SCHELLING SGREGN MODEL

Schelling's segregation model

Thomas Schelling, in 1971, showed that a small preference for one's neighbors to be of the same color could lead to total segregation. He used coins on graph paper to demonstrate his theory by placing pennies and nickels in different patterns on the "board" and then moving them one by one if they were in an "unhappy" situation. Here's the high-tech equivalent. The rule this ALife model operates on is that for every colored cell, if greater than 33% of the adjacent cells are of a different color, the cell moves to another randomly selected cell.



///////////////////The World Is Spiky

Two writers that I admire greatly – Tom Friedman and Richard Florida – appear to clash with each other. Tom in his best-selling new book says “The World Is Flat” and Richard in a new article in the October 2005 issue of Atlantic Monthly asserts “The World Is Spiky".Richard’s article is a great read (supported by highly visual maps) and I highly recommend it. Tom and Richard are both right, but they both risk missing the real point.

Richard focuses on one particular quote from Tom’s book: “In a flat world you can innovate without having to emigrate.” Richard responds that location still matters and that, by a variety of measures, the world is extremely spiky – meaning that activity is very concentrated in a relatively few locations. Richard looks at

population concentration in urban areas
light emissions (as an interesting proxy for economic activity)
patent filings
citations to scientists in leading fields to demonstrate this spikiness.
Using topographical metaphors, Richard divides the world into

peaks - the cities that generate innovations
hills - “the industrial and service centers that produce mature products and support innovation centers”
valleys - “places with little connection to the global economy and few immediate prospects”
Focusing on the peaks definitely highlights the spikiness of the world. For example,

When it comes to actual economic output, the ten largest US metropolitan areas combined are behind only the United States as a whole and Japan. New York’s economy alone is about the size of Russia’s or Brazil’s . . . Together New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston have a bigger economy than all of China. If US metropolitan areas were countries, they’d make up forty-seven of the biggest 100 economies in the world.




//////////////////The Location of Innovation
John Hagel brings together two opposing viewpoints today regarding the location of innovation. These are flat and spiky earth concepts. The first, Tom Friedman's flat earth, proposes that due to the egalitarian and open nature of the Internet, modern communications and travel, innovation need not be concentrated in historic urban centers. The second, Richard Florida's Spiky Earth, suggests that these same forces actually increase the gravitation toward acknowledged centers of innovation.



RDING TIM HARFORD-THE LOGIC OF LIFE



////////////////HIGH CITY RENTS WITH MORE ACCESS TO CULTURAL AMENITIES



/////////////////FEW AREEXPLOITING THE MANY



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