search the web. Couldn’t find Ravenstein’s 1888 map that Waldo Tobler sent me as a detailed scan. Its framed in my room at UCL and somewhere on the web I know. What I did … Continue reading

Posted in Flows, Fluxes, Networks, SpatialInteraction | Leave a comment

Spatial Complexity

Started my new lecture course on Spatial Complexity at Arizona State University. It’s killing me doing relatively new stuff day after day. Lectures are posted after given: Seven so far, the last on Wednesday (2/11) (at http://www.spatialcomplexity.info/

Posted in Complex Systems, Evolution, Scaling, Social Physics | Leave a comment

The Complexity Brake

Paul Allen & Mark Greaves argue that the singularity that Ray Kurzweil amongst others are predicting within the next 30 years where AI & biomedicine merge and our species transforms, will not come to pass. This drama will be avoided by … Continue reading

Posted in Complex Systems, Emergence, Tipping Points | Leave a comment

Cities as Organisms

You go to conferences and learn about older papers that you should have known about. This short article from 1999 by Thomas Graedel poses the key issues about energy, ecosystems and cities, part of a series from the National Academy … Continue reading

Posted in Evolution | Leave a comment

FuturICT

is a project led by ETH Zurich and UCL which deals with the simulation of highly interconnected coupled social systems characterised by extreme events and fast dynamics: i.e. things that go on in Cities. See it on Vimeo, explore the … Continue reading

Posted in Complex Systems, Emergence, Simulation | Leave a comment