Scaling laws in living social systems
Scaling laws are ubiquitous in mechanics, from material strength to turbulence. A scaling law describes the behavior of a system through a power-law, connecting certain properties of the system with its size. Recent studies have identified surprising scaling relationships in living social systems, of which we presently lack a rigorous understanding. To make a first step towards a systematic methodology to unveil the mechanistic underpinnings of scaling laws in these complex systems, we tackle two seemingly different problems: scaling of metabolic rate of insect colonies with colony size and scaling of firearm ownership prevalence with city size. The first problem exemplifies a typical setup in laboratory research, where the researcher designs an experiment and formulates a mathematical model with a hypothesis to test in mind. Grounded in the hypothesis of reverse social contagion, we put forward an experimentally validated compartmental model for energy savings in insect colonies. The second problem exemplifies the less structured scenario in which only ecological data, with all their shortcomings, are available to the researcher. Working with multidimensional data collected on United States cities, we demonstrate the possibility of informing plausible modeling hypotheses through causal discovery and, consequently, formulating network-theoretic models.
Bio: Maurizio Porfiri is an institute professor at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, with tenured appointments in mechanical and aerospace engineering and biomedical engineering. He also serves as director of NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress. He earned M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering mechanics from Virginia Tech, as well as a Laurea in electrical engineering (with honors) and a dual Ph.D. in theoretical and applied mechanics from Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Toulon. Since joining NYU in 2006, Porfiri has led the Dynamical Systems Laboratory. His research spans complex systems with applications in mechanics, robotics, behavior, and public health. He is a Fellow of both the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and serves on editorial boards of multiple prestigious journals. Porfiri has authored around 400 journal articles, including publications in Nature, Nature Human Behaviour, and Physical Review Letters. His work has received widespread media attention from outlets like CNN, NPR, Scientific American, and Discovery Channel. Among his many honors are the NSF CAREER Award, the ASME Gary Anderson Early Achievement Award, and several early career recognitions from ASME. He has been invited to elite gatherings such as the National Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers of Engineering Symposium and the World Laureate Forum. In 2010, Popular Science named him one of its “Brilliant 10.”