3 ms·

Slime mold is interesting. There's one species that, if you assemble food sources in the population densities found in Tokyo, will grow to look very similar to

• thaumasiotes 7y ago
  There are causal paths from population density to subway layout and from subway layout to population density, but one of those paths is significantly more responsive than the other. Population density constantly adjusts to local circumstances such as transit access; subway layout adjusts in very expensive bursts. A subway tunnel once built is not going to move 30 meters to the left even if that would obviously be a better location. So it seems pretty likely to me that the population density of Tokyo is more a result than a cause of Tokyo's subway layout. This is backwards from the slime mold experiment, where the layout is caused by the resource density.
  • samvher 7y ago
    Interesting thought that I had not considered. But I'm also not sure I share your belief that the population density is more a result than a cause. The whole fact that adjusting the subway is very expensive suggests to me that there needs to be a population worth serving prior to construction. Seems like a bit of a chicken/egg problem, would be interesting to see some population stats pre/post subway construction.
• jmspring 7y ago
  Need more pronouns.
  • benj111 7y ago
    You need more pronouns
• tomatotomato37 7y ago
  I wonder if this has potential for solving practical optimization problems. Why glue together some ML model when you already have a premade solution with millions of years of training time by mother nature